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Artist Alea Lovely decorated her Kansas City rental with deep browns, wood, mauve, chrome, black and beige, while using mirrors, natural materials and the apartment’s architecture to balance the darker palette. In an Apartment Therapy home tour, she said the design was shaped by her sensory needs and her aim of making a welcoming home for herself and her child.
Artist Alea Lovely has furnished her 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom Kansas City rental around a palette of rich brown, deep wood, mauve, chrome, black and beige. In a home tour published by Apartment Therapy, Lovely described how she used the apartment’s architecture, natural materials and reflective surfaces to create a home that feels warm without making the darker colors the only visual presence.
Lovely moved into the apartment with her child seven months before the tour, according to Apartment Therapy. She said she wanted to make what she called “a safe and healing space” and aimed for a home that felt welcoming, calm and elegant. The apartment is in a roughly 102-year-old building in Kansas City’s Hyde Park neighborhood, which Lovely described as leafy.
The rental was in good condition when they arrived, but Lovely said much of its original wood had been painted over, leaving what she called a “white box.” She worked with the existing architecture and added renter-friendly elements. Among the more visible choices, she painted the former dining room, which she uses as a home office, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr. Her living room combines neutral tones and deep woods with mauve, chrome, black and beige.
Many of the furnishings came from secondhand sources, including Facebook Marketplace and vintage shops, alongside items from retailers such as HomeGoods, Target and West Elm. Lovely’s own large painting is a focal point in the living room. She said she made it as a “manifestation of sorts,” reflecting her hopes for a more supportive stage of life for herself and her child. The tour also lists mirrors, rugs, lamps and a wooden divider among the apartment’s furnishings.
How the Dark Palette Stays Balanced
The tour offers a specific example of how dark brown can be used in a rental without relying on an all-dark room. Lovely’s design pairs the office’s chocolate-colored walls and the living room’s deep wood with beige and other neutrals; chrome and mirrors add reflective surfaces. The result, as documented in the tour, depends on a combination of colors, materials and furnishings rather than brown paint alone.
For renters, the choices also show how a home can be shaped without major permanent changes. Lovely said she enhanced the building’s existing features with paint and renter-friendly elements, while sourcing many pieces secondhand. Her account is personal rather than a controlled design test, but it gives readers concrete examples of adapting a rental to individual taste and practical needs.
The apartment’s design also reflects Lovely’s stated concern for sensory comfort. She said she wanted to avoid visual elements that felt too busy or bothersome. Her preference for wood, marble, linen and florals was tied to a sense of calm. The tour therefore presents the palette not only as an aesthetic decision, but as part of how she wanted the home to feel for her and her child.
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A Rental Shaped Around Home
Apartment Therapy’s report is a home tour, based on Lovely’s descriptions and a list of furnishings and sources, rather than a report about a broader housing or design development. It identifies her as an artist, creative, writer and astrologer, and says she moved into the Kansas City apartment seven months before the piece was published.
Lovely said the layout was one of her favorite features, particularly its flow. She compared it with a railroad apartment in Brooklyn where she had previously lived and said she disliked that layout. She also described the new home as a place to begin a different stage of life with her child. The apartment has a separate room that had been used as a dining room and now serves as her office.
Her design sources range from secondhand furniture to mass-market retailers and specialty products. That mix includes a vintage entry table, Marketplace living-room pieces, a rug from Etsy and a Behr office paint color. The source report does not provide renovation costs or measurements for individual rooms, so the listed items show the approach but not a full project budget.
“I love mixing woods with metals to give a vintage Parisian-meets-contemporary update.”
— Alea Lovely, in Apartment Therapy’s home tour
What the Home Tour Does Not Show
The report documents Lovely’s own experience and design decisions; it does not establish that the same palette will feel bright or calming in every apartment. It gives no detailed lighting measurements, room-by-room dimensions or before-and-after images in the supplied material, so readers cannot assess how much daylight or artificial lighting contributes to the effect.
It is also unclear which changes, including paint and flooring, were approved by the landlord or what conditions apply to restoring them when the tenancy ends. The source lists Amazon flooring among kitchen resources but does not explain the installation or whether it is removable. Lovely said she still had plans for the apartment and that she and her child had not been there long.
Lovely’s Plans for the Apartment
Lovely said she expects to keep making changes as she settles into the rental. Apartment Therapy’s report does not give a schedule for those plans or identify a next project. For now, she said she and her child had “settled in beautifully,” while presenting the home tour as a snapshot of the apartment seven months after their move.
Key Questions
Where is Alea Lovely’s apartment?
It is a two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot rental in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, according to Apartment Therapy.
What brown paint did she use?
Lovely painted the room she uses as a home office, formerly the dining room, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr.
How did she keep the dark colors from dominating?
The tour describes a mix of deep woods and brown with beige and other neutrals, mauve, chrome and black. Mirrors and lighter furnishings also appear among the room’s listed elements, though the report does not measure their effect on brightness.
Did she buy all the furnishings new?
No. The tour lists many secondhand and Facebook Marketplace pieces, as well as items from retailers including HomeGoods, Target and West Elm.
What remains unfinished?
Lovely said she has more plans for the apartment but the tour does not specify what those projects are or when they will happen.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
