Home Improvement
Boston-area interior designers are embracing the benefits of AI in their work — with a critical eye
Eva Barbier was overwhelmed with options while renovating her home office.
The “fairly large” third-floor space of her home in Newton’s 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. While Barbier had gathered pictures for inspiration, she wanted to give her interior designer, Jessie Sheehan of Jessie Sheehan Interiors, a stronger idea of what she was looking for.
“When I can see something installed, I can say I like it, or I don’t. But when I’m looking at various tiny swatches, it’s really hard to visualize them in the room,” said Barbier.
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 with beech trees. But still, Barbier wanted to see what it would look like.
“She just really wanted to make sure that the tree composition and the branches’ locations would look the best,” said Sheehan, who had the wallpaper installer, Jim Arena of Arena Wallpapering, draw branches on the wall with pencil to give Barbier a visual. “But she still couldn’t quite get her head wrapped around it.”
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.
“I 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,” said Sheehan. “Both the wallpaper installer and I sort of looked at each other and were like, ‘Oh wow … that’s good.’”
Barbier isn’t the only homeowner who has turned to AI for design help. According to a market research company S&S Insider, the AI interior design marketsize was worth $1.47 billion in 2024, and it’s 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’t prevent your next renovation from becoming a nightmare reminiscent of the 1986 Tom Hanks’ comedy, “The Money Pit.”
Barbier isn’t the only homeowner who has turned to AI for design help. According to a market research company S&S Insider, the AI interior design marketsize was worth $1.47 billion in 2024, and it’s 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’t prevent your next renovation from becoming a nightmare reminiscent of the 1968 Tom Hanks’ comedy, “The Money Pit.”
Barbier isn’t the only homeowner who has turned to AI for design help. According to a market research company S&S Insider, the AI interior design marketsize was worth $1.47 billion in 2024, and it’s 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’t prevent your next renovation from becoming a nightmare reminiscent of the 1968 Tom Hanks’ comedy, “The Money Pit.”
Lindy Lowney, of Lindy Lowney Design 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’s the size of a beach towel under a dining room table courtesy of ChatGPT.
“They’d send me a photo of a dining room, and the dining room chairs are missing legs,” said Lowney, who is based in Rhode Island.
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.
“Everything that we do is done with measurements, budgets, and codes, and that plays into safety, health, and your environment,” said Lowney. “A 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.”
Still, many designers are in favor of AI’s presence for creating simple visualizations. Vivian Robins of Arketa Design Studio 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’t always have the same innate ability.
“I feel that if anything, it can aid us in trying to get something to somebody quicker,” said Robins. “That’s our superpower, right? We see everything in our head. But that’s not a client’s superpower. So, we can drop that fabric onto a photograph of an existing chair that we’re reupholstering and be specific and tell [AI] it’s a vertical and horizontal repeat, so that the computer knows it’s not enlarging it on the existing fabric. But once you show that to the client, they’re like, ‘Oh, that looks awesome!’”
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’s spread.
“I think a lot of designers are seeing it as an enemy, like ‘it’s going to take my job.’ I do see a lot of resistance,” said Lulu Friedman of Didi Interiors + Architecture in Needham, who is openly embracing AI for some projects. “I think people think that it’s cheating. But I see it more as a tool to make designers better and more efficient.”
But for Barbier’s 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, she chose a piece by artist Hayley Mathewes to hang between the windows. With her home office finished, she is thrilled with the results. And when she’s not working or busy with her kids, she finds herself seeking out some quiet time in the peaceful oasis.
“I love it up here. It just makes me really happy. In the little spare time that I have, I like to draw and paint,” she said. “I will come up here and do all that creative thinking because it’s a very soothing and relaxing space for me.”
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