Jacqueline Marque

Lauren and Dustin say this house, built in 1902, hadn't been updated since the '70s and '80s. The couple spent just over a year on interior renovations, modernizing the outdated space but preserving and honoring much of the historic home's charming architectural features.

When artist Josie Azuma and her husband bought this house in 2015, it was in rough shape and too small. They renovated it to be a larger, light-filled, and functional home for their family.

Photographer and technical writer Kimberly Nesmith describes her home's style as "mystical bohemian meets goth meets tropical meets vintage." And during Halloween season it definitely has "Practical Magic" vibes!

Before Diogo moved in, the 100-year-old Spanish Revival home looked like a frat house. There were couches everywhere, different colors on the walls in every room, and the yard was a wreck.

New Orleans homes always have the dreamiest architectural details, and interior decorator Blair Price's rental apartment in a Victorian mansion serves up plenty of enviable design elements.

Athlete and social media strategist Whitney Mitchell and her roommate share this two-bedroom apartment in New Orleans' Lower Garden District. It has tall ceilings, exposed brick, and lots of colorful art.

Amarachi Ukachu's tropical bohemian New Orleans rental cottage has copper contact paper on the cabinets, a peel-and-stick tile backsplash, and an ingenious lounge sectional made from affordable floor pillows.

KV Harper, the principal and founder of Kex Design + Build, lives in a renovated 7th Ward double shotgun camelback that's filled with interesting historical objects, but doesn’t feel like a museum thanks to good design and a mix of modern features.

Filled with crumbling brick walls, an eclectic array of furnishings, and lots of character, the creative couple's home is not only one-of-a-kind, but steeped in history, too.

Luke Layfield and his dog Chewy Bear live in a shotgun house in the Bayou St. John neighborhood of New Orleans. Luke's style is best described as... "not minimalist."

This 1950s Ranch-style house in Lafayette, Louisiana now feels like a cozy French farmhouse thanks to exposed wood walls, moody colors, and lots of antiques.

At only 630 square feet, this cute New Orleans home is like "a kind of jewel box of the imagination.”

When Cali toured this 103 years old house for the first time it, everything about it screamed of the 1970s, down to the vinyl wood paneling dirty shag carpeting to find original wide-plank wood floors, but she knew it was an architectural gem just waiting to be uncovered.

Name: Elyse DeLisle and Amanda Goelz and their cats Pig and Poe Location: On the road; Currently in Palm Springs, California Size: 240 square feet/ 34-feet long Years lived in: Owned — We began renovating the trailer in Spring 2018 and started living in it in July 2018. There were two things Elyse and Amanda wanted to do together: renovate a home and travel. They were living in Melbourne, Florida, when they decided to buy a fixer-upper.

Name: Swathi Narra and Jay Miller Location: Marigny — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 2,200 square feet Years lived in: 1 year, renting Swathi is a worldly woman of fashion while Jay is a man of science. Combine these seemingly disparate influences inside a sun-drenched New Orleans “dream rental,” and you get a perfectly balanced environment that’s sophisticated, personal, and inviting.

The building has a modern, minimal style with concrete floors, white walls, sleek cabinetry, and sliding glass bedroom doors.

See inside a glamorous house with rich velvety jewel-toned furnishings, ostrich feathers, gilded lamps, and candelabras dripping with crystals.

Name: Ellen Macomber, Kevin Fannon, and their son Donald Location: Central City — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 2,400 square feet Years lived in: 3 years, owned Ellen Macomber had given up on the idea of becoming a homeowner in New Orleans. The mixed-media artist, born in New Orleans and raised in a small Cajun town in South Louisiana, was discouraged by a housing market that had skyrocketed after Hurricane Katrina. “I figured we’d just rent forever,” she said.

Name: Anne Yvonne Stoltze and her Ragdoll cats Teddy (who sadly passed away this summer) and Nigel Location: Treme — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 650 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years, renting Anne’s romance with New Orleans began three years ago during a visit for Jazz Fest, a familiar story here in the Crescent City. The unique architecture, lush landscape, and celebratory way-of-life felt just right for this Iowa-born bon vivant.

Name: Melinda McSpadden Location: Garden District — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,300 square feet Years lived in: 11 months; the apartment is one of the perks of being a live-in innkeeper The setting for Melinda McSpadden’s life is dripping with Southern charm — lush greenery and a canopy of century-old oaks surround a Queen Anne-style mansion built in 1890 in the heart of New Orleans’ picturesque Garden District.

Name: Joy Wilson, aka Joy the Baker Location: Bywater — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,700 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years, owned “New Orleans, you beast. You wild, unpredictable, crazy fun, wholly overwhelming place. New Orleans isn’t just a city… it’s a spirit and culture. It’s a lady and a trouble-maker. It’s palpable and irresistible, and will not be ignored. New Orleans, you excite me. New Orleans, I’m hungry. New Orleans, I love you.

Name: Wesley & Levi Janssen; their kids James (6), Anders (5), and Julia (1); and the family dog Logan. Location: Mid City — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,690 square feet upstairs; 1,200 in raised basement apartment Years lived in: 4 years, owned It was the second-to-last last day of Wesley Janssen’s maternity leave when a “for sale” sign in front of a stately raised-basement Art and Crafts style home caught her eye five years ago.

Entertaining is in this couple's DNA, and it's what inspired their home's renovation a year ago.

Name: Carla Williams Location: “New Marigny,” Seventh Ward — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 2,500 square feet Years lived in: 3 years, owned Carla may have been born and raised in Los Angeles, but New Orleans blood courses through her veins. “I grew up with all these New Orleans ladies,” Carla says while pointing to her grandmother Thelma and four great aunts in a black and white photograph.

When Tim purchased his house in 2010, it had been abandoned since 2004, a year before Hurricane Katrina. The windows were left open and the walls were covered with mold. The property was what Tim describes as “marginally livable,” and didn’t even meet the requirements for financing. He would have to pay out of pocket to get a hot water heater installed, the electricity turned on, and have the mold re-mediated in order to secure a mortgage.

When Tim Sheehan bought an 1860s Greek Revival home that had been abandoned for six years, the kitchen was crammed into a small room at the end of a hallway. The house was used as a rectory for 80 years, so a full kitchen wasn’t necessary when the home was first constructed. So Tim gutted the back hallway, knocked down a wall that once enclosed the tiny, impractical kitchen and removed sheet rock and a drop ceiling to reveal wood walls painted white.

Name: Megan Workman & Sam Peake, Delia the dog, and Eliot the cat Location: Central City; New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,439 square feet Years lived in: 2 years; Owned Real estate agent Megan Workman was searching for a house for a client two years ago, when something unexpected happened. When she entered the side door of a small Central City Victorian and stepped into a bright, beautiful hallway, she thought, “I must make this hallway mine.

Tim Sheehan knew he was in for many years of hard work when he bought an abandoned New Orleans property six years ago. The grounds included a two-story 5,500 square-foot Greek Revival home and a ramshackle guest house, both in need of major renovations. The outdoor space started taking shape to become what it is today, a communal quad where Tim gathers regularly with friends, when he started using the yard as a staging ground for his many projects in 2012.

Name: Timothy Sheehan Location: Treme-Lafitte — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 2,300 square feet (second floor living space) Years lived in: Owned 6.5 years When Tim Sheehan first entered his home in 2010, a hand-scrawled sign that read “KEEP OUT” was taped to the front door. The house, used as a rectory for the church next door, had been abandoned since the congregation held its last service in August 2004, a year before Hurricane Katrina.

Who would imagine that a professional organizer would buy a home that has very little built-in storage? What would be a deal breaker for many buyers became a welcome challenge for the de-cluttering guru and talented DIYer Tami Hills. The owner of Nola Clutter Busters, whose home we recently featured as a house tour, shares some of her simple storage solutions with us. As an organizer, I’m NOT a fan of using plastic storage containers if they are visible.

Kristen Coates, owner of an art gallery and home decor store, makes decorating seem effortless. She can arrange an entire wall of artwork, whip together a gorgeous bouquet, and create a picture-perfect window display with a sense of vision and ease that is second nature. We recently featured the apartment she shares with her boyfriend Michael.

Name: Tami Hills Location: Central City — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,266 square feet Years lived in: Owned 6 years Tami Hills never imagined she would buy a move-in ready home. The professional organizer and DIYer dreamed of buying an old New Orleans house she could fully renovate. But after looking at nearly a hundred properties in a fiercely competitive market, she was exhausted. “I would fall in love and be outbid. It happened over and over again,” she explained.

Name: Kristen Coates and Michael Paddon Location: Historic Downtown — Newport, Rhode Island Size: 1,000 square feet Years lived in: Rented 3 years Kristen Coates wears many creative hats: gallery and store owner, artist and curator. When she is at work, her mind is focused on bringing art and beauty into the homes of her customers and clients. When she returns home to the apartment she shares with her boyfriend Michael, she isn’t interested in spending time decorating.

Photographer and fashionista Kerry Maloney is one half of the glamorous, snarky duo behind Traveler Broads, a blog about longtime friends making fun of each other on as many continents as possible. We toured her French Quarter apartment last year.

Name: Kelly Ransom and her dog Omelet Location: Faubourg Marigny; New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,400 square feet Years lived in: 2.5 years; Owned Kelly’s 1830s cottage, located on a quiet residential street in the Marigny, has the kind of charm for which New Orleans homes are known. Light blue shutters open to reveal four sets of French doors and classic wrought ironwork.

Name: Margaret Sche and Gabe Belgara Location: Uptown — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 1,300 square feet Years lived in: 1 year; Rented Theirs is a Texas love story. Margaret can thank her mom for insisting she join her for some live country music and two-steppin’ on that fated Friday night when she met Gabe at Blanco’s. The beloved Houston dance hall—now closed—was one of Gabe’s favorite honky-tonks, and sparks flew when the two met.