RoomGPT — Your Personal AI Interior Designer

Imagine: you've moved into a new apartment or just want to refresh your space, but you don't know how to best arrange the furniture. Hiring a designer is expensive, and 3D visualizations in specialized software require time to learn. This is exactly the problem RoomGPT solves — an open-source project that uses artificial intelligence for instant interior transformations.

What Is This Project?

RoomGPT is a web application built on Next.js that lets you upload a photo of any room and receive several redesign options. Under the hood, it runs the ControlNet model, which specializes in image generation while preserving the structure of the original photo.

Fun fact: the current version on GitHub is the original open-source implementation, which later evolved into a commercial SaaS product (roomGPT.io). But unlike the paid service, there are no restrictions on the number of requests — only technical API limits.

Key Features

1. Instant Idea Visualization Upload a photo — within a few seconds you get 3-4 design options. Perfect when you need to quickly sketch out different styles.

2. Works with Any Room Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens — the model adapts to different room types. The key is a clear photo with good lighting.

3. Easy Integration Ready-to-use Next.js project with minimal dependencies. Deploy locally or on Vercel in a couple of clicks.

4. Flexible Settings Want to limit the number of requests? Connect Redis via UpStash. Need different image storage? Replace Bytescale with your own service.

How It Works Technically

The project architecture is quite simple:

1. The user uploads an image through the Next.js interface
2. The frontend sends the photo to an API route
3. The server uses the Replicate API to run the ControlNet model
4. Results are stored in Bytescale (or another storage service)
5. The user receives the generated room options

Core technologies:

• Next.js for frontend and API routes
• ControlNet (via Replicate) as the ML model
• Bytescale for image storage
• UpStash Redis for rate limiting (optional)

Practical Applications

Who will this project be especially useful for:

• Developers learning ML model integration in web applications
• Interior designers for rapid prototyping of ideas
• Realtors to show clients the potential of empty spaces
• Airbnb owners for testing different furnishing options

Interesting use case: one user adapted the code for office space visualization, helping employees choose the optimal workstation arrangement.

How to Get Started

You can deploy the project in three ways:

1. Locally (you'll need a Replicate API key):

   git clone https://github.com/Nutlope/roomGPT
   npm install
   npm run dev
   

2. Via Vercel (one-click deployment):

3. Customizing for your needs — the project uses MIT license, so you can freely adapt it for commercial products.

Pros and Cons

✅ Advantages:

• Ease of use (the interface is minimalistic and intuitive)
• Good generation quality for quick prototypes
• Open source code allows customization for your needs

⚠️ Limitations:

• Requires a Replicate API key (free tier has limits)
• The model sometimes "imagines" non-existent furniture
• No fine-grained style control (in this version)

Verdict: Is It Worth Trying?

RoomGPT is a great example of how modern ML technologies can solve specific practical problems. The project is especially useful for:

• Fullstack developers who want to learn about working with diffusion models
• Entrepreneurs in the interior design space (as a foundation for SaaS)
• Anyone who needs to quickly visualize redesign ideas

If you've been wanting to try something at the intersection of web and generative AI — this repository is the perfect starting point. And most importantly — you don't need to start from scratch, everything is ready to launch.

Interface screenshot: