IDD Newsletter October 23 '26 - Ana vs. AI: I think I’m finally ready to meet it halfway.

Hi there, designer 👋

🎧 No time to read? Listen instead. 

LISTEN TO THE VOICE MEMO

Okay. I think it’s finally time we talk about AI.

And if you’ve been around here for a while, you probably already know I haven’t exactly been the first person running toward it with open arms. 😂

Actually, last fall I started pulling away from social media partly because every time I opened Instagram I was thinking:

What the hell is actually going on?!

My feed was FILLED with AI-generated interiors EVERYWHERE!!! Entire designer pages full of them.  And half the time I didn’t even know what I was looking at anymore. Was this a real project? A rendering? AI?

Could any of it actually be built? And yes… we can tell.

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but initially I found the whole thing pretty discouraging.

Especially for someone who I went to design school & still has student loans to pay off..YIKES! I’ve spent almost 15 years working in this industry. I’ve spent thousands of hours learning how spaces actually come together - 3d renderings, drawings, details, materials, construction, contractors, clients, mistakes… all of it!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! (Actually screaming)

So watching someone generate 30 beautiful-looking interiors in an afternoon by typing a few sentences into a box? Yup....big slap in the face!

So my reaction was basically: I’m not fighting this one. I entirely stepped back. (Plus I have more beef with Instagram's algorithm which is a coversation for another day...)

And honestly, the newsletter became my quieter little corner of the internet..I found comfort here! Designers were reading, emailing me behind the scenes, asking questions, and those conversations felt much more meaningful than trying to compete with whatever Instagram wanted..

But behind the scenes, something else was happening.

Interior Design Den sales were slowing down.

And I knew I couldn’t ignore what was happening forever.

IDD had been built largely around teaching SketchUp, Enscape and AutoCAD. So if AI could suddenly create visuals in seconds…

Where did that leave rendering? Where did that leave Enscape?

Where did that leave me? For a while, I genuinely didn’t know....

And then there was another thing bothering me…

Something you may or may not know about me is that I’m fairly environmentally conscious. I’m certainly not perfect. I actually give a damn!

I’m not naturally a wasteful person, and I do think about consumption and resources. So naturally, I started reading about AI’s environmental footprint too. And those numbers are difficult for me to completely ignore...

A 2026 United Nations University report projects that by 2030, the water footprint associated with AI-related data-center electricity use could reach 9.3 trillion liters - roughly equal to the basic annual domestic water needs of 1.3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I remember thinking:

Am I the crazy one here?

We’re carrying reusable water bottles while generating 47 AI versions of ourselves because we can’t decide which outfit looks better? 

Okayyyyyyyyyy. I’ll save that rant for another day.

But it did bring me back to one word that means a lot to me: INTENTION.

Maybe the answer isn’t pretending AI doesn’t exist.

Maybe the question is:

Where does AI actually help us enough that using it makes sense?

So…I was like alright...lemme try this! So I started experimenting.

And holy sh*t I hated it 😂

I started taking actual SketchUp models from my projects and running them through AI rendering tools...and it was a total disaster! 

I would say:

Don’t change my design.

It changed my design.

Keep my exact camera angle.

Camera angle changed.

Don’t touch the cabinetry style or finish.

Completely different cabinets! 😂

Three hours later I’m literally sitting there arguing with a bot thinking:

Dear Lord. I could have rendered this in Enscape two hours ago.

Because with SketchUp + Enscape, I have control. That wall is where I put it. That material is what my client approved. That cabinet is the size I specified. There is a real client on the other side of that rendering.

We’re not just making fantasy interiors for Instagram.

We’re designing actual homes. And this is still where I stand firmly and will take this to the grave:

Interior designers need real skills.

AI doesn’t eliminate the need to understand space planning, proportion, materials, documentation, construction, 3D modeling or design intent.

A beautiful AI image is not the same thing as a resolved interior design.

Interior design is problem solving!!!!!!!!!!!

And no amount of pretty imagery changes that.

BUT…you guys started changing my mind a bit..

I started talking to other designers about this. And over and over I heard:

“Ana, I’m still building everything in SketchUp.”

“But I don’t want to spend all that time rendering anymore.”

And internally I was like: NOOOOOOOO 😂

But after hearing it enough times, I had to stop defending what I preferred and actually listen to the designers...

And they weren’t telling me: “I don’t need design skills anymore.”

They were saying: “I still need an accurate SketchUp model. I just want a faster way to get from the 3d model to a realistic visual.”

And that’s different. That was probably when I realized:

Maybe I’ve been fighting the wrong part of this..

Around the same time, an AI visualization company reached out and asked if I would test their platform. My initial reaction? Nope.. 😂

But eventually I got on a call with them.

The person I spoke with happened to be an architect, and we ended up talking about many of the same concerns - accuracy, control, real projects, and the difference between creating something pretty and actually designing something buildable. And he said something that stuck with me:

If AI can responsibly cut down some production time for architects and designers, rendering may be one of the places where it genuinely makes sense. 

So where am I today?

I’m experimenting. I’m testing this platform. I’m learning learning how to prompt. I’m trying different SketchUp-to-AI workflows. And I’m asking one question:

Does this actually make a working interior designer’s life easier?

Not: Is AI trendy?

Not: Will this get me more Instagram views?

Not: Is everybody else teaching it?

Because I’m not adding AI to Interior Design Den simply because everyone else is doing it...Sorry!! 😂

That’s just not how I work. But if I can find a workflow where you:

build the project properly in SketchUp → maintain your design intent → use AI selectively & intentionally → create a useful visual faster

then I’m willing to meet you halfway...

And no - my Enscape course isn’t disappearing.

I still believe designers should know how to produce accurate, controlled renderings when a project calls for them.

But maybe the answer isn’t:

Enscape OR AI.

Maybe it’s:

Enscape AND AI - depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

And I think that’s becoming a much bigger part of where Interior Design Den is heading too & that is part of pivoting...

Learn the skill. Understand the process. Then use technology intentionally to make yourself more efficient.

I’m currently testing this AI workflow before I decide whether it deserves to become a bonus inside my SketchUp course.

And if you’re already one of my SketchUp students, yes - if I eventually add it, you’ll get it too. But first? I need to believe it’s actually useful.

So where do I stand on AI today? Probably 50/50.

Maybe 55/45 on a good day. 😂

I’m not Team AI. But I’m also no longer Team Pretend-It-Doesn’t-Exist.

I’m curious. And I think curiosity is probably a much better place to be than resistance. Because I don’t believe AI replaces a good interior designer.

Our clients don’t hire us simply to generate beautiful images.

They hire us to listen. To understand how they live. To solve problems they sometimes don’t even know how to articulate.

And that part? That’s still very human and that's not going away.

So apparently…Ana vs. AI is becoming Ana + AI… with boundaries.

We’ll see how this goes… because trust me, I have a feeling this conversation is just getting started! 😂

Ana 🌸
Interior Design Den

P.S. I recorded another Studio Voice Memo for this one too. If you’d rather listen to me talk through all of this instead of reading it 🎧