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Artist Alea Lovely decorated her two-bedroom Kansas City rental with deep browns, wood, mauve, chrome, black and beige, using contrast and reflective surfaces to keep the rooms from feeling overly dark. Her home tour, published by Apartment Therapy, describes a 1,000-square-foot apartment she shares with her child and design choices shaped by the building, rental living and her sensory preferences.
Artist Alea Lovely has furnished her 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom rental in Kansas City, Missouri, with deep brown paint and wood balanced by lighter neutrals, mirrors and chrome. In a home tour published by Apartment Therapy, Lovely says she wanted a calm, welcoming home for herself and her child while making use of the apartment’s architecture.
Lovely moved into the apartment in the Hyde Park neighborhood seven months before the tour was published. The prewar building is about 102 years old, according to the report. She described the unit as being in good condition but as a “white box,” with some of its original wood painted over. Her approach combined paint and renter-friendly furnishings rather than relying only on permanent changes.
The living room palette uses deep woods, mauve, chrome, black and beige, Lovely wrote. She described the mix as a strict contrast among neutrals and darker tones, and said she likes combining wood and metal for a look that brings vintage and contemporary elements together. She also used mirrors, varied lighting and lighter-colored furnishings alongside the darker finishes.
The apartment’s former dining room now serves as a home office. Lovely painted it “Death by Chocolate” by Behr. Much of the furniture and decor listed in the tour came from secondhand sources, Facebook Marketplace, local shops or retailers. The living room also features a large painting by Lovely, which she said represents her hopes for a more supportive new stage of life for her and her child.
How Contrast Softens Dark Brown
The tour offers a specific example of how a renter can use dark brown as part of a broader palette, rather than covering every surface in the same shade. Lovely paired the deeper colors with beige, mirrors, chrome and different sources of light, while keeping natural materials such as wood, marble and linen in the mix. The result, as presented in the report, depends on the combination of materials and objects as much as the paint color.
Her account also shows how decorating decisions can reflect practical needs, not just appearance. Lovely said she has sensory issues and wanted to avoid a busy or bothersome environment. She described natural materials and elements such as florals as calming. For renters, the tour illustrates ways to give a home a distinct feel while working around existing architecture and the limits of a lease.
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A Rental Shaped by Its Architecture
Lovely said the apartment’s layout is one of its strengths, particularly for a rental. She contrasted it with a railroad apartment where she had previously lived in Brooklyn, a layout she said she disliked. The Kansas City home’s flow and existing architectural features helped shape her decorating plans.
She described her goal as creating a space that felt “welcoming but still upscale and elegant.” Rather than treating the painted-over wood and plain walls as fixed limits, she said she leaned into the architecture and added paint and movable elements. The home tour also lists a mix of vintage, secondhand and store-bought pieces across the living room, bedrooms and office.
““I love mixing woods with metals to give a vintage Parisian-meets-contemporary update.””
— Alea Lovely, as quoted in Apartment Therapy
What the Home Tour Does Not Specify
The report is a personal home tour, not a technical assessment of the apartment’s lighting or a controlled comparison of color schemes. It does not provide measurements of daylight, paint coverage, room brightness or the cost of the decorating work. The account also does not specify which changes the landlord approved or what lease terms apply, so it cannot establish that every renter could make the same alterations.
Lovely said she and her daughter had lived in the apartment for only seven months at the time of publication and that she still had plans for the space. The tour does not say what those future projects are or when they might happen.
More Changes May Still Come
Lovely said she and her daughter had settled into the apartment, but that she had more ideas for it. No specific next renovation or decorating project was announced in the report. For now, the tour documents the home as it stood at publication, including the brown-painted office and a living room arranged around Lovely’s artwork.
Key Questions
Where is Alea Lovely’s apartment?
It is in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, in a two-bedroom apartment of about 1,000 square feet.
What brown paint did she use?
The home tour says Lovely painted the former dining room, which became a home office, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr.
How did she balance the dark colors?
Lovely’s reported palette pairs deep browns and wood with beige, mauve, chrome, black, mirrors and varied lighting. The source does not provide a measured lighting plan.
Did she make permanent changes to the rental?
The report says she used paint and renter-friendly elements, but does not describe her lease terms or identify which changes had landlord approval. Renters should check their lease and obtain any required permission before making alterations.
Is the apartment fully decorated?
No. Lovely said she and her daughter had settled in, while also saying she still had more plans for the apartment. The tour does not name the next projects.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
