A few days ago I had a little play with the app PhotoRoom and the beautiful green portrait by Robert Godelier.

 

I thought it would be interesting to ask the app to style the portrait within a bookshelf setting, simply so we could imagine what bringing it home might feel like. I was also curious to see how AI would respond to styling a painting rather than a room.

Well, after many attempts, I think I can safely say something rather reassuring.

You style far better. And so do I!

The AI-generated versions were visually pleasing enough at first glance, but after a while they all began to feel strangely similar — over-balanced, trend-led, a little too perfect. Beautiful perhaps, but emotionally flat. The rooms looked styled in the way a showroom is styled: polished, coordinated, finished. Besides you couldn't even read the book titles on the spines! (maybe slightly better with the plants?)

But truly wonderful interiors rarely feel finished....or if they do it's a kind of lived in finished.

They feel layered, intuitive and slightly unexpected.

I think when you are styling you think about entirely different things and not always consciously. Not simply colour palettes and “statement lighting”, but where the eye comes to rest, how the light falls across a shelf at four in the afternoon, what feels collected rather than purchased, what makes somebody instinctively want to stay in the room a little longer.

Taste lives in subtleties AI still struggles to understand.

A lampshade slightly too large somehow becoming charming.
The tension between rough and refined.
The confidence to leave empty space.
A chipped ceramic bowl beside something precious.
Books that lean imperfectly.
Objects that carry emotional residue and memory.

For those of us who love antiques and soulful homes, the difference becomes even more obvious because beautiful interiors are rarely created from perfection. They are created from instinct, patina, personal narrative and the slow layering of a life.

And that thought led me towards something else entirely.

Yesterday I gave a short talk for the Smart Works Confidence code event at Grantley Hall about confidence and how I find it myself. I am certainly not confident in every area of life, but there is one thing I continue to do that I suspect many adults have quietly stopped doing.

I play.

Not competitive play.
Not play with an outcome attached. 
Just experimentation without pressure.

And perhaps that is exactly why we humans style better than AI.

Because play allows for surprise.

When you remove the stress of getting something “right”, creativity begins to appear. Much like it did in childhood. Through play comes discovery, and through discovery comes originality and creativity.

Styling works in exactly the same way.

Take a recipe you have cooked a hundred times. Change one herb. Add a different spice. You may create something entirely new and unexpectedly delicious.

A bookshelf is no different.

Move one object. Remove another. Turn the books horizontally instead of vertically. Add something old beside something polished. Keep adjusting. Keep noticing. Keep playing.

The people who style most beautifully are rarely the people following strict rules. They are usually the people who have given themselves permission to experiment.

And another thing I truly believe is this:

Play does not need to consume huge amounts of time.

Of course, it is wonderful when you become completely absorbed in something , nothing better than forgetting the hour entirely , but creativity often arrives in tiny moments. Ten minutes rearranging a corner table. Five minutes moving a lamp. A quick attempt that quietly changes the atmosphere of a room.

Here is the painting I styled on a simple shelf in 2 minutes. Just enough time to find two little vases and cut a few flowers from the garden.

Homes really gather soul gradually- through your collections, things that have made you smile, souvenirs and memories. That's what AI lacks- it's emotionally flat and lacks history, your history and yous story.

Homes gather soul not through perfection, but through curiosity...through play. So keep on styling and experimenting. don't forget to PLAY, PLAY, PLAY.