How an interior-design hub for 80+ designers runs itself

An internationally renowned interior designer wanted to build a hub: a physical space where 80+ designers could meet their clients, browse materials in one place, and send orders to suppliers without leaving the room. The community would converge there for workshops and events too. The challenge was running it without turning the owner into a full-time operations manager. The hub had to feel curated and exclusive — and run itself.

What we built

An online + offline materials library, fed by AI ingestion of supplier catalogs in whatever format they arrived — Excel, Word, PDF, web pages. Each material gets a QR code on the physical sample. Designers scan a QR during a client meeting, build a basket, and trigger an order — routed to the right supplier with the right designer-supplier terms attached. Time-slot booking on top of Google Calendar lets designers reserve client-meeting rooms in the hub without back-and-forth. Workshops and community events run on the same booking spine — published on the hub, designers self-serve. Email confirmations, reminders, and supplier order receipts run in the background. The owner doesn’t see most of them, and that’s the point.

How we built it

A Next.js web app on Vercel, with Supabase as the source of truth — designers, suppliers, materials, bookings, orders, events. Google Calendar is the booking spine: every reservation flows through a designer’s actual calendar, so double-booking is impossible. Email integrations carry confirmations and supplier orders. MinIO holds material photography and supplier collateral.

The hardest part was catalog ingestion. Suppliers send their materials in whatever shape they have — a 12-tab Excel, a 60-page PDF, a Word doc with embedded images, a web page with a paginated grid. We built an AI pipeline that parses each one into structured records (SKU, finish, dimensions, price band, lead time, image), reconciles duplicates, and writes them into Supabase. Designers see one library; the supplier doesn’t have to change anything.

The outcome

80+ designers on the hub, every booking, every sample basket, every supplier order, every workshop signup running through the system. The owner spends time on curation and community, not coordination — which is what a hub is supposed to be.