How to Use AI (ChatGPT) to Plan Your Next Interior Design Project

Is anyone else completely amazed at the speed at which AI has evolved? I remember being completely confused about this “ChatGPT” thing – what could I ever use that for? Honestly, I could probably write an entire blog about how to use ChatGPT in your everyday life or business now. Maybe one day. But for now, we’ll discuss my latest obsession, how to use AI (ChatGPT) to plan interior design/ remodeling.

In my very biased opinion, our Linden Hills (Minneapolis) rental could use a bit of a refresh before the busy summer season (also true: Amber wants to design something new). Since designing that house, my interior design style has shifted from white and minimalist to a bit more patterned, colored and traditional. Think designers such as Jessica Halgerson, Stephanie Sabbe, Heidi Callier. With multiple other larger renovations coming up (in addition to my actual day job, family and the holidays), I didn’t have a ton of time to devote to design planning. But, I did already have a very healthy collection of Pinterest boards by room that were just waiting to be put to use!

Lets start with where this whole “refresh” started – the kitchen:

The kitchen style is fine as-is, but the cabinets only have one or two coats of Benjamin Moore Advance paint and are chipping in areas and need another few coats of paint (lesson learned, more is more). Since I’m painting them anyways, may as well change the color! After scouring my Pinterest for kitchens with wood floors and taj mahal counters, I decided that a deep burgundy would be the way to go. Here are the inputs I entered into ChatGPT to get from my current kitchen to my design-inspired kitchen (inspiration in the upper left):

1. 1. Paste: pictures of my current kitchen and design inspiration kitchen

1. 1. Text: Make the kitchen in picture one in the same style as the traditional kitchen in picture two. Keep the same layout, appliances, countertops, flooring and light fixtures. Remove the rug.

And magically, after a few minutes, ChatGPT spits out something like this:

Its likely that you’ll want to make changes after your first image. Be extremely specific in your requests. If I only want one small change, I explicitly write “make no other changes.” For whatever reason, if you don’t write that, often other random changes are made as well. I love that ChatGPT can add in exact items like chairs or art (take a pic of the art you already own and see how it looks!). Don’t like the hardware color? Change it. Don’t like the shiplap? Remove it. Its amazing.

Here are all of my before and after’s for each room that I am refreshing this February!