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Apartment Therapy featured artist Alea Lovely’s two-bedroom Kansas City rental, where deep brown paint and dark woods sit alongside neutrals, mirrors, metal and natural materials. Lovely says the home’s layout, architectural details and carefully chosen sensory-friendly design helped create a calm, welcoming space for her and her child.
Artist Alea Lovely’s two-bedroom Kansas City rental uses rich brown paint and dark wood without relying on an all-dark palette, according to a house tour published by Apartment Therapy. The 1,000-square-foot home pairs those deeper tones with neutrals, mauves, beige, chrome, mirrors and natural materials, offering a renter-focused example of how color, light and furnishings can shape a warm interior.
Lovely moved into the apartment in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, with her child seven months before the tour was published. The prewar building is about 102 years old. Lovely described the apartment as being in good condition, though much of its original woodwork had been painted over; she called the space a “white box” when they arrived.
One of the clearest brown features is the former dining room, which Lovely repurposed as a home office and painted “Death by Chocolate” by Behr. The living room follows a palette of neutrals and deep woods, alongside mauves, chrome, black and beige. Lovely said she likes combining wood and metal for what she called a “vintage Parisian-meets-contemporary” look.
The design also draws on the apartment’s architecture and furnishings, rather than paint alone. The tour lists secondhand and marketplace finds, including living-room furniture and a wooden divider, alongside pieces from retailers such as HomeGoods and West Elm. Lovely’s own large artwork anchors the living room. She described it as a personal symbol of the supportive life she hoped to build with her child.
How Brown Stays in Balance
The tour shows how deep color can be balanced through contrast and material choices, rather than treated as an all-or-nothing decision. Lovely’s brown office is set within a home that also uses beige, other neutrals, reflective mirrors and chrome. Natural materials such as wood, linen and marble add texture without requiring every surface to be dark.
That approach may be useful to renters who want a room to feel warm and personal but worry that darker paint will make it feel heavy. The example is specific to Lovely’s apartment and taste; it does not establish that the same palette will work in every room. Its practical takeaway is that color is only one part of the room’s overall effect, alongside its layout, light, furnishings and finishes.
For Lovely, the choices also served a personal purpose. She said she wanted the apartment to feel welcoming, elegant and calm, and noted that sensory issues shaped her effort to avoid elements she found too busy or bothersome. The tour therefore presents the design as both a visual arrangement and a response to how its resident experiences a home.
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A Prewar Rental, Reworked
Apartment Therapy’s house tour describes a home in a tree-filled part of Hyde Park, in a building dating to roughly 1924 based on the report’s approximate 102-year age. The article does not provide an exact construction date. Lovely said the apartment’s layout is one of its strengths and that the rooms flow well for a rental.
Instead of treating the existing apartment as a blank design project, Lovely said she leaned on its architecture and added paint and renter-friendly elements. She also brought in secondhand furnishings and objects, and described a preference for natural materials and biophilic design. The source does not detail which specific modifications can be removed or how the landlord approved them.
Lovely and her child had lived in the home for seven months at the time of the report, and she said she still had plans for it. The tour captures an ongoing decorating process, not a final renovation or a claim that every room is complete.
““I love mixing woods with metals to give a vintage Parisian-meets-contemporary update.””
— Alea Lovely, as quoted in Apartment Therapy
What the Tour Does Not Show
The published tour does not provide measurements for the rooms, paint coverage, window orientation or natural-light levels. It therefore does not establish exactly how much light the apartment receives or which feature most affects how the brown tones appear. The source also does not give a full list of the home’s paint colors or explain whether the office paint can be removed at move-out.
Lovely said she and her child had settled in well but that she still had plans for the rental. The report does not specify what changes she intends to make, when she might make them, or whether her landlord has approved any further alterations. The article is a home tour based on Lovely’s account, not an independent assessment of the apartment’s lighting or rental conditions.
Lovely’s Plans for the Rental
Lovely told Apartment Therapy that the home is still a work in progress and that she has more ideas for the space. No timeline or specific next project was given. The source offers no announced follow-up date, so any future changes will depend on Lovely’s plans and the terms of her rental.
For now, the tour documents how she has arranged the apartment seven months after moving in: a deep-brown office, contrasting living-room tones, secondhand furnishings, natural materials and personal artwork. Further details would be needed to assess how the rooms look in different lighting or how the renter-friendly additions fare over time.
Key Questions
Who lives in the Kansas City apartment?
Artist Alea Lovely lives there with her child. She moved into the two-bedroom rental seven months before Apartment Therapy published its tour.
Which brown paint color appears in the home?
Lovely painted the former dining room, now a home office, in “Death by Chocolate” by Behr, according to the Apartment Therapy report.
How does the apartment use dark colors without an all-dark palette?
The tour describes brown and deep woods alongside neutrals, mauves, beige, chrome and black. Lovely also uses mirrors and natural materials, though the report does not give lighting measurements or room-by-room paint details.
Is the decorating project finished?
No. Lovely said she and her child had settled in well, but she still had more plans for the rental. The article does not specify what those plans are or when they may happen.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
