The AI Image Generation Guide for Architects and Interior Designers.
The field of architecture and interior design is currently undergoing a major transformation thanks to the democratization of artificial intelligence (AI) in various professional practices, particularly in the ideation of new designs and their application in photos.
The harmonious balance between the aesthetics of a space and its functional use is now assisted by AI’s prowess, enhancing the efficiency, creativity, and output of projects.
As an architect or interior decorator, you always need to stand out in order to remain competitive and offer innovative solutions to your clients.
Imagine being able to propose an unlimited number of decoration ideas for a room almost instantly and with any design, provide a list of furniture to buy in no time for the favorite photo, or even help your clients envision themselves in a property under renovation.
Today, all this is possible thanks to new AI technologies. You might have already heard about them, which is probably why you are reading this article today. We know the topic is vast and often the content is still incomplete. We also know that many existing tools can provide “strange” or unusable results.
In this article, we will explore the subject by focusing on a specific use case: modifying the design of an interior photo using AI, and try to answer the question everyone is asking:
“How can I really use AI in my daily professional life?”
Image Generation and Modification by AI
AI is now advanced enough to generate a totally unique image from a text or an existing image. Just provide a precise written request with or without a photo to get back a completely new image or the original one, more or less modified according to your request.
1. Generalist Image Generation AIs
“Biophilic House Exterior. Biophilic architecture fuses natural elements and organic textures to craft tranquil spaces. “
This type of image generation AI includes what are called base models, technically capable of reproducing anything. Based on a “prompt” (a written request made to the AI), you will get an image in a few seconds that has been imagined by a computer.
The most popular image generation AIs are:
- MidJourney
- Dall-e-2 and Dall-e-3 by OpenAI
- Stable Diffusion
Although these AIs play a crucial role, their problem is that they are very generalist and it can take time and expertise to get a satisfying result that matches exactly what you have in mind.
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of an architect or interior decorator who needs to design a prompt to obtain a specific style of design: this can prove to be long and random with a generalist image generation AI that is not pre-configured for this use. Indeed, it will be difficult to manually describe a type of design very precisely because the perception of a style can be very subjective.
Moreover, another challenge for an architect or interior designer lies in modifying an image using AI. If, for example, you use a photo of an existing interior taken at a client’s place, it is important to be able to preserve the structural elements of the room during generation, such as walls, doors, windows, depth, etc.
However, generalist models often provide a result very different from the initial photo. To preserve the overall appearance of the room, necessary pre-configuration is needed before sending the image to the AI
2. Interior Design-Specific Image Generation AIs
The second type of image generation AI consists of different models specialized in specific needs. You can have AIs specialized in avatar generation, flyer creation, fashion photo editing. Here we will focus on AI specialized in interior design for architects and decorators.
During your research, you will find many AI tools that only use the generalist models mentioned above without really providing added value. It is therefore important to discern the tools that integrate and configure these AIs versus those that merely resell them.
InstantDecoAI is a tool using Stable Diffusion’s AI with advanced pre-configuration to process interior photos using AI.
Indeed, its model has been trained with photos of houses and apartments in several styles to best meet the needs of architects and designers, such as providing choices of trendy designs and enabling the preservation of the initial aspect of a room from a photo.
InterieurAI will also block certain parts of the photo to ensure that windows, doors, walls, and the depth of the room remain unchanged while redecorating the room or furnishing it.
Here are the different possibilities that the tool offers:
Redecorating a Photo with AI
This is the original photo added to our tool with the “Decoration” mode
We can now produce several decoration suggestions for this room, keeping the base of the current furniture but with different interior designs (here Zen style and modern style)
Adding Furniture to a Photo with AI
With this photo in our tool and the “Manual Retouching” mode, we can select the areas to be furnished
Here, we first added a sofa area, then a kitchen space
Complete Renovation of a Room Under Renovation by AI
The “Room Under Renovation (complete renovation)” option will allow us to bring about the most change automatically, aiming to have a space that is fully renovated
In these two results, the room under renovation has been renovated and transformed into a living room with a “Mid-Century Modern” and “Provencal” decoration
3. Customized AI with Your Own Designs and Furniture
Finally, let’s look at the third type of image generation AI, which is certainly the most interesting for an architect or interior designer, as it allows you to obtain a unique model customized with your own photos.
Indeed, you have the possibility to train your own AI model with your designs to generate similar results.
Practically, this means that you can teach an AI to reproduce your own style by providing it with about thirty photos of your creations. Based on what the AI has learned from your photos, it can then generate a similar design but with specificities you have specified in writing, or apply this design to an existing room photo
Example of an AI Specialized in a Specific Interior Design Style
Photos from the interior designer heju.fr used for training an artificial intelligence model.
Note: Model trained only for demonstration purposes and is not used in our tool
We can thus generate designs for living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, libraries, bathrooms, etc., that will be close to the design used during training
AI-Generated Results:
“a living room”
“a bed room”
“a kitchen”
Even more precisely, you can have it replicate a piece of furniture exactly by providing a few photos of it. You can then use our AI photo retouching tool to add your chair, sofa, or other furniture from your favorite brands to any photo in a few seconds
We are still working on our customized AI offering for designers and currently provide this service on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in trying this feature, please contact us directly by email.
Example of an AI Specialized in a Specific Piece of Furniture
Photos of a lounge chair from dwr.com used to train a specialized AI model
Note: Model trained only for demonstration purposes and is not used in our tool
AI-Generated Results:
“pastel blue for a startup coworking”
“sand yellow for a surf house”