John Lewis’ £14m revamp of its Home department includes a giant interactive head

John Lewis’ flagship store has revamped its Home department – including the addition of an interactive installation that can gauge customers’ interior design “tastes”.

“Largest home department in central London”

The new section is based at the London Oxford Street store, situated across 8733m2 on the second and third floors.

The revamp cost £14 million and took eight months to complete, and was undertaken by John Lewis’ in-house design team, alongside a selection of designers and consultancies commissioned to create individual spaces.

Christine Kasoulis, buying director for Home at John Lewis, says: “This overhaul now makes John Lewis Oxford Street the destination for the home in central London, and will inspire and excite in equal measure.”

Split into rooms

The main second floor department is split into separate “room” environments, including areas for lighting, fabrics, carpets, a “living room” and a “sleep room”. They will be host to 650 different lighting models, 12,500 curtain fabrics, and 100,000 combinations of sofa shapes and fabrics.

“Creative spaces”

The third floor includes five individually designed “creative spaces” which aim to “inspire and entertain customers”, says John Lewis, through showcasing room setups that are “wholly different to those in other department stores”.

The spaces have been designed by Glaswegian consultancy Timorous Beasties, lighting designer Tom Raffield, fashion designers Antoni & Alison, Sarah Bagner, and member of John Lewis’ in-house design studio Charlie Fowler.

Assessing individual taste

An interactive installation has also been unveiled – the Head of Design is a 2.7m tall interactive model of a human head that works out people’s design tastes through a three-minute psychometric test, then produces personalised moodboards. John Lewis’ in-house design team created it, in collaboration with brand research company MindLab.

It aims to “help customers visualise new ways of bringing their homes to life’, says John Lewis.

In-store interior advice

There will also be a new in-house interior design studio called the John Lewis Home Design Service, which will be on site to offer advice and consultations.

Collections in-store will include fabrics from Liberty, Made in Britain products from Dove St Pottery, and knitted cushions from Jules Hogan.

New designers featured include furniture ranges from West Elm, Young Designer of the Year 2014 Lindsey Lang, contemporary craft furniture from consultancy Another Country, and light collections from Tom Raffield.

A Benugo café will also be added to the second floor space in October.