(Credit: PCMag composite by Cole Kan; Getty Images)
If you're thinking about redecorating your home, ChatGPT's new image generator is a fantastic way to bring your ideas to life, especially when it comes to choosing paint.
ChatGPT can pull in colors from across the web—from Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams to newer brands like Clare—to show you how they'd look in your room. It's like putting your paint samples and Pinterest board in a blender.
Don't get me wrong, I love obsessing about paint choices and browsing the "colors of the year," but AI can help focus your efforts and develop your ideas faster. Here's how I did it.
How Many 'White' Options Can There Really Be?
ChatGPT's new image generator is open to free users, but I used a $20-per-month Plus account and the "GPT-4o" model. (Other AI image generators offer similar features.)
Starting with the basics, I asked ChatGPT to create a room with the two neutral colors I was considering for the trim, walls, and ceiling: Sherwin Williams "Alabaster" and Sherwin-Williams "Creamy." I asked it to put Alabaster on the trim and ceiling, and Creamy on the walls. I did not send it the links or specify the unique color codes; it pulled them on its own from the web and created this image.
(Credit: ChatGPT)"You'll get a gentle contrast that looks intentional and elegant — not too sharp, but still polished," ChatGPT says. "It’s perfect for classic, transitional, or cottage-style interiors."
If you haven't picked your colors yet, ChatGPT can also offer suggestions. It mentioned Sherwin-Williams "Greek Villa" could be an alternative. All three are popular off-white colors right now.
How would I choose? I asked ChatGPT to give me more information about why there are so many white color options, and how to pick between them. It synthesized information from blogs and websites and explained the so-called Light Reflective Value, or LRV, of each. This helped me rule out Greek Villa, which is technically whiter than the other two, so I felt confident sticking with my original picks.
(Credit: ChatGPT)Mix'n Match: Color Palette Ideas
Moving past the whites and onto colors, I sent ChatGPT the full palette of what I was considering ordering from Samplize, a company that makes sticker replicas of specific paint colors. I copy and pasted a screenshot of my cart into the chat window and asked for combination ideas.
"You’ve got a beautiful, earthy-meets-romantic palette here — warm neutrals, muted greens, soft pinks, and one moody blue," it told me. "There are tons of versatile ways to group them, depending on the mood you want in each room. Here are a few ideas."
ChatGPT can be a bit of a "yes" (wo)man, prompting one Redditor to note it might be too nice. Maybe it's moonlighting as a Samplize sales rep, but I'll take it.
(Credit: ChatGPT)It suggested combinations of colors for all areas of the home, such as an office, kitchen, and bathroom. It called its office idea an "Earthy Retreat," featuring white and sage green. Intrigued by that option, I asked it to "mock up #3, earthy retreat." Note that you can keep the conversation going even with very short responses like this. Agonizing over crafting the "perfect prompt" is often unnecessary.
It chose to do half the wall in one color, and half in another, which was somewhat of an error. It probably remembered me asking about that concept earlier, but I did not mean to say I wanted it in this specific image. Still, it gave me an idea of how it might look.
I also tried a blue version with this prompt: "Do Creamy and smoky azurite pair well? Mock up a wall that’s 3/4 creamy, with the last 1/4 at the top smoky azurite. Alabaster for trim and ceiling." I played with two different lighting options, a darker and lighter room. As an added bonus, it selected wood floor colors on its own, which could be a part of the design for me to consider later.
(Credit: ChatGPT)"Create a primary bedroom photo with Rojo Rust as the accent wall behind the bed, Creamy on the walls, and Alabaster ceiling/trim," I asked next.
The accent wall looked a little too dark red for me, so I swapped in a lighter color. You can easily make these adjustments, but it does take a few minutes for the images to load, possibly due to the overwhelming demand that CEO Sam Altman says is overloading OpenAI's servers. I also tried not to go crazy with image requests, knowing how much computational energy they require.
(Credit: ChatGPT)I considered removing the darker red from my cart, but I thought ChatGPT's version looked darker than the color on the Sherwin-Williams website, so I kept it in. As with all things AI, always double-check, and never take its output at face value.
When the sample arrived in real life, the color appeared more or less red depending on the light in the room. Sometimes it looked like ChatGPT's image and sometimes it resembled the Sherwin-Williams website. You can ask ChatGPT to adjust the lighting in the room to better simulate your real-life conditions, but it's always best to see it in person.
Your On-Call, Digital Michelangelo
Sadly, ChatGPT won't pick up a paintbrush or roller and do the job for you (yet), but it's a helpful ideation tool to make informed decisions throughout your renovation projects.
You can take this concept to the next level by uploading photos of your own home, like one one Redditor did to get redecorating ideas for a dated living room.
Is ChatGPT going to replace interior designers? That's the current hot take on social media. While there's a grain of truth to it since ChatGPT is such a helpful tool, it's a bit of a stretch. Since it's scraping the web for opinions and materials others have written about, it can create bland looks and generic designs, geared toward a mass-market audience.
A true designer can offer deeper personalization, with a dose of reality (pricing), perhaps inspired by the images you create in ChatGPT to get the conversation going.