Finding the perfect models to bring your projects to life in 3D can be tricky. Often, crowd-sourced furniture models may be outdated, too large, or the actual piece of furniture isn’t professional enough for the clients' requirements. The French home decorating and furnishing company, Maisons du Monde, knows how key it is for their business model to have their latest designs easily available to architects and interior designers. Maisons du Monde revolutionized the industry by modeling their B2B Furniture and Decoration offering on 3D Warehouse and leveraging the UP for SketchUp extension.
SketchUp’s 3D modeling as a mission-critical tool
The business division of Maisons du Monde caters to professionals with larger, more complex interior design and architectural projects (designing and renovating hotels, bars, restaurants, offices, etc). They develop one catalog per year dedicated to quality B2B products, meaning these furnishings must have specific professional standards: they must be fireproof, durable, and functional. With their unique business services, the question turned to how to get their interior design ideas in front of clients and turn sketched-out ideas into reality.
The person who drove Maisons du Monde’s transition into SketchUp’s model warehouse was tech-savvy interior designer Frédéric Tabary. He has over 21 years of experience and more than 8,000 customer success stories to his name. Frédéric started using SketchUp early on in his career and could immediately see the advantage of 3D modeling to accelerate his day-to-day work and sell his ideas to clients. In 2014 he started working with Maisons du Monde, and at the time, the furniture components available in 3D Warehouse didn't showcase the latest, high-quality designs available from Maisons du Monde. Frédéric had the idea of integrating the newest Maisons du Monde catalog into SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse to visualize how Maisons du Monde’s products fit within a design concept.
“We were the first in France to completely model our furniture and decoration offering into 3D; it was a revolution.”
- Frédéric Tabary, Interior Designer and OXP Founder
Designers can now access the most up-to-date items in the Maisons du Monde catalog, insert these components directly into their projects, and benefit from working with an established brand. Frédéric Tabary and Maisons du Monde were ahead of the game; they were the first to see the value of modeling interior design elements. It's been an outstanding success worldwide, with over 45 million downloads.
UPing the quality assurance
With the catalog of Maisons du Monde’s products on 3D Warehouse, Maureen, BtoB Director at Maisons du Monde, and Frédéric noticed a gap in SketchUp workflows – how could his clients ensure that the products they were finding on 3D Warehouse were reliable, quality products? After all, anyone can model and contribute to the components library, but professional interior designers and architects need quality to show their clients during conceptual design.
To meet this need, Frédéric and Jean-Yves Saintot (an entrepreneur and brand specialist) launched a new business called OXP, which developed UP for SketchUp. This SketchUp plugin provides professionals with a library of quality products. After installing the plugin, professionals can filter 3D components by brand, product, color, dimension, and price.
The shopping list within Up for SketchUp includes the running total price of each component, making project management easy.
UP for SketchUp includes a shopping list feature that makes managing large conceptual designs a breeze. The extension provides the price of each component specified in the proposal, so professionals can provide cost estimates to their clients.
“It’s been 21 years that I’ve been an architect and 21 years that I’ve hated administrative work. Managing a shopping list manually is completely boring for me. UP for SketchUp makes this work easy.”
- Frédéric Tabary, Interior Designer and OXP Founder
The “Deal Now” button allows interior designers and architects to order components in their design with brands directly in SketchUp. This feature also helps retail brands manage their stock efficiently. Conversely, retail brands have visibility into delivery dates, which contributes to a more sustainable way of manufacturing furniture.
“UP for SketchUp helps us not produce more than we need to deliver to our clients.”
- Frédéric Tabary, Interior Designer and OXP Founder
The “Sheep Box” is a handy feature in UP for SketchUp. The name is derived from the French book The Little Prince, where the prince asks a pilot to draw several pictures of sheep and then rejects each sketch. Finally, the pilot draws a box and tells the prince, “the sheep you are asking for is inside.” The prince is overjoyed to have his box. In a similar vein, professional interior designers and architects can create the dimensions of their Sheep Box within their SketchUp design, and then use UP for SketchUp to filter components that will fit inside the dimensions of that box.
With the “Sheep Box,” users can define dimensions and search a library of 3D components that can fit within that size, such as adding a jacuzzi to an outdoor patio.
Officially launched in August 2021, UP for SketchUp currently has over forty established retail brands contributing to its SketchUp library of over 3,000 high-quality 3D components, including Maisons du Monde.
The benefits for Maisons du Monde’s 3D architects
Before Maisons du Monde made the jump to modeling their products in SketchUp, architect and interior designer clients were less impactful on Maisons du Monde’s overall revenue. Today, thanks to its catalog of 3D components and the UP for SketchUp extension, they have become the leading clients for Maisons du Monde Business, bringing in around 25% of the retailer’s annual B2B revenue.
UP for SketchUp gives retailers a steady stream of leads with detailed contact information; architects and interior designers have a fast-tracked and personalized relationship with the respective brands. This relationship-building all happens without ever leaving SketchUp.
Between having all of Maisons du Monde’s interior design products modeled in 3D and readily available in SketchUp and UP for SketchUp’s shopping list functionalities and the SheepBox, designers using Maisons du Monde products save a ton of time. Their customers assert they don't just save hours but days and weeks of their time by using all these tools together within SketchUp.
“At Maisons du Monde, it is important for us to provide high-quality and efficient services to our clients. [Up for SketchUp] is a tool that helps simplify this work.”
- Maureen de Cintré, Director of Business Service for Maisons du Monde.
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About Maisons du Monde
Maisons du Monde, a beloved European brand, is a leader in inspirational and affordable home and living. It offers a wide range of furniture and home accessories whose designs are inspired by influences from around the world. Creativity, inspiration, and engagement are the brand’s core pillars.
Maisons du Monde was established in 1996 as a French brand and has since expanded across Europe, with over 8,600 employees in 350 stores in 11 countries.
In 2009, Maisons du Monde launched an offering targeted at design professionals in industries such as hospitality, office, and retail. Their expert B2B service has in-depth indoor and outdoor planning knowledge and offers customers appropriate solutions for each space. These recommendations are based on the brand's exclusive B2B catalog and collections, created by their design studio.
In November 2021, Maisons du Monde unveiled its company purpose: “Inspiring everyone to open up to the world, so that we create unique, heartful and sustainable places, together.”
