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Artist Alea Lovely decorated her two-bedroom Kansas City rental with deep brown paint, dark woods and other rich tones, balanced by neutrals, mirrors and contrasting materials. Her home tour describes a personal, renter-friendly approach shaped by the apartment’s architecture and her need for a calm, uncluttered space.
Artist Alea Lovely has decorated her two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot rental in Kansas City, Missouri, with deep browns, dark woods and contrasting finishes, according to a home tour published by Apartment Therapy. The tour shows how paint, natural materials, mirrors and lighter neutrals contribute to the apartment’s warm look without relying on brown alone.
Lovely moved into the apartment with her child seven months before the tour was published. The home is in a roughly 102-year-old building in Hyde Park, a neighborhood she describes as leafy. She said the apartment was in good condition but much of its original woodwork had been painted over, leaving what she called a “white box.”
Rather than make extensive changes to the rental, Lovely said she worked with its architecture and added paint and renter-friendly elements. She painted the dining room, which she uses as a home office, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr. In the living room, she described a palette of neutrals and deep woods alongside mauves, chrome, black and beige.
Many furnishings and decorative pieces came from secondhand shops, Facebook Marketplace and lower-cost retailers, according to Apartment Therapy’s item list. The home also includes original art by Lovely, vintage furniture, mirrors, rugs and natural materials such as wood, marble and linen. The report does not provide a full renovation budget or identify every change as removable.
How Contrast Keeps Brown Rooms Light
The tour offers a practical example of using dark color in a rental without making every surface or furnishing dark. Lovely pairs brown and deep wood with lighter neutrals, beige, reflective chrome and mirrors, while varying textures and finishes. The resulting approach is more specific than simply painting a room brown: the balance between dark and light elements shapes the overall effect.
For renters, the home also shows how a room’s use can change without a major remodel. Lovely turned the dining room into a home office and used paint and furnishings to give the space a distinct identity. Her choices reflect her own needs and taste, rather than a universal design formula.
Lovely said sensory comfort was part of her decision-making. She told Apartment Therapy that she wanted to avoid elements that felt too busy or bothersome to her nervous system. That makes the tour relevant not only to readers seeking a warm palette, but also to those thinking about how visual clutter, natural materials and room layout affect how a home feels to them.
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A Rental Shaped Around Its Resident
Lovely described her goal as creating a welcoming, elegant and calming home for herself and her child. She told Apartment Therapy she wanted to “make a safe and healing space” after a difficult prior relationship. The large artwork at the center of the living room is her own; she said she made it as a manifestation of a life in which she and her child felt supported and cherished.
Her previous home was a railroad-style apartment in Brooklyn, a layout she said she disliked. In the Kansas City rental, she values the way the rooms flow. She also said natural elements—including wood, marble, linen and flowers—help her feel calm. These details explain why the decorating choices in the tour are tied to both the apartment’s layout and Lovely’s stated preferences, not only its color scheme.
The report is a single-home tour, not an evaluation of rental design trends or a claim that the same palette will work in every home. Lovely said she and her daughter had lived there for only seven months and that she still had further plans for the apartment, though she felt they had settled in well.
““I love mixing woods with metals to give a vintage Parisian-meets-contemporary update.””
— Alea Lovely, as quoted by Apartment Therapy
What the Home Tour Does Not Establish
The report does not give the apartment’s rent, the full cost of decorating or details of the lease’s rules for painting and other changes. Although Apartment Therapy says Lovely used paint and renter-friendly elements, it does not specify whether the office paint can be removed or what restoration, if any, the landlord may require when she moves out.
The tour documents Lovely’s personal experience and design decisions. It does not include measurements of room brightness, comparisons with the apartment before decorating, or evidence that dark brown palettes generally make rooms feel lighter. Lovely also said she has more plans for the home, so the tour reflects an apartment that is still evolving.
Lovely Plans More Changes
Lovely told Apartment Therapy that she and her daughter have settled into the rental but that she still has more plans for the apartment. The report does not specify which rooms or features she intends to change, or when those projects might happen. Any future updates to the home have not been detailed in the source material.
For now, the published tour records the apartment as it stood about seven months after the move: a home shaped by its older architecture, a rich but mixed color palette and Lovely’s stated aim of creating a calm space for her family.
Key Questions
Who decorated the Kansas City apartment?
Artist Alea Lovely decorated the two-bedroom rental for herself and her child. Apartment Therapy published the home tour.
How did she use brown without making the apartment feel dark?
The tour shows deep browns and dark woods alongside neutrals, beige, mauve, chrome and mirrors. Lovely also mixed materials and finishes rather than using brown as the only visual element.
What paint color did she use in the office?
Lovely painted the dining room, which she uses as a home office, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr, according to Apartment Therapy.
How large is the rental, and where is it?
The apartment is a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. The building is about 102 years old, according to the report.
Is the apartment finished?
No. Lovely said she and her daughter had settled in well, but she still had more plans for the rental. The report does not say what she plans to change next.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
