{"id":842389,"date":"2026-09-10T01:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842389\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T01:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:36:14","slug":"can-ai-be-your-interior-designer-not-quite-but-it-can-act-as-an-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842389\/","title":{"rendered":"Can AI be your interior designer? Not quite, but it can act as an assistant."},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cfairly large\u201d third-floor space of her home in Newton\u2019s Waban village needed to serve multiple functions: as a guest suite for visiting family during the holidays and a spot for Barbier to work as a marketing consultant running her own business, Eva Barbier Consulting<\/a>. While Barbier had gathered pictures for inspiration, she wanted to give her interior designer, Jessie Sheehan of Jessie Sheehan Interiors<\/a>, a stronger idea of what she was looking for. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I can see something installed, I can say I like it, or I don\u2019t. But when I\u2019m looking at various tiny swatches, it\u2019s really hard to visualize them in the room,\u201d said Barbier.<\/p>\n

\"JessieJessie Sheehan Interiors designed an office space for client Eva Barbier.Jessie Sheehan Interiors<\/p>\n

For an accent wall with two windows behind her desk, where Barbier generally sits to log into Zoom meetings with clients, Sheehan and Barbier had settled on a leafy Lewis & Wood wallpaper<\/a> with beech trees. But still, Barbier wanted to see what it would look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just really wanted to make sure that the tree composition and the branches\u2019 locations would look the best,\u201d said Sheehan, who had the wallpaper installer, Jim Arena of Arena Wallpapering<\/a>, draw branches on the wall with pencil to give Barbier a visual. \u201cBut she still couldn\u2019t quite get her head wrapped around it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"EvaEva Barbier used AI to visualize what her office space would look like with the wallpaper her designer suggested.Eva Barbier; Google Gemini<\/p>\n

Barbier plugged a photo of the room and another of the wallpaper into Google Gemini to visualize the composition, specifically where to put the branches on the wall. She played around with the layout and was so pleased with the AI image that she told Sheehan to move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say it, but she was able to create what it would actually look like as opposed to just a pencil sketch on the wall,\u201d said Sheehan. \u201cBoth the wallpaper installer and I sort of looked at each other and were like, \u2018Oh wow \u2026 that\u2019s good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EvaEva Barbier also used Google Gemini to visualize a different wallpaper in the space.Google Gemini\"EvaEva Barbier’s completed office space designed by Jessie Sheehan Interiors.Jessie Sheehan Interiors<\/p>\n

Barbier isn\u2019t the only homeowner who has turned to AI for design help. According to a market research company S&S Insider<\/a>, the AI interior design market size was worth $1.47 billion in 2024, and it\u2019s projected to reach $6.96 billion by 2032 thanks to the growing use of tools like 3D visualization, augmented reality, virtual reality, and machine-learning algorithms. But interior designers are quick to say that while AI can be helpful, it doesn\u2019t prevent your next renovation from becoming a nightmare reminiscent of the 1986 Tom Hanks\u2019 comedy, \u201cThe Money Pit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindy Lowney, of Lindy Lowney Design<\/a> has seen a variety of AI disasters cross her desk since its rise in popularity. There are the funny examples, like an area rug that looks like it\u2019s the size of a beach towel under a dining room table courtesy of ChatGPT. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d send me a photo of a dining room, and the dining room chairs are missing legs,\u201d said Lowney, who is based in Rhode Island. <\/p>\n

Then there are the scary ones, like in kitchens where everything from building codes and safety violations to electrical and plumbing problems are ignored by AI. When people attempt to assume the role of a contractor, problems are imminent. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we do is done with measurements, budgets, and codes, and that plays into safety, health, and your environment,\u201d said Lowney. \u201cA lot of contractors want an old-school setup of technical documents and drawings, and these basic AI programs may not have somebody driving it with the technical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, many designers are in favor of AI\u2019s presence for creating simple visualizations. Vivian Robins of Arketa Design Studio<\/a> finds AI helpful in assisting clients who need a quick visual of a change. While she sees a vision clearly in her head, she recognizes that the client doesn\u2019t always have the same innate ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that if anything, it can aid us in trying to get something to somebody quicker,\u201d said Robins. \u201cThat\u2019s our superpower, right? We see everything in our head. But that\u2019s not a client\u2019s superpower. So, we can drop that fabric onto a photograph of an existing chair that we\u2019re reupholstering and be specific and tell [AI] it\u2019s a vertical and horizontal repeat, so that the computer knows it\u2019s not enlarging it on the existing fabric. But once you show that to the client, they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that looks awesome!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the changing tide in opinions about AI in the interior design industry, some designers recognize that their fellow professionals have some trepidation about AI\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of designers are seeing it as an enemy, like \u2018it\u2019s going to take my job.\u2019 I do see a lot of resistance,\u201d said Lulu Friedman of Didi Interiors + Architecture<\/a> in Needham, who is openly embracing AI for some projects. \u201cI think people think that it\u2019s cheating. But I see it more as a tool to make designers better and more efficient.\u201d <\/p>\n

But for Barbier\u2019s attempt to see her wallpaper in place, AI served its purpose. After she settled on the wallpaper, paint, and furniture, she completed the space and, with the help of a Wellesley-based art consultant, Libby Silvia Artstyle<\/a>, she chose a piece by artist Hayley Mathewes<\/a> to hang between the windows. With her home office finished, she is thrilled with the results. And when she\u2019s not working or busy with her kids, she finds herself seeking out some quiet time in the peaceful oasis. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love it up here. It just makes me really happy. In the little spare time that I have, I like to draw and paint,\u201d she said. \u201cI will come up here and do all that creative thinking because it\u2019s a very soothing and relaxing space for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cfairly large\u201d third-floor space of her home in Newton\u2019s Waban village needed to serve multiple functions: as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-842389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}