Made.com launches Unboxed, a ‘social showroom’ for nosey parkers

If you’re an interior design voyeur connoisseur, Made has just made your dreams come true with its new tool, Unboxed, which the company describes as a ‘social showroom’. The next best thing to rolling up to a fabulously glam person’s house, sneaking through the dog flap, and snapping phone pics of their decor, it also comes with far less chance of getting arrested.

Unboxed lets you virtually explore other people’s homes and find out where they put that sofa you were thinking of buying, or which rug they bought to go with those cushions. You can search by postcode to find out what other Made customers in your area are buying and there’s even the possibility of taking a look in person.

Made’s selling point has always been that not having physical shops means they can sell designer furniture more affordably. But the downside is that you don’t get to see how the stuff looks IRL. Unboxed can give you a better idea of how people are actually living with the things you’re thinking of buying, without making you feel bad about not tidying away every children’s toy or spare scrap of paper.

Co-Founder and Creative Director Chloe Macintosh says, ‘People not only want to see products in a real life situation, but more than ever we are fascinated by how others have decorated their homes.’

The company’s own research shows that 53% of women have been tempted to look into someone else’s home for design inspiration and 23% of Londoners have taken pics of someone else’s decor without them knowing. 19% have even viewed houses with no intention of buying (I mean, that’s just a fun day out, right?) But it’s not all one-sided: apparently, 45% of us would happily show off our living room makeover if a friendly stranger asked to take a peek.

And now we can. While the platform launches with around 100 brand advocates, including interiors blogger Kate Watson-Smyth, whose lovely book-filled room you can see above, all customers are welcome to upload their pics. And anyone can spend an hour noseying around strangers’ homes on the internet when they should be working. Um, I mean, that’s what I hear.

Diane Shipley