Decofy launches to end “DIY guesstimating” with AI Spatial Computing and prevent 75 million gallons of paint waste per year

Decofy, the AI-powered mobile retail channel, launched today to help home decorators realise their design dreams and, at the same time, end systemic paint waste and the environmental damage this causes.

It’s a common sight in most people’s garages and at the local tip; half-full paint cans and half-used rolls of wallpaper. Indeed, the old adage is that it’s better to buy too much paint than not enough. Decofy believes it’s time to use technology to change these old habits when it comes to decorating our homes.

That’s because globally, it’s estimated that up to 10% of all paint purchased is wasted, ending up incinerated, in landfill, or in the ocean. 75 million gallons of paint are wasted every year in the US alone – that’s enough to fill 114 Olympic swimming pools. Fifty per cent of the microplastics polluting our oceans and waterways and poisoning wildlife are particulates from paint

Available from today, Decofy is a new fully-integrated retail channel and whitelabel shopping app for coatings and DIY brands. Decofy gives consumers a smarter, simpler, more sustainable way to shop for paint, wallpaper and decorating products, while solving the problem of wasted paint and wallpaper in two ground-breaking ways:

Firstly, Decofy allows home decorators to use their mobile's AI shopping app to take a smart 360-degree video of any room and with a single tap, decorate the walls virtually with any number of paint colours, finishes or wallpapers. By combining spatial computing with personalised AI-driven recommendations, Decofy helps users find and realise design ideas before they buy, eliminating the guesswork decorating has always involved. That means no need for samples and no need to buy alternative paint or wallpaper because the first attempt didn’t produce the expected look.

Secondly, Decofy’s Smart Video technology uses AI combined with data on each coatings product to automatically calculate how much of a given paint or wallpaper is required for each wall or room. No more moving furniture, measuring walls, doors and windows or reaching for the calculator to work out coverage areas; Decofy’s Smart Video uses spatial computing to map the room – even when furniture is blocking the view - and calculate exact quantities required. There’s no guesswork for the user and of course, every product can be purchased with a single click.

With Decofy, brands can for the first time understand the dimensions of customers interiors, the precise amount of product they require - which in turn opens up the potential for new, more sustainable ways of fulfilment; for example, being able to buy customised volumes of paint tailored to each customer’s exact needs rather than standardised quantities which result in high wastage. 

Decofy was founded by Al Maxwell, who previously founded one of the world’s first Augmented Reality (AR) platforms, String. Decofy developed Smart Video because AR has limitations in home-decorating applications; it forces the user to be physically present in the space holding up the mobile camera and it demands a lot of screen real estate, which limits the ability to simultaneously browse for inspiration.

Al Maxwell, founder of Decofy said: “DIY has gone through a massive boom over the past few years, especially during lockdown and painting is the number one home improvement activity. It’s great that more people are expressing themselves creatively through interior design but, on the flip side, the more people experiment, the more materials they tend to waste.

We wanted to build a mobile-first retail channel that paint brands, DIY companies and the wider coatings industry can easily integrate to make their customers’ shopping experience seamless - while also eliminating the DIY guesstimating and wastage that home -decorating has always involved. The AI, spatial computing and next-gen Smart Video we’ve developed means better, more creative interiors can be imagined and achieved with no waste. Decofy is a new AI-powered way to shop which I hope the still very traditional coatings industry will embrace. We know customers want to be smarter and more sustainable in the way they decorate their homes – we’ve launched Decofy to make that change happen.”