I built HomeDesign to explore home design ideas from real photos

Choosing a new look for a home is easier when you can see the idea on a photo of the space you already have.

I'm building HomeDesign, an AI web app for exploring interior, exterior, and floor-plan ideas. It starts from a room photo, a house photo, or an existing floor plan, so you can compare visual directions in your browser.

One feature I'd like to share with the DEV community is the Exterior Paint Visualizer. It turns a broad question—“What color should I paint my house?”—into a series of smaller decisions.

A concrete example: a blue door and sage green walls

Here's the workflow:

1. Upload a clear daylight photo of your house, or choose a sample house.
2. Choose one area, such as the front door, and pick a color.
3. Generate a preview and compare it with the image used for that step.
4. Select that result as the starting point for the next change—for example, trying sage green on the main walls.
5. Return to an earlier version if you want to explore another direction.

You can use preset colors, select a custom color, or enter a HEX value. If the target isn't in the area list, you can describe a visible part of the house, such as a porch column.

The product decision: one area at a time

For this tool, I chose a deliberately narrow interaction: one selected area and one color per generation.

That gives each preview a clear question to answer. Does a darker door work with the existing facade? Do lighter walls sit well beside the roof?

It also makes the next action easier to choose: continue from a result you like, or go back and try a different direction. The image history acts as a set of possible starting points, rather than a sequence you must follow.

There is still an AI limitation here: requesting a localized edit doesn't guarantee that everything else stays exactly the same. Comparing the result with its input is part of the workflow, especially when keeping a color from an earlier step.

Where HomeDesign fits

Alongside paint previews, HomeDesign has tools for AI interior design, AI exterior design, and exploring visual ideas from an existing floor plan.

The goal is to help people explore options before making a real-world decision. These images are visual references, not construction drawings or guarantees of a finished result.

For paint in particular, screen colors and generated images can't replace physical samples. Check real paint on the intended surface under different lighting before buying. The paint history is also session-based, so download useful previews before leaving the page.

I'd love feedback on the workflow

If you're interested in AI product UX or home design, you can explore HomeDesign here, or go straight to the paint visualizer. Generated previews use credits; pricing is available on the site.

What would make this workflow more useful to you: easier comparison between alternatives, more precise area selection, or a different way to build a color scheme?

I'm particularly interested in how other developers handle the gap between a simple editing interface and the uncertainty of AI-generated results.