Does Your House Have a Case of the Blahs? Try These 6 Designer Fixes for Adding Personality

Right away, interior designer Belinda Pabian noticed a disconnect between her clients’ personalities (a family with two young kids and dogs) and the feel of their suburban Omaha area home, which was full of gray paint, beige wall-to-wall carpet, and dark brown leather furniture. “I really believe that design can solve problems,” Pabian says, “and so what I was hearing from them was their house felt so dark and it just didn’t feel like them.”

Pabian’s fixes were transformative—and entirely cosmetic. She didn’t change any of the big-ticket items like the flooring or the fireplace. In fact, the only surface she touched was the walls. Otherwise, it was all about what she swapped out and added in. The result shows the power of the right paint, furniture, lighting, and accessories to transform a space. “Lighting and paint are the biggest things you can do to transform any space,” Pabian says. “It is the jewelry of the home.”

See how each living space of this suburban builder home found its personality with a few designer fixes.

Problem: Brown and Boring

The main living space—which includes the family room, kitchen, and dining area in one open room—had decent natural light thanks to large windows. But the gray walls, beige carpet, and oversized dark brown leather furniture made it feel uninviting.

Solution: Lighten Up with Paint

The first step Pabian took was to lighten and warm up the wall color throughout the entire space. This was especially important to balance with the kitchen’s dark wood cabinetry and the dark wood floor in the kitchen and dining area.

“Paint gives you the biggest change for the least amount of money. So, paint is just a no-brainer. To me, it can totally change the space,” she says. “But I think it’s really important to pay attention to the undertones of paints.”

According to Pabian, a lot of people make the mistake of choosing a white that is too cool, which can make a space feel cold and sterile. She recommends choosing warmer whites.

Against a backdrop of warm white walls, Pabian added several hits of bright, cooler white, like the dining table, the pendant lights over the island, and the barstools, which are covered in hard-wearing, easy-to-clean vinyl. “Vinyl today can really trick you into thinking it’s actual leather,” she says.

Problem: Sparse and Uninviting

With all the furniture hugging the walls, no coffee table, and a large open space in the center, the family room felt unfinished. Plus, the combination of the stone fireplace and the dark wood cabinets and shelves flanking it contributed to the overall impression of a somber, too-serious space.

Solution: Invest in the Right Furniture

“So many people have this false vision that when you have kids and dogs, and you have a busy and messy lifestyle, that it’s not the right time to invest in furniture,” Pabian says. Not so. She believes that if you buy the right quality furniture, it’ll withstand wear and tear and not end up in the dumpster.

Pulled into a loose U-shaped seating arrangement, a new sofa, a pair of armchairs, and a blue chaise longue offer more spots to sit and a cozier feeling for the whole space. For the upholstered pieces, Pabian was careful to choose performance fabrics that can handle spills. A round coffee table with a base that looks like a huge piece of driftwood or a tree trunk anchors the space and warms up the room with earthy, organic style that subtly references the stone fireplace.

Instead of ripping up and replacing the taupe wall-to-wall carpeting, which would have been costly and over budget, Pabian added an area rug on top of it. The lighter beige rug also adds the gradations of color and layers of texture that are crucial in a room full of neutral colors. “I think that a lot of times people hear, ‘Oh, you can’t put a rug on top of a rug,’ but in this case, it really helped pull the space together,” Pabian says.

Problem: Wrong Choices for Materials

So much stone and dark wood, coupled with the greige walls and tan carpet, made the room seem a little dungeon-like. The homeowners were on the right track when they flanked the fireplace with a pair of cabinets and hung shelves to draw the eye up to the ceiling. Symmetry is always a good idea, but the problem was the material of the cabinets and shelves. The area around the stone fireplace needed some contrast and lightness so its organic beauty could shine.

Solution: Add Contrast (and Mirrors)

Pabian replaced the dark wood cabinets with shiny painted white ones with a scalloped front. The new cabinets bring the same functionality (storage and visual balance for the fireplace wall) but a completely different look (sophisticated and light), plus an interesting contrast with the stone.

Then she topped each of them with a tall mirror that both draws the eye up and bounces light around the room, making it appear bigger. The fact that the mirrors are unframed helps them blend into their creamy white backdrop for a seamless look. Though Pabian merely leaned the mirrors against the wall, her advice for hanging a mirror above a piece of furniture is to place it 6 to 12 inches above the furniture so they look tied together.

Solution: Unite Spaces Through Repetition

In an open-plan space, repetition helps create a cohesive look. Pabian’s choice to paint all the walls the same color goes a long way toward uniting the various spaces, but also notice her strategic use of blue. The light blue of the chaise longue carries through to the artwork in the dining area, and there are more hits of blue both large (the armchairs) and small (the accessories on the coffee table) throughout.

Color isn’t the only element Pabian strategically repeated. The medium-tone wood on the base of the dining table repeats on the base of the chaise. The dark wood of the kitchen cabinets shows up again on the walls of the sofa. All the metals, from the chandelier in the dining area to the frames of the artwork, are a similar warm gold.

Problem: Wrong Style and Scale

The brown leather furniture looked monolithic and did nothing to give the room personality. Plus, the clock hanging over it was too small to occupy such prime real estate. Another problem: Matching all the wood in a room (cabinets, shelves, side table) no doubt seemed like a safe choice, but the lack of contrast and visual interest left the space looking flat. All that chunky, angular, dark furniture made the space look bottom-heavy, as well.

Solution: Smaller, Lighter Furniture

Pabian replaced the leather love seat with a pair of armchairs, which are often more comfortable for two people to use than sitting on the same piece of furniture. Rather than choosing a neutral color for their upholstery, she used it as an opportunity to bring in color and subtle texture with the cross-hatch pattern of the fabric. Pabian also added a few metallic accents, such as the occasional table and the frame on the artwork, for sparkle and sophistication. The new artwork is large enough for the wall space but subtle thanks to a light color palette that blends in with the wall.

Problem: Dismal Dining Area

With the patterned rug and gallery of kid artwork, the homeowners tried to inject some fun and personality into their dining area. But all the dark wood furniture and an uninteresting light fixture did little to make this an inviting space for dinner.

Solution: Lots of White and Fun Lighting

The dining area got a major, but uncomplicated, overhaul. Out went the imposing, angular table and chairs. In came a friendlier round dining table in white with an interesting texture. The band of wood at the bottom ties the table to new dining chairs in lighter wood. The graceful shape of the chair backs contributes elegance to such a utilitarian area.

A slim white console table now anchors the back wall and creates a spot for a vignette of artwork and accessories (or additional serving space when needed). Notice the piece also has a band of wood at the bottom, visually tying it to the dining table. And out went the busy patterned rug in favor of a light-color cowhide one in a subtle herringbone pattern. Covering up that much of the dark wood floor lightened up the space a lot.

Pabian wanted the lighting throughout the house to feel like art, and the chandelier over the dining table delivers on that goal. “I felt like the lighting was a way to add a lot of personality, especially in a newer home, create some focal points, and just help make it feel more custom.” The gold fixture stands up to the scale of the dining table below it, but still looks light and airy thanks to its very open style. It also picks up on the other metallic accents around the space.