Two guiding principles led to the design of 3-year-old Leo’s bedroom for Los Angeles-based interior designer and documentary filmmaker Reilly Dowd. For starters, she wanted to prove that “a room with no beautiful ‘features’ to begin with could be the most magical space in the house.” Secondly, Reilly wanted her son to be the “editor-in-chief” of his room’s design.

Kim Cox’s three kids are the fourth generation to live in their house, and the newest sibling is seriously benefiting from a decision her husband’s grandparents made decades ago. In the 1990s, those grandparents added an extension off of their primary bedroom to create a sort of glam room for “Gran” — a “wardrobe room” where she could also apply her makeup.

“The breakfast nook was one of those spaces that had so much potential but never felt intentional,” Carmen Murphy shares. Carmen and her boyfriend had moved in together two years ago and had been slowly transforming their apartment.But the couple never really did anything with this space — besides accidentally making it a catchall — because “it’s oddly shaped and in front of the bedroom door.