Remember the old way of choosing flooring? You'd stare at a six-inch sample in the showroom, trying desperately to imagine how it would look across your entire living room. You'd hold it up against your wall paint chip, squint really hard, and hope for the best. Then you'd commit thousands of dollars based on that tiny square and cross your fingers that you made the right choice.
Those days are over.
The flooring industry has entered a new era where you can see exactly how new floors will look in your actual space before you buy a single plank. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality have transformed the design process from guesswork into precision. Research shows that consumers are 50% more likely to purchase flooring after experiencing AI-powered virtual reality visualization, and digital tools have become a significant factor in renovation decision-making across the industry.
For Atlanta homeowners planning renovations in 2026, these tools aren't just convenient. They're essential. Here's your guide to the best AI and AR tools that put professional-level design capabilities right in your pocket.
Before diving into specific tools, it helps to understand what you're working with.
AI Design Tools use algorithms to generate room designs, suggest color palettes, and create floor plans based on your preferences. These tools analyze your style choices and room dimensions to produce multiple design variations. Think of them as having a designer who can instantly show you dozens of different looks.
Augmented Reality (AR) Tools overlay digital images onto your real space through your smartphone camera. Point your phone at your floor, and you'll see what oak hardwood or gray LVP would look like in real time, right there in your actual room with your actual lighting and furniture.
Both technologies have matured significantly. The visualizations you get today look remarkably realistic, accounting for lighting conditions, room dimensions, and even how furniture creates shadows on floors.
Planner 5D
This powerhouse platform combines AI design generation with 3D visualization. The Smart Wizard feature guides you through the design process, suggesting furniture placement and layout options based on your room's function and your preferred style. Upload a photo of your room, and the AI automatically detects walls, doors, and windows to create a digital version of your space.
The Design Generator then produces multiple variations of your space with different flooring options. You can switch between 2D and 3D views, and even experience your design in virtual reality if you have VR equipment. The free version provides substantial functionality, though premium features (starting around $5 monthly) unlock advanced rendering and more design options.
What makes Planner 5D particularly useful for flooring decisions is its massive library of materials and textures. You can see how different wood grains, tile patterns, and carpet styles interact with your existing furniture and wall colors.
Home Planner
Home Planner ranks among the top design apps in the US market, offering both 2D and 3D floor planning with smart AI tools. The standout feature is its AR scanner, which maps your room using your smartphone camera, then lets you design a 3D layout with real furniture from over 400,000 items in its catalog.
The AI interior design chat function is genuinely helpful. Type something like "cozy home office with wood floors" and the AI generates complete layouts with color schemes and material suggestions in seconds. For flooring specifically, you can upload a photo of your room and let the AI redesign tool restyle it with different flooring materials.
The educational resources are a bonus. Home Planner offers tutorials and guides that help you understand design principles while you experiment with different flooring options.
Houzz
If you're already browsing Houzz for design inspiration, you might not realize the app includes powerful AR visualization. The View in My Room 3D feature lets you virtually cover your floor with tile or other materials from the Houzz Shop.
The process is straightforward. Find a product you like, tap the View in My Room 3D button, and use your phone camera to scan your floor. The app populates your floor with the selected material at proper scale. You can rotate patterns, get measurement and cost estimates, and save photos to ideabooks for comparison.
With over a million products enabled for 3D viewing, Houzz offers extensive options. The integration with their shopping platform means you can move seamlessly from visualization to purchase if you find something you love.
Spacely AI
Spacely AI targets professionals but offers accessible tools for homeowners. Upload a floor plan or room photo, and the AI generates a furnished 3D layout in under 60 seconds. The photorealistic renders help you visualize not just flooring but how your entire space comes together.
The tool works particularly well for seeing how different flooring materials interact with various interior styles. Want to see how herringbone hardwood looks with mid-century modern furniture versus contemporary minimalist design? Spacely makes those comparisons quick and clear.
Floori
Floori specializes specifically in flooring visualization using augmented reality. Point your phone at your floor, select a product from your flooring retailer's catalog (if they've partnered with Floori), and instantly see how different wood planks, tiles, or carpet would look as you walk around your space.
The technology works best on newer iPhones with LiDAR sensors (iPhone 12 and later), which can detect walls and furniture placement with remarkable accuracy. The app even cuts around people and objects in the room, creating an incredibly realistic preview. It also functions on Android devices and older iPhones, though with slightly less precision.
What separates Floori from generic room design apps is its focus on accurate material representation. The textures, grain patterns, and color variations you see reflect what the actual product looks like, not an approximation.
Reydar
Reydar offers a web-based AR flooring visualizer that requires no app download. The browser-based platform works on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox across any device. Consumers can view a photo-realistic three-meter square section of flooring in their space, providing a much more accurate representation than traditional single-plank samples.
The technology detects room corners and furniture automatically on LiDAR-enabled devices, creating seamless integration between the virtual flooring and your real space. For businesses, Reydar also generates QR codes that can be printed on marketing materials, letting you scan a code and instantly visualize that specific product in your home.
EF Covering
This white-label AR visualizer focuses on real-time interaction. Instead of taking a photo and applying flooring to it, EF Covering lets you explore the room view with new flooring from different angles and distances in real time. The result feels interactive rather than looking like a static photoshopped image.
The app can estimate the area of covered floor, calculate costs and material requirements, and even create blueprints. For homeowners planning renovations, these calculation features transform a visualization tool into a practical planning resource.
Many major flooring manufacturers now offer their own visualization tools. Shaw Floors, Mohawk, and other brands have room visualizers on their websites that let you see their specific products in various room settings. While these tools typically use template rooms rather than your actual space, they're useful for narrowing down options before using AR to place your top choices in your real environment.
Start with AI Design Tools for Inspiration
Begin with platforms like Planner 5D or Home Planner to explore different styles and possibilities. Input your room dimensions and let the AI suggest various flooring options you might not have considered. This phase is about opening your mind to possibilities.
Narrow Your Choices
Use the AI-generated designs to identify your top three to five flooring types or styles. Pay attention to which designs make you excited versus which just look acceptable.
Apply AR for Reality Check
Take your shortlist to AR tools like Floori or Reydar to see those actual products in your real space with your real lighting and furniture. This step reveals how different materials interact with your existing elements. That gorgeous dark walnut might look stunning in the AI render but feel too heavy in your small, north-facing room.
Test Different Times of Day
Flooring looks dramatically different in morning light versus evening. Use AR tools at various times to see how natural and artificial lighting affect appearance. That gray LVP might look perfect at noon but wash out under your evening lamps.
Involve Everyone Who Lives There
Share your visualizations with family members. These tools make it easy to save and send images, letting everyone weigh in before you commit. The AI tools typically allow you to save designs to accounts, while AR apps let you screenshot results for discussion.
Don't Skip Physical Samples
Even the best visualization can't perfectly replicate texture, finish, and how materials feel underfoot. Use digital tools to narrow to your top two options, then order physical samples to confirm texture, sheen, and quality. The combination of digital visualization and physical samples gives you the most complete picture.
We're just beginning to see what these technologies can do. Voice-guided recommendations, better AI room scanning, and integration with other design elements like furniture and lighting simulations are already in development. The goal is removing all guesswork from home design decisions.
For a decision as significant as flooring (expensive, permanent, and visible every single day), these tools change everything. You're no longer gambling based on small samples. You're making informed choices based on realistic previews of exactly what you'll get.
While these AI and AR tools put incredible power in your hands, they complement rather than replace professional expertise. At Carpet Zone, we love when customers come in having already experimented with visualization tools. It means you've thought seriously about what you want and have specific questions rather than starting from zero.
We can help you interpret what you're seeing in these digital tools, explain why certain materials perform better than others in Atlanta's climate, and ensure your beautiful visualization translates into a flawless installation. Many of these tools show you the look but can't tell you about durability, maintenance requirements, or installation challenges specific to your home's construction.
Think of visualization tools as doing your homework before meeting with experts. You bring informed questions, we provide insider knowledge, and together we make sure your dream floor becomes reality.
Download a few of these apps this week and start playing. Upload photos of your rooms. Experiment with wild options you'd never normally consider. See what happens when you put light oak in your bedroom or dark slate tile in your kitchen. The beauty of digital tools is there's zero risk in trying bold choices.
When you've narrowed down what you love, come see us at Carpet Zone. We'll show you physical samples, discuss practical considerations for Atlanta homes, and help you move from digital visualization to actual installation. The future of flooring design isn't just coming. It's here, it's free, and it's waiting in your pocket.
Carpet Zone LLC has been serving the Atlanta metro area since 2016, helping homeowners bring their flooring visions to life in Marietta, Alpharetta, Roswell, and surrounding communities. Contact us at 770-609-5675 or browser our website for more information and knowledge.
Two weeks Carpet zone installed carpet and vinyl planks for my rental property in Alpharetta Georgia , they send me a wide section of carpet and LVP according to my budget, and I gave them access to the house and they changed all the rooms in one day, yesterday I came to GA and checked the work and They %100 took care of all details in a way better than what I expected.Thank you carpet zone , and I will definitely hire your company again in the future.
Thank you Moe! From first contact to finished job, Moe was easy to reach and work with. He and Carlos covered my wood floors with carpet. Carpet is life! So soft! I recommend Moe 100% for a seamless experience.
Moe did an excellent job installing carpet and hardwood flooring in my home. He advised that it would be more cost effective to install hardwoods versus tile in the master closet. The installation was completed on time and Moe followed up to ensure I was pleased with the finished project. I recommend Carpet Zone for expert floor installation.
