I’m searching for an AI-powered decorating app to help redesign my living room, but I’m overwhelmed by the options online. I’d love suggestions from people who’ve tried these apps and can share which ones actually work well. I need something easy to use and accurate for visualizing furniture and color changes.
Redecorating your living room with an AI app sounds futuristic until you’ve spent an hour convincing the app that, no, you don’t own three neon beanbags and a zebra rug. I’ve tried a few, so here’s the harsh truth in rapid-fire:
- Havenly – Pretty solid if you want to work with human designers too, but their “AI” suggestions sometimes miss the mark (hello, velvet chaise in the kitchen??).
- DecorMatters – Fun to play with, has a drag-and-drop vibe, but don’t expect miracle-level results. The AR tries—bless its heart—but my couch ended up floating.
- Homestyler – Clunky UI, but if you stick with it, the suggestions get better. Not the fastest, and forget about getting white balance right in your pics.
- RoomGPT – Cheap thrills if you want to see your room redrawn in six themes—some weird picks, though (one suggested “Y2K cyber lounge” for my farmhouse).
- Houzz – The app’s “View in My Room” is more AR than AI but gives you a broad swath of product options. If you already browse Houzz, worth a shot.
All said and done, these apps are great for inspiration, but comically bad at understanding clutter, cords, or the awkward angles in a regular not-Instagram house. In the end, I found they’re best for daydreaming and (maybe) color-picking, but if you want a true redesign, nothing beats just moving your own dang furniture around fifty times until something clicks.
Save your sanity, use them for moodboards—and keep your wallet handy, because suddenly every app wants to sell you a $900 lamppost “perfect for the space.”
Oh man, @nachtdromer really nailed the chaos of these AI apps. I’ll just add this: Out of all the ones I’ve used (and hate-downloaded at 2AM looking for miracle paint colors), I keep hearing people recommend “Planner 5D” as the savior of home re-design, so I caved and tried it. It’s a bit more DIY than “magic AI” inspiration, and yeah, you’ll still get some hilariously bad interpretations of what a “contemporary rustic” means (think: a single hay bale in the corner and a literal log as a coffee table…bruh). But, it does let you measure your real space, add actual furniture dimensions, and view it all in not-awful 3D. Not completely AI-driven, but it keeps you grounded and realistic—none of those “growing a jungle under your TV” suggestions.
Worth noting though: most of the so-called AI apps are really just fancy moodboard factories. None of them can truly understand that your weirdly-angled corner is not structurally sound for a custom aquarium bookshelf (props for creativity, DecorMatters), or that pets and toddlers = no white velvet ANYTHING. Also, if you have clutter (and who doesn’t), these apps treat all your “stuff” like it’s invisible. So while you may think, “Wow, my living room could look this sleek!”—that’s only if you toss half your life in a storage unit.
I actually disagree with the idea that all these apps are just for daydreaming, though. I used Planner 5D mostly for planning out traffic flow (seriously, major marriage-saver) and testing if the new sofa would actually fit—way better than mental geometry. But ya, don’t expect them to be your one-stop solution. They’re more like paint swatches: useful, not magic.
Last tip: If you want an ACTUAL AI-based approach, try something like InteriorAI (their web tool, not an app, but works similar to RoomGPT except the styles aren’t quite as left-field). You upload a pic, pick a style, and get a redone version in seconds… but sometimes the AI will add dramatic windows where you have…well, a wall.
In short: test a few, lower your expectations, use them as rough guides, and embrace the chaos. And FWIW, those $900 lamps? Ikea exists for a reason.
Anyone else notice AI design apps are like that friend who swears they “see your vision,” then suggests a strobe light and cowhide wallpaper for your “cozy retreat”? Anyway, after reading the earlier commentary, I want to throw in Planner 5D again—but with a realistic angle. Pros: you actually get a sense of true scale (dragging in your actual 8-foot sectional means it’ll finally fit, not float in purgatory like in DecorMatters), and the 3D models are decent—not showroom-perfect, but not Sims-level jank either. Plus, you can tweak layouts and view walkthroughs, which helps with spatial stuff more than the “paint-over-my-room” AI apps.
Cons? It’s not really “set-it-and-forget-it” AI—imagine more IKEA planning tool than Jetsons magic. You’ll still need to manually build your room and tweak settings. AI suggestions are basic, so don’t expect it to recognize your taste for mid-century funk without some handholding. Competing approaches like Houzz or RoomGPT (nice shoutouts above) might give faster pretty pictures but won’t check the realities of door swing or pet chaos, and Homestyler is just too slow for my patience.
Hot tip: treat all these apps as rough drafts. None will clean up your cables or rescue a beige carpet covered in kid drawings. But if Planner 5D keeps the “will my new chair block the entryway” fights minimal, that’s a win in my book. If you want pure “dream and meme” rooms, those quick-AI options are a laugh. For practical layout-solving, though, give Planner 5D a shot…but keep your expectations beneath the price of that unicorn lamp.