The Missing Pulse in AI Interiors
It’s not about the scalloped moulding, the arched doorways or the concealed fridges.
I have shared my thoughts about AI interiors before, and even though I wrote my grumpiest post on the topic just four months ago, the stream of gauzy, artificial images online has since surged into an inescapable tsunami. As someone who has worked in the Home & Garden lifestyle category for over a decade, this swell of polished and other-worldly AI designs helped me appreciate just how much I enjoy seeing and studying the imperfect and cobbled together parts of real homes.
In recent years I’ve largely avoided spending time absorbed in interior-based digital content. But when I inevitably encounter the genre, I still regard the handmade, wonky, repurposed and flat-out weird parts of homes with genuine curiosity and pleasure. It’s the funny little homespun details that demonstrate our capacity for creativity and ingenuity, and offer glimpses into our human experience and personalities.
These one-of-a-kind, lovingly tailored moments within a home can communicate much about the inhabitants and daily life within a particular household, and that’s what gives design a pulse. For me, perusing a patinaed space crafted with intention and resourcefulness feels like walking through a fascinating museum exhibition.
During the height of my unusual career in small space consulting, the were many discussions about the possibility of my business expanding into product design and licensing. At first it seemed like a decent idea— I could offer clever solutions for compact homes to help people find more comfort within their limited square footage! But every avenue we explored was so profoundly wasteful across manufacturing, packaging and transportation that I stopped pursuing the concept. (Although I must admit that every time I visit an uncomfortable and cramped hospital room I am tempted to pivot my business to focus on improving the patient experience through thoughtful small space design.) Now, when I’m served interiors online — whether the images are genuine or AI-generated — I am so profoundly over all of the freshly manufactured pieces that I thank my lucky stars I never produced a line of my own. Because trends and collections of apartment sized goods aren’t what make a small space clever and beautiful.
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