Art For My Room has a mission:

To help people discover artwork they'll love by combining artificial intelligence with creativity, making it easier for art lovers tofind paintings that perfectly complement their homes while giving artists a platform to showcase their work.

Setting the scene

Choosing artwork for a home can be a challenge. While people often know the style they like, imagining how a painting will look within a particular space is much more difficult.

Founded in 2022, Art For My Room, formerly known as Tantalizing Art before the business pivoted and rebranded, set out to solve the challenge of helping people choose artwork for their homes by developing an AI-powered platform capable of recommending artwork based on a simple photograph of a room. The vision was ambitious: to combine machine learning with art discovery to create a personalised experience for buyers while helping painters reach new audiences.

Through the BIG Growth Innovation Programme at London South Bank University (LSBU),Giorgaki Potsi, founder of Art For My Room, partnered with academic expert Kamal Thapa to transform that vision into a fully functioning digital platform ready for market.

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The challenge

The founder already possessed the machine learning knowledge behind the recommendation concept. The challenge wasn't the idea it was turning that idea into a product that customers could actually use.

Building a reliable recommendation engine required specialist software development, web architecture and practical engineering skills. As an early-stage business, developing the platform independently would have required significant investment in both time and funding, creating additional risk at a critical stage of growth.

Finding the right technical expertise while preserving valuable resources became essential to moving the business forward.

The solution

Through the fully funded BIG Growth Innovation Programme ,Giorgaki Potsi, founder of Art For My Room, partnered with Kamal Thapa, Data Mining & Analysis Tutor and NLP/Computer Vision Researcher at LSBU's School of Engineering.

Over four months, the collaboration combined academic research with practical software engineering to build the core functionality of the platform. Together, they developed a machine-learning recommendation engine capable of analysing room images and matching them with suitable artwork, alongside a modern front-end and back-end architecture that enabled the founder to implement the platform within the business.

The partnership bridged the gap between research knowledge and product development, turning an innovative concept into a market-readydigital solution.

Academic expertise

Kamal Thapa's expertise in computer vision, deep learning and natural language processing played an important role in translating the founder's concept into a practical product.

By combining academic knowledge with real-world software development, the collaboration accelerated the creation of a functional platform while ensuring the recommendation engine was built on robust machine-learning principles.

The results

The collaboration delivered a significant milestone for the business: a fully functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ready for commercialisation.

Key achievements included:

• A live AI-powered platform ready for investment and future growth.
• Faster product development through dedicated academic support.
• Reduced development costs for an early-stage business.
• Improved business processes, marketing strategy and financial stability.
• Reduced risk compared with outsourcing development externally.

"The BIG Growth Programme was extremely valuable in helping me turn my idea into a functional website. LSBU understood my needs clearly, communicated efficiently, and delivered professional support that made a real difference to the progress of my business."

Giorgaki Potsi, Art For My Room

Reflections: what went well, and lessons learned

For an early-stage technology business, access to academic expertise proved invaluable.

Rather than simply developing software, the collaboration enabled the founder to accelerate product development while reducing both technical uncertainty and financial risk. The combination of research expertise and practical engineering support demonstrated how university-business collaboration can help innovative ideas reach the market more quickly and efficiently.

The future of Art For My Room

With the MVP now live, Art For My Room is focused on growing the platform by attracting both artists and buyers.

The business plans to encourage more painters to show case their work through the platform while expanding its reach among art buyers looking for personalised recommendations. The founder also intends to continue collaborating with LSBU, exploring opportunities for student involvement and future product development as the business enters its next phase of growth.

Final thoughts for other startups

Turning an innovative idea into a commercial product doesn't always require building everything alone.

Working with academic experts can provide the technical knowledge, confidence and support needed to move from concept to reality whilereducing both development time and business risk.

"Without this support, the project would have taken much longer and required significantly more personal funding."

Giorgaki Potsi, Art For My Room

About the programme

The BIG Growth Innovation Programme connects South Londonbusinesses with academic expertise from London South Bank University andpartner universities, delivering tailored collaborative support to helpbusinesses innovate and grow. The programme is funded through the UKShared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) by the Greater London Authority. The aim ofthe UKSPF was to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UKinvesting in communities and place, supporting local business, and people andskills.

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