Downward angle icon An icon in the shape of a downward angle. I used Amazon Showroom to design my workspace. Emma Kershaw I used Amazon Showroom to design my home office and the experience was just okay. Being able to select furniture in a virtual room was helpful in visualizing my design. However, the tool was very basic and I was frustrated by some of the limitations.
I recently moved into a 400 square foot apartment and was excited to decorate my new space, but with the small size, I didn't know where to start when it came to finding furniture.
Like many shoppers, I decided to turn to Amazon to furnish my new home. After all, the retailer, which reported more than $570 billion in sales last year, is more than just a marketplace.
Prime members like me have access to several features, including a tool I recently discovered called Amazon Showroom, which allows users to customize a virtual space with products the retailer sells.
I was excited to try it out because I thought it might help me set up my home office. While using Amazon Showroom certainly helped, it was also pretty frustrating.
Amazon Showroom allows users to visualize what a particular piece would look like on display in their home.
The Amazon Showroom feature can be accessed from the website homepage. Amazon
Introduced in 2019, Amazon Showroom allows users to visualize specific products the retailer sells in different rooms.
To access this feature, go to the Amazon homepage and click the (All) button in the left corner to access the sidebar. Then scroll down to (Shop by Department) and select (Home, Garden & Tools).
Finally, I clicked the “View Showroom” button.
The Amazon showroom has a variety of room designs, including the office space I needed.
There were several virtual spaces to choose from, including a living room, bedroom, and office.
I work from home a lot and have great lighting in one corner of my apartment, so I wanted to design a small office space.
Scrolling down the Amazon Showroom page, I came across a “Work from Home” category and found a room design called “Workspace Nook.”
Clicking on this room took me to a layout page with a work desk, office chair, and lamp.
Although there were some customizable components in the corners of the workspace, I noticed some shortcomings.
You could swap out a chair, desk, or bookshelf in the corner of your workspace, but you couldn't move them around the room. Amazon
Certain items in the room have circular buttons above them that turn blue when selected, and once the item is selected, it can be swapped for another piece of furniture, which is displayed on the right side of the screen.
Although I was able to swap out items, I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn't move the furniture around within the virtual rooms, which made it hard to create a truly accurate design.
But this tool makes it easier to visualize how a particular product will look in a room.
Customize your space by selecting items from the toolbar on the right. Amazon
Not surprisingly, many of the products featured in the showroom were from the Amazon Basics brand. When selecting furniture, we kept in mind that the layout of the virtual room would be slightly different from our actual space.
Although the sidebar is limited to just a few items, exploring the options was a good way to understand my preferred colors and styles. I mixed and matched different items to narrow down my products based on my budget.
I ordered furniture through Amazon Prime and was very happy with each item.
The products I purchased look great in my workspace. Emma Kershaw
I could have added items from the showroom to my cart, but I ended up purchasing similar products from Amazon's regular retail website, as I found that the options on the Amazon showroom didn't quite fit my vibe or were the right dimensions for my space.
After assembling the furniture and organizing my workspace, I was thrilled with the results.
I ordered my furniture through Amazon's regular retail website, but the showroom helped me narrow down my options and browse products within my budget. In total, my home office setup cost me less than $150.
While Amazon Showroom has helped in some ways, it's still a very basic tool.
Amazon Showroom wasn't as convenient as I expected. Emma Kershaw
While the Amazon Showroom gave us some ideas for products that might work for a small office, it was disappointing that we couldn't search for specific items or navigate around the virtual room.
It was useful as a basic guideline for my design, but I didn't use it for anything other than initially organizing the space.
I would like it more if the tool was similar to Target's Home Planner feature, which allows users to customize space dimensions, add windows and doors, and search the retailer's available products.
Amazon Showroom can be a great option for frequent shoppers on the site, but the tool does have limitations.