It's essential to use your imagination when buying furniture. Can you see a chair fitting into your living room? Will brown go well in the kitchen? With this in mind, several furniture makers have come up with some clever ideas to make the job of choosing what to buy easier.
"There are two styles of app on the market you can use," says Florian Blaschke, editor of the digital business trade journal t3n.de in Hanover, Germany.
"Many consumers have already tried 3D modelling using a computer to lay out a plan. However, these models can't give you a good idea of how things will look in reality."
The new way to help shoppers make up their minds is with the augmented-reality app.
There are apps for smartphones and tablets that allow you to project an image of an item of furniture into a view of your home using the device's camera. "It's very realistic," says Blaschke.
The apps even take into account light and shadow and are great for deciding if a sofa matches the rest of your furnishings.
Swedish furniture supplier Ikea has an app for its customers but home electronics manufacturers are also investing in the technology.
Panasonic has an app that can display its products in your home before you buy a TV. Some apps allow you to rotate and twist furniture or change size. It's also possible to switch colours and materials.
Interior design company Kare has an app with an option to store an image and post it on Facebook for your friends to comment on.
Ursula Geismann, from the Association of German Furniture Industries, says shoppers need this support.
"Many furniture stores don't offer this kind of aid," she says. The average furniture retailer will not have a mock-up living room on display to give customers an idea of how a sofa or bed could look at home.
"Instead, they usually just have 70 tables lined up beside each other and you have to choose the one you like best," says Geismann.
"I believe these new tools will find wider acceptance with customers and they will improve in future.
"The first layout applications looked like Sudoku puzzles. But today you don't need to know how to use complicated software."
Tech expert Florian Blaschke confirms advances have been made. "The apps are very practical." Anyone who can use a smartphone will feel at ease using an app to help furnish his or her home.
But Geismann does admit the technology has its limits. Shoppers prefer to buy furniture in a store rather than sight-unseen online.
Figures gathered by the Association of German Furniture Industries in 2013 indicated that only four per cent of sales were online.
"I'm aware that manufacturers believe their customers will be prepared to spend a couple of hundred dollars online," says Geismann.
But for large items of furniture like a sofa, they still prefer to visit a store.
"Nobody is buying an expensive sofa with the click of a mouse.
"Shoppers prefer to sit on one first and try it out."
