When designing or furnishing living spaces, people are either deterred by hefty price tags of traditional interior designers or spend countless hours trying to find the perfect furniture pieces. The founders of Moodfit sat around the drawing table to try and find a solution to these issues.

Moodfit was consequently born, combining professional interior design services with furniture purchasing, in a simple and affordable way. The Lebanese startup, founded by Ghassan Abi Fadel, Tarek Jaroudi and Mohamad Sabouneh, enables clients to take charge of designing their living spaces online, by simply choosing their style, finding their interior designer match and lastly, allocating their budget. The platform even goes one step further, granting clients the option to purchase all of their furniture and decorative items on the website.

We sat down with the founders of Moodfit, to learn more about how they are disrupting the interior design world, to suit all tastes:

BDD: How did you come up with the concept of Moodfit?

Moodfit: The idea of Moodfit first came up as a project at an entrepreneurship course, during an MBA program in AUB. Initially, we wanted to launch a renovation and contracting company, but quickly realized that the market is saturated and in need of services of a different kind. Through market research and validation, we arrived to Moodfit’s current product definition, whereby we help people design and furnish their living spaces with the support of professional designers and at an affordable price.

BDD: What were the challenges people faced when furnishing their home?

Moodfit: It all stems from the pain point that people are looking to furnish their living spaces, but they either have to spend countless hours looking for the right furniture in the market, or spend a lot of money on traditional interior design services.

Moodfit answers these two issues, offering an online design service with professional designers, and a furniture purchasing and setup concierge service.

BDD: Besides the obvious, what differentiates you from the local market? 

Moodfit: Moodfit is the first platform of its kind in the MENA region. We have around 50 designers vetted and approved on our platform, and work with around 45 suppliers between the UAE and Lebanon. Moreover, we guarantee the lowest prices on furniture to our clients.

BDD: Can you tell us a bit about the packages listed on the website?

Moodfit: We have 2 packages available - the full design approach and the uplifting approach.

·         The full design is perfect if you’re moving to a new house and looking to buy all the furniture from scratch.

·         The uplifting package is more suited if you’re upgrading your existing space, or already have the main furniture elements, and are just looking to add some life to your space by adding colors, decoration, etc.

BDD: What is a typical budget range a client should allocate to revamp a room?

Moodfit: Our designers can cater to any budget that the client wants. Depending on the specified budget, we can choose furniture from suppliers that fit that budget. Based on our experience over the last 2 year and more than 250 furnishing projects, we can accurately estimate and recommend the budget depending on the type of rooms, location, country, quality required etc.

BDD: What are the interior design trends that you have witnessed in Lebanon?

Moodfit: Most of our clients are looking for the Scandinavian and modern styles. The tendency is towards functional furniture with space saving features.

BDD: What is the turnaround time from project conceptualization to execution?

Moodfit: Usually the design process takes between 2 to 3 weeks, after which the furniture delivery largely depends on the suppliers chosen. At the start of the project the client can communicate his/her timeline with us and we will make sure to source the furniture from suppliers that we know fit the client’s delivery time frame. A convenient service that we’re offering is consolidating the deliveries into a 1 or 2 day window, so that the client doesn’t have to waste too much time waiting for multiple deliveries.

BDD: Do you have plans to expand beyond Beirut and Dubai?

Moodfit: Of course, we’re eyeing currently expansion into KSA, and have plans to expand beyond the GCC into European countries.

BDD: How do you foresee the interior design and furniture industry being disrupted by technology?

Moodfit: We’re seeing the rise of a lot of new technologies affecting every aspect of the interior design and furniture industry. From new material and manufacturing techniques that are making furniture more accessible and eco-friendly, to Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies that are disrupting the way people visualize and buy their furniture... The way forward is a world where the interior design service is available for everyone, and where buying furniture by hopping from one physical store to another will become obsolete.

BDD: What is the strangest thing a client requested from Moodfit, that you delivered on?

Moodfit: We’ve had some exciting projects, not necessarily weird. We occasionally get some distant location (a bedroom in Jakarta), or unusual project (a living room on a yacht), or an eccentric element (a swing in a living room).

Check out the Moodfit concept here.