When I was little, I loved anything that was small and had to do with animals.
I had a dollhouse filled with miniature mice, dressed in ruffled aprons and bows.
I had a collection of pocket size horses.
And I had a boxed set of tiny books all about Peter Rabbit and his friends.
That was my favorite.
I would flip through the pages for hours, examining every small detail, thinking how magical it would be to live in such an enchanted place.
Well, fast forward to last week, when I came across a ton of similarly styled rooms in my Instagram feed and I had to find out what was going on.
Turns out it’s an AI trend. Just upload a photo of your home, and ask ChatGPT to make it look like a Beatrix Potter inspired illustration and voila.
Instant charming.
My intention was to try it out with just one photo, my daughter’s bedroom.
She’s a huge fan of that style and I thought it would be fun to show her where she would live, if she were a bunny.
I knew it would be cute, but honestly, I was blown away. It was the sweetest space. Much cuter than the real thing. So of course, I had to give the entire house the storybook treatment.
It was exciting, but also disappointing, because every room in my home looked so much more adorable, more polished, more quintessentially cottage style than they did in real life.
That silly AI program mastered what I had been trying to create for years, in minutes.
In the family room. Mine.
Versus theirs.
In the bedroom. Me.
Them.
And in the living room. Eh.
Totally fabulous.
Each illustration was dreamier than the next. Making my actual home seem cold and sterile.
And I know I shouldn’t have done it, because let’s face it, the wallpaper is never going back up – at least not that wallpaper – but I wanted to see what ChatGPT and its bedtime story inspired decorating magic had envisioned for that family room.
And wouldn’t you know it, it was perfect.
All that time spent in a shop, with a professional designer no less, and all I really needed was ChatGPT.
How depressing.
Now, I’m not a total sucker, I understand that the haze of a watercolor illustration and all those soft colors and muted tones have a way of romanticizing things.
The way the dimmer switches in my house, hide my wrinkles.
But that knowledge doesn’t make me like things in the light of day any better. I still try new creams, do face yoga.
Wear turtlenecks. Anything to get recapture that look.
And now I’m determined to do the same in my home, by adding a few of those illustrated touches to each room to warm them up.
Compliments of my new decorator.
No, I’ll not be getting any rabbits. I’ve been down that path before and it didn’t end well.
However, I might swap out my white curtain rods for wood toned ones.
Change up a table or two.
Hunt for different lamps and try, although it’s going to be difficult, to replicate some of those fabric accessories.
All in an effort to turn this tiny cottage into a warren of my very own.
A charming storybook cottage.
Circa 1902.
Thanks to an AI chatbot.
Circa now.
An unlikely, but delightful combination.
Wouldn’t you say?
☺️
Have you tried the Beatrix Potter inspired trend?
Happy Decorating, Friends!
