The Anti-AI Interior Designer
Why AI sucks at designing homes
Summary: Using AI to design and decorate your home has more costs than benefits. How do I know? I’ve suffered the consequences myself and see clients all the time who have tried and failed to get personal, beautiful and meaningful designs from AI. Using AI to decorate your home costs your creative freedom, time, energy and money. Use AI to outsource mundane work, not your creativity. Learn how to find your own human style and leave data entry and click-clacking to the bots.
Last week, someone asked me, “How do you compete with AI? If someone can just have Chat GPT create a room for them, why would they pay you instead?”
Y’all. I’ve been dying for you to ask.
The short answer: I don’t compete with AI.
I could rage against AI all day every day and twice on Sundays. I’m not a total and complete doomer about it, because it has some decent uses, but most of what I’ve seen out of it amounts to lazy slop.
Personally, AI has led me astray so many times that I just don’t think it’s worth using most of the time. I’ve also watched acquaintances make mistakes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars because Chat advised them incorrectly. I’m not making that up.
Even so, it does have its occasional uses. And for the record, I believe in heavy and extreme regulation and oversight that does not exist right now, and I’m very concerned about the environmental and humanitarian impacts of unmitigated creation and use. My official stance is that we could get rid of it altogether and be better off. Let the record reflect.
Why AI Interior Design Sucks
When it comes to AI design, I’ve seen these “upload into Chat” people and their results firsthand. They show me the little renderings Chat makes for them. And guess what? They’re not impressed. Ever.
I’ve never had anyone show me a rendering they love. They show me something that lacks any depth, soul or personality and say things like, “I think something like this could work?”
Sis, I hate to break it to you, but that attitude’s gonna cost you.
AI design knows nothing about you, and the renderings are only going to be as good as the information you plug into it.
Most people turn to AI designs because they don’t know what they like or what to do, and then they’re surprised when it spits out a mediocre mock up that still doesn’t look anything like what they imagine for themselves.
AI designs are just so tacky to me. I can tell right away that they’re fake, and it gives me the ick. Nothing went into them. They look and feel dead. No real human lives here.
AI Doesn’t Have a Soul
Everyone wants their home to “look pretty” on the surface, but beauty that’s only skin-deep fades fast. Just because something looks good at a glance doesn’t mean it’s going to fill your soul.
Chat GPT doesn’t know what you deal with at work all day. It doesn’t know how you tense up when you walk into a room that doesn’t feel like you when all you wanna do is relax.
Claude can’t tell when you get little butterflies in your stomach at the sight of beautiful art or a fresh-picked bouquet.
AI can describe your favorite smell, but it can’t see the memories that fly in when you light up that first pumpkin spice candle of the season.
AI is essentially a ghost of all the things you love. It tells you what you want to hear and stops short of feeling what’s actually real. It doesn’t see your face fall when you look at a boring grey and white mockup with a “pop” of green in the rug. (based on a true story!)
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AI Doesn’t Know You and Cannot Give You Style
You can answer all the prompts in the world and really feel like you’re getting somewhere only to wind up feeling more disconnected than ever.
When I was first starting Alchemy of Home, I used AI so much to help me ideate. I had all these ideas stuck in my head, and I could see them there perfectly, but they wouldn’t come out on the screen in front of me.
I’d describe the images, words and feelings I saw over and over, and Chat spit out amalgamations of what it thought I wanted, but it always came out sounding like a corny Reddit thread instead of the sparkling, magical ideas I thought I was having.
It made me second guess myself for months. It flattened my words and turned them into something digestible to an AI internet crawler. I genuinely spent months believing I was getting somewhere only to look at my work and not recognize a word of it.
The same applies to your home. AI is an algorithm and nothing more. It’s a good one, to be sure, but it’s not special. It’s not human. It doesn’t know you or care about you because it can’t.
You might walk away with a room that looks good on the surface, but there’s no substance underneath it — just an algorithmic assumption of what it thinks you want to see.
Ew, David.
Real rooms make us feel something. You have to pay attention to your life force, because it recognizes the difference between what’s alive and what’s lifeless.
AI Design Will Waste Your Money
The reason people turn to AI in the first place is because they don’t want to make decisions (which is high-key terrifying), and they feel like their life gets easier when they outsource seemingly mundane tasks.
But here’s the truth: That’s why you’re here in the first place.
If you’ve copied trends, tried to replicate Pinterest boards and ordered every new collection at Target, you’ve been outsourcing already, which is exactly why deciding for yourself feels hard.
You’ve already wasted time, energy and money relinquishing your decisions, and you’re about to do it again.
I know it might feel really neat to get a shopping list from Chat, order it all and then tell people, “Chat designed the room for me!” But you can’t act surprised later when it feels as boring and lifeless as it did before.
All AI roads lead back to the same place: wasted time, energy and money. Humans just know better. Humans contain multiverses inside of them that can’t be synthesized and captured by an algorithm.
AI feels like magic at first, but the real magic was always you.
How to Design Your Own Space (No AI)
The remedy to decision fatigue is not to outsource your creativity to AI but rather learn how to hone it yourself.
When you do, you become un-copiable. You develop your own style that endures. Your home becomes your central hub for beauty, peace and soul-connection — things every single one of us is craving.
So, here’s my advice: Ask a human.
I started doing free Room Audits a few weeks ago to help combat the AI outsourcing epidemic because nothing beats phoning a friend when you need a real ear (and eye) to help you out.
AI doesn’t (and can’t) hear subtext, but I can. I hear how your tone shifts when you describe what you like vs what you say is “okay,” but I can tell you lowkey hate.
I see how you rush past the corner you’re a little embarrassed about. I listen to how you describe what you’re feeling and can immediately tell what little shift will change the mood completely.
My audits are fast, free and completely human. Half the time, I’m going to tell you to get rid of things before you ever buy anything new, saving you money and grief chasing after the room that’s actually right under your nose.
I said earlier that I don’t compete with AI, and I meant it. If you’re someone determined to use it, knock yourself out.
I created the free room audits for the people who feel icky using AI in their home but don’t know where else to turn. I do them for the people who value human contact and cultivating a deeper connection to their own home.
I do these audits as a gentle reminder that you and your home are good enough, and cultivating your own style will only bring out more of you — not flatten who you are.
I absolutely love doing them because they’re easy and about as non-invasive as it gets. I don’t send your home’s data to some oligarch who can use it to target you later.
I take a quick peek at your space through a couple photos and a short video, then send you a personalized video right back with some ideas and suggestions you can implement right away.
I mean no offense, but it is truly batshit crazy 😵💫 to trust an AI over a human when it comes to deeply human feelings, but if you’re reading this, you might not know me yet and might not feel comfortable sending photos of your home!
That’s ok, pin this for later and think on it, or send me an email to hello@alchemy-of-home.com any time with your questions or concerns.
When you are ready, you can come right back here and book your free audit with me any time. I’d love to help you anti-AI design your space.
No matter your feelings on AI, it’s likely here to stay in some capacity, and it’s up to us to decide how we want to use it and how it impacts our personal lives.
I’d love to be the human to help make your home even more beautiful.
Thanks for reading.
Written from home,
Liz
As a holistic home stylist, I help overwhelmed homeowners and renters find their own personal style and decorate their homes to finally feel like them.
