Color–material furnishing pairing is known as a “black-box” for interior designers. The overall atmosphere of a space can be changed by modifying furnishing combinations, for example, to express modern or classic styles. Designers carefully choose pairings of colors and materials that fit their intended interior design styles based on experience and knowledge. However, no specific principles or rules have yet been established. Therefore, this study aims to derive a furnishing pairing principle based on a novel framework comprising object detection, color extraction, material recognition, and network analysis. We used the proposed framework to analyze large-scale interior design image data (N = 24,194) collected from an online interior design platform. We also used the authenticity algorithm to analyze the relative influence of styles. By using the data-driven method from large-scale data in each of the eight interior styles, we derived authentic color, material, and furnishing combinations. Our study results revealed that images with high authenticity values in each style matched existing style descriptions. Additionally, the proposed framework allows interior style image retrieval based on a specific color, material, and furnishing combination. Our findings have implications for research on the development of style-aware furniture retrieval systems and automatic interior design generation methods.

Purpose: A series of research has focused on how virtual reality (VR) technology itself influences consumers' perceptions and attitudes. However, little is known about consumers' unique perceptions and behaviours that can be generated by the specific factors of the virtual stores that they visit. Therefore, the authors examine how the specific aspects of the virtual stores that consumers see on screens – namely, the opacity of virtual stores' exterior design can impact consumer perceptions and behaviours.Design/methodology/approach: Across three studies, the authors employed 3D modelling software (Rhino 6 and Unity) and 3D architectural visualisation software (Twinmotion) to create 360° VR videos for the manipulation of the virtual store exterior design. The authors performed ANOVA and regression analyses with three studies, a total of 858 responses.Findings: Results showed that virtual stores' opaque exterior design can promote product preferences, and this link is serially mediated by store prestige perceptions and product quality perceptions. In addition, this effect is particularly prominent among those with higher involvement in design elements.Originality/value: By suggesting important design variables to virtual stores, it advances the emerging literature on VR. Furthermore, to our knowledge, this research is the first to highlight the importance of exterior opacity of a virtual store, and it deepens our understanding of how the opaque exterior of virtual stores influences store perceptions and consumer behaviours.