How to Restyle a Furnished Room with AI: Choosing the Right Tool

Restyling a furnished room with AI means changing what is already in the photo: the style of every piece, the purpose of the room, a single item, or only its color. In Roomagen each of those is a different tool, and the wrong one wastes a run.

Quick answer:

• New style for everything, same layout: Keep Layout, on our redesign a furnished room page.
• A different use for the room, such as bedroom to home office: Convert Room, on our Room Repurpose page.
• Replace one piece in the photo: Replace Furniture (Swap Furniture & Objects). Mark the piece, then describe or upload what should take its place.
• Same piece, new color, fabric or finish: Furniture Facelift.
• A new piece where there is none: Add Piece (add furniture or objects to a photo).
• A change you describe in words: the Design Companion (AI Design Chat).

A standard run costs 2 credits and usually finishes in under a minute. Below are each tool's settings, how to chain the tools, the costs, what to disclose in listings and rental ads, and photo tips.

When to Use Each Restyle Tool: Decision Guide

On the dashboard, Keep Layout and Convert Room are modes of the Virtual Staging card, while Replace Furniture and Add Piece have cards of their own.

Three Questions to Pick the Right Tool

1. Should the room keep its purpose? If not, use Convert Room.
2. Are you changing everything or one piece? Everything: Keep Layout. One piece: Replace Furniture or Furniture Facelift.
3. A different piece, or the same piece with a new surface? A different piece: Replace Furniture. The same piece in another color, fabric or finish: Furniture Facelift.

If something is missing rather than wrong, use Add Piece. To arrange the furniture differently, see the section on rearranging below.

Typical Uses by Industry

Keep Layout: Restyle the Whole Room Without Moving Anything

Keep Layout is a mode of Virtual Staging, and our redesign a furnished room page opens it directly. It restyles the furniture and decor already in the photo, in place: a sofa against the left wall stays a sofa against the left wall, now in the style you pick. It does not ask for a room type.

What Changes and What Stays

The tool instructs the image model as follows.

Changes:

• The materials, colors, upholstery, finish and silhouette of every movable piece of furniture and decor, so the new style is obvious even when the room already leans toward it
• Loose everyday clutter, such as toys, cups, papers and cables, which is cleared rather than restyled
• Walls and floor, but only if you switch them on

Stays the same:

• Camera position, framing and perspective
• Each piece's type, position, footprint and approximate size; nothing new is added and no furniture is removed
• Walls and floor (unless switched on), the ceiling, windows, doors and built-ins
• Ceiling and wall light fixtures, fans, the lighting and the view through the windows
• TVs, computers, screens and any text in the photo

These are instructions to a generative model, not guarantees. Compare the result with your original before you use it, paying attention to window frames, built-ins and small decor.

Settings

• Style (required): one of 13 styles: Modern, Scandinavian, Minimalist, Industrial, Traditional, Farmhouse, Mid-Century Modern, Coastal, Luxury, Bohemian, Japandi, Art Deco and Mediterranean.
• Change wall color to match style and Change flooring to match style: two switches on the style step. Both start off, so the walls and floor stay as they are unless you turn them on.

Step by Step

1. Open redesign a furnished room and upload the photo, or pick one from your Library.
2. Choose a style.
3. Leave the wall and floor switches off unless the walls or floor should follow the new style.
4. Confirm. Keep Layout renders at 2K and costs 2 credits.
5. Compare the before and after on the result screen, then download.

Tip: Run the same photo in three or four styles and keep the results in one Library folder for a client or listing presentation. In NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Staging, 32% of buyers' agents said staging would positively affect a home's value if it was decorated to match buyers' tastes, and agents rated the living room (37%) and primary bedroom (34%) as the most important rooms to stage for buyers, so they are a good place to start.

Convert Room: Turn a Bedroom into a Home Office

Convert Room, on our Room Repurpose page, changes what the room is for. The tool is told to replace the existing furniture with furniture for the room type you choose, and to keep the walls, windows, doors, built-ins and framing of the photo.

Settings

• Room type (required): living room, bedroom, kids room, studio, kitchen, dining room, home office, dressing room, laundry room, bathroom, hallway, entryway, balcony, terrace or garage.
• Furniture: Let AI Decide, or Choose Manually to pick the pieces yourself from a list for that room type. For a home office, the list includes a desk, bookshelf, desk lamp and filing cabinet, among others.
• Change wall color to match style and Change flooring to match style: both off by default.
• Style (required): the same 13 styles as Keep Layout.

Common Conversions

Step by Step

1. Open Room Repurpose (Convert Room in the app) and upload the photo.
2. Choose the new room type.
3. Choose Let AI Decide or Choose Manually, and set the wall and floor switches.
4. Choose a style and confirm. Like Keep Layout, Convert Room renders at 2K for 2 credits.
5. Check that the windows, doors and built-ins match the original.

Real estate tip: For a bonus room or small second bedroom, run Convert Room with two or three room types to show the options. Label each image as virtually staged and keep the original next to it.

Replace Furniture: Swap One Piece in a Photo

Replace Furniture, on our Swap Furniture & Objects page, is the tool for "replace the furniture in this photo" when you mean one sofa, not the whole room. You mark the piece, and the AI is told to replace only what you marked and to leave everything else as it is.

The Marking Screen

Since October 1, 2026, Replace Furniture has used the same marking screen as Add Piece and the removal tools. It has a brush and an eraser in three sizes, undo and redo, and zoom (+, a pinch or Ctrl + scroll). Press and hold to see the photo without your mark. The screen shows how much of the photo you have marked, warns when a mark is very small or very large, and keeps your mark when you go back a step.

Settings

• Mark (required): paint over the whole piece.
• What should replace it? (optional, but without words or a photo the AI has to guess): your own words, such as "a light oak sideboard with brass handles", or one of 12 quick picks: sofa, armchair, coffee table, dining table, rug, bed linen, lamp, shelf or cabinet, mirror, wall art, plant and TV.
• A photo of the piece (optional): a product photo works best, not a photo of a whole room. If you give both words and a photo, the AI is told to follow your words where the two disagree.

Marking Tips

• Cover the whole piece, including legs, cushions and its shadow. A little overlap is fine.
• For small things, zoom in and use the small brush.
• Don't paint over neighboring pieces unless they should change too.

Step by Step

1. Open Swap Furniture & Objects and upload the photo.
2. Mark the piece.
3. Describe the replacement, tap a quick pick or add a product photo.
4. Confirm: 2 credits at 2K, or 4 credits at 4K on the Pro and Business plans.
5. Check the edges and shadows around the new piece.

Product accuracy: The replacement is generated, not pasted in. The AI is told to match the style, color, material and proportions of your reference photo, but details such as stitching, handles or wood grain can differ. Check them before you use the image to sell a product.

Furniture Facelift: Recolor, Reupholster or Refinish a Piece

Furniture Facelift is a single tool you open from its page; it is not on the dashboard. It changes the surface of a piece, and it is told to keep the piece's shape, size and position and to leave the rest of the room alone.

Settings and Limits

• Change type: Recolor (the default), Refabric or Refinish.
• Target color: a color picker, which starts at white.
• No marking step: the AI applies the change to the most prominent piece of furniture in the photo, so the tool works best when one piece dominates the frame.
• No fabric choice: Refabric takes a color, not a material. For "the same sofa in green velvet", or for one piece in a busy room, use Replace Furniture, mark the piece and describe it.

A Facelift run costs 2 credits, the same as every other tool. Check that the shape, legs and seams of the result match the original.

Designer tip: When a client likes a piece's shape but not its color, run Facelift in two or three colors and compare the results side by side in your Library.

Add Piece: Put New Furniture Where You Mark

Add Piece, on our add furniture or objects to a photo page, puts a new item where you mark. Since October 1, 2026, it has asked what is in the marked spot now, so the AI no longer has to guess whether to keep, swap or build on what is there. An earlier version of this guide described automatic placement without a mark; the app requires a mark.

Step by Step

1. Mark the spot where the piece should stand, hang or sit. Mark the footprint it should take up, not a tiny dot.
2. Answer "What is in the marked spot now?" This is required, and nothing is preselected:
   • Empty floor or wall: the new piece stands on the floor or hangs on the wall.
   • A piece I want to replace: the old piece goes and the new one takes its place.
   • On top of furniture: a bed, table or shelf stays, and the item sits on it, such as bed linen on a bed or a lamp on a side table.
3. Say what to add in one of three ways: one of the same 12 quick picks, your own words, or a photo of the piece.
4. Confirm. A run costs 2 credits and usually takes under a minute.

Best For

• Furniture retailers and e-commerce teams: a product in a real room, from its product photo. The piece is regenerated rather than copied, so check proportions and details.
• Designers, stagers and hosts: a proposed purchase in a client's room, or an accent piece such as a lamp, plant or rug in a sparse room (label it in a listing).

Can AI Rearrange the Furniture in a Photo?

Not by dragging pieces around: Keep Layout keeps every piece where it is on purpose, and no tool is built to move a piece from one wall to another. These routes work instead:

• A new layout chosen by the AI: empty the room with Empty Your Space (Empty Room in the app, which first asks what kind of space it is), then furnish it again with AI virtual staging, using Let AI Decide or Choose Manually. Virtual Staging results can be refined: you type one correction of up to 500 characters, and each refine becomes a new version that costs the same as a run.
• One piece in a new place: remove it with Remove Item (object & item removal), then mark the new spot with Add Piece. The re-added piece is generated again, so it will look similar rather than the same; a product photo of it helps.
• Changes in plain words: ask the Design Companion. Each edit builds on the previous result and costs 2 credits, while questions and advice are answered free. Results vary, so check the walls, windows and doors after each edit.

Combining Tools: The Complete Restyle Workflow

You can chain the tools. On the upload step, pick the previous result from "My recent results", or choose it under "My Results" when you pick from your Library, and run the next tool on it. If the original photo is in a Library folder, each result made from it is filed there automatically, so the versions of a project stay together.

Example 1: Living Room Makeover (Designer or Homeowner)

1. Keep Layout: restyle the dated traditional furniture as Mid-Century Modern, with the wall switch on.
2. Replace Furniture: the new coffee table looks too boxy, so mark it and ask for "a round walnut coffee table with tapered legs".
3. Furniture Facelift: see the sofa in deep teal with Recolor if the sofa is the most prominent piece; otherwise use Replace Furniture with "the same sofa in deep teal".
4. Add Piece: mark the empty corner, choose "Empty floor or wall" and add "a brass arc floor lamp".

That is four runs, or 8 credits.

Example 2: Bedroom to Home Office for a Listing

1. Convert Room: Home office, Modern style, with the wall and floor switches off.
2. Add Piece: mark the right-hand wall, choose "Empty floor or wall" and add a bookshelf.
3. Replace Furniture: mark the desk and ask for "a white desk with slim metal legs".
4. Publish the image labeled as virtually staged, with the original photo next to it.

Example 3: A Product in a Customer's Room (E-Commerce)

1. Replace Furniture: in a customer's or showroom room photo, mark the current sofa and add your sofa's product photo.
2. Run it again with another product photo, or with words, for each colorway.
3. Check proportions and details against the real product before publishing.

Chaining Order

Work from broad to narrow: there is no point recoloring a sofa that the next step replaces. Keep chains short, because every pass generates the image again and small details such as outlets, frames and artwork can drift a little with each run. Compare the final result with the original photo, not only with the previous step.

Costs, Speed and Restyling Many Photos

• Per run: 2 credits for every restyle tool and for each Design Companion edit, and a run usually takes under a minute. Keep Layout and Convert Room render at 2K. Replace Furniture and Add Piece can render at 4K on Pro and Business for 4 credits. Failed runs are refunded automatically.
• Free plan: 6 one-time credits (three runs), no card, watermarked output and results kept for 3 days.
• Paid plans: Starter costs $12 a month (60 credits), Pro $29 (200 credits) and Business $79 (700 credits), which works out to $0.23–$0.40 per image. Yearly billing costs ten times the monthly price, and unused subscription credits roll over, up to one month's allowance.
• Batch processing: on paid plans, you can run Keep Layout or Convert Room on several photos at once: 3 (Starter), 7 (Pro) or 20 (Business) per batch, with one tool and one style per batch and a room type per photo for Convert Room. Each batch gets its own Library folder with live progress and a "Download all (ZIP)" button, and photos that fail are refunded. Replace Furniture and Add Piece need a mark on every photo, so they run one photo at a time.
• Library storage: results are kept for 30 days on Starter, 180 days on Pro and with no time limit on Business, so download the versions you need to keep.
• API: developers can run Keep Layout and Convert Room through the public API's virtual-staging tool, using the restyle or recreate mode. The first key includes 50 free images; see the Virtual Staging API.

Disclosure: Using Restyled Photos in Listings and Ads

A restyled photo shows furniture that is not in the room, so in property marketing it counts as an altered image:

• California AB 723 (in force since January 1, 2026) defines a digitally altered image as one changed with photo editing software or AI "to add, remove, or change elements", naming "fixtures, furniture, appliances, flooring, walls, paint color" among them. A licensee's sale ad must carry a statement on or next to the image and a link, URL or QR code to the original. Lighting, color correction, straightening and cropping alone don't count, as long as they don't change how the property is represented.
• California AB 2025 brings a similar disclosure to rental ads from January 1, 2027, and it covers housing providers and others who advertise rentals, not only licensees.
• MLS rules go further. CRMLS requires a label such as "virtually staged" or "digitally altered" in the photo description and the original immediately before or after the altered image; it does not require a watermark or label on the image itself. Violations bring a warning, then a $250 fine if not corrected. It also says users cannot add, remove or modify real parts of a property, such as wall color, flooring or cabinets. NorthstarMLS's best-practice guidance allows virtual staging only for personal property such as furniture and décor, and asks for an unaltered "before" image of each altered room.

What this means in practice:

1. For listing photos, leave Change wall color to match style and Change flooring to match style off and restyle only furniture and decor. Keep wall and floor changes for conversations with buyers or clients.
2. Keep every original, and publish it next to the restyled version where your MLS asks for it.
3. Label each restyled image the way your MLS requires: CRMLS wants the label in the photo description field, while NorthstarMLS's guidance also accepts it on the photo itself.

NAR's REALTOR News summed it up as "let AI show possibilities, not rewrite reality", pointing to the Code of Ethics duties to avoid misrepresentation (Article 2) and to present a "true picture" in advertising (Article 12). By default, Roomagen adds no disclosure label: the Free plan's watermark is a "GENERATED USING Roomagen.com" badge, not a disclosure, and paid outputs carry no visible mark, so labeling is up to you, as our Terms of Service say. You can turn on a small “AI” badge for downloads in Settings (“AI label on downloads”); it does not replace the label your MLS asks for.

In the EU, Article 50 of the AI Act has applied since August 2, 2026: deployers of AI that generates or manipulates images amounting to a "deep fake" must disclose that the content is artificially generated or manipulated. Whether a restyled photo of a real room falls under it is not yet settled, so label it anyway (see our EU AI Act Article 50 guide).

This is general information, not legal advice. See our guides to AB 723 and MLS rules for AI photos and MLS photo requirements and disclosure, and check your MLS's current rules.

Input Photo Tips for Best Results

Every restyle tool works only from what it can see in the photo.

Lighting

• Use natural light: open the blinds and curtains, and turn on the room lights.
• Avoid harsh direct sun: strong shadows across furniture make new pieces look pasted in.
• Avoid mixed color temperatures where you can, such as warm lamps against cool daylight; they make color matching harder.

Composition

• Shoot from a corner at about chest height, with the camera level. Tilted verticals make new furniture look off.
• Use a wide lens, but not an extreme one. Stretched edges come back as warped furniture.
• Show the floor where the furniture stands. The AI needs it to ground new pieces with believable shadows.

Files

• Upload the largest original you have, as JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 50 MB. HEIC and RAW files aren't accepted, so export them to JPEG first.
• Skip heavy processing: no creative filters, extreme HDR or aggressive noise reduction.
• Results come back as JPEG files in close to the photo's own aspect ratio.

Furniture Visibility by Tool

• Keep Layout and Convert Room: keep the furniture fully in frame; pieces cut off at the edge restyle badly.
• Replace Furniture and Furniture Facelift: the piece should be clearly visible and well lit, not hidden behind other furniture.
• Add Piece: keep the target spot visible and well lit.

Common Photo Mistakes to Avoid

Pre-Upload Checklist

• The room is evenly lit, with blinds open and lights on
• Shot from a corner at about chest height, with the camera level
• Every piece you want to change is fully in frame
• The largest original file, as JPEG, PNG or WebP
• No heavy filters or extreme HDR
• For listings: the original photo is kept for disclosure

Ready to start? Use redesign a furnished room for a full restyle, or Swap Furniture & Objects to replace one piece. The Free plan's 6 credits cover three runs, and the paid plans are on our pricing page.