House Calls

Kristine Bélanger always dreamed of adding a ton of color to a home, so as soon as she and her husband bought this house, she finally started to paint... using nearly every color!

It took over a year of nonstop work to fix up this fixer-upper cabin in an old California mining town, but all the effort was worth it!

One of Khadija Gulzar's talents is finding pieces that look and feel expensive but are actually quite affordable, like the sofa she snagged for much less than a more expensive one she had been eyeing.

Amara and her roommate love music from the '60s/'70s, so there are nods to musicians around their home, including Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, and Freddie Mercury (to name a few).

Think: Murky, earthy tones, with thoughtful pops of color and a mixing of wood tones and texture layers.

Chris wanted a place that felt worn in, like a favorite jeans. "A place with character, sort of the antithesis of a new development made with IKEA furnishings."

This DIY-infused boho, French coastal Austin home is filled with neutral and monochrome decor and TONS of plants.

From shelves to a king-size bed, Leah and her boyfriend used scaffolding boards to DIY furniture in their home.

Lara Jojo had been dreaming of an exposed brick wall apartment for as long as she can remember, and scored the rental of a lifetime with this Seattle space!

Victoria and Zach have tried to curate a space that feels cozy and intentional and filled with items that are sentimental.

Victoria's two-bedroom 1930s terrace house was beige and boring when they first moved in, so Victoria got to work adding personality to the space!

Leanne didn't have the budget to do a huge renovation on this home, which meant everything has been on a very tight budget. "Upcycling and online hacks have played a big part in finding ways to allow us to inject our personality without breaking the bank."

There's also a DIY TV stand and a hanging pendant light made from a hat!

After moving back to Atlanta after living in the Dominican Republic for 15 years, Karen added an apartment in her son’s unfinished basement.

Kirsten Veng-Pedersen's home is minimal, naturalistic, eclectic, and modern.

This home represents new beginnings for Tiffany Lanham.

Laura doesn't let beige walls in her rental apartment keep her from adding vibrant color and bold prints to the space!

A minimalist, Peter has been intentional with what he brings into his small rental home.

It also has loads of natural light, a custom-made bay window seat, and a private deck space transformed into a relaxing oasis.

Every single detail in this 100-year-old rental house is gorgeous, from the floors to the Greek-inspired sisal rug, down-filled sofas, antique gallery wall, and intricate ceiling detail.

Maggie has made her small apartment look and feel like a fantastic home without a huge price tag, optimizing every area for storage and adding shelving.

This one-bedroom apartment comes with a beautiful canal view, and Busra and Pieter have kept their small rental home's style minimal, with nods to the '90s.

Ellis and John's small apartment doesn't have many rooms, but it does have lots of bold pops of color in unexpected places!

Both Ineke and André work as artists and illustrators, so their canal house, which was built in 1904, is filled with art like paintings, drawings, objects, and more.

Lots of DIY projects combine with stunning tiles in this Spanish apartment.

Katie's home is grand millennial in style, with a touch of mid-century, and she kept a lot of original architectural details.

13-foot ceilings give this rental a lofty feel and highlight classic architectural details, from the crown molding to the original wood shutters to the deco fireplace.

This apartment is the "fusion of our life stories coming together and everything we would like our daughter to appreciate as well once she is older."

Theodora's rental apartment's style is eclectic, warm, vintage, open, and soft.

It's a blank canvas for Robbe's collection of vintage furniture gathered throughout the years from vintage collections and thrift shops.

And the majority of the art in Albrica Tierra's home comes from Black artists, designers, photographers, and makers.

Allie creates one-of-a-kind tile furniture through Stampworthy Goods, and the home she shares with her husband and their dog features a gorgeous array of her custom works.

Samantha Rohman is like Cameron Diaz's character from the movie "The Holiday" living in Iris’ country cottage — but in California.

Designer Jackie Streusand has created a vintage, earthy, warm, and eclectic home in this rental house.

Many of the rooms in wallpaper and fabric pattern designer and artist Claire Swindale's home have been updated with her own wallpaper designs.

Restauranteur and Mediterranean lifestyle company owner Sequoia Del Hoyo loves "earth tones, texture, patina, natural grain, and all things that get better with age."

Natalia Rowe's home is a 160-year-old Victorian Cottage with beautiful original features and a big garden.

Through the use of art, furnishings, and thrifted finds, Sara Abdul Majid was able to bring it to life to a pretty plain rental apartment.

Leah Fournier has renovated much of the space herself and says it's definitely been a labor of love.

Designer Tiffany Miller-Baker didn't let the fact that her Brownstone apartment is a rental limit her home's design style.

When it comes to decorating, Michelle works with colors and black art and pop culture art that she loves.

This apartment's reading nook is the perfect '80s Art Deco glam spot.

Linsdey Son's rental apartment style is a "funky-fresh pop dream."

Between the blue hues and the green plant life, this small rental apartment shows how you can create a peaceful home with the right color palette.

Thanks to how open this space is to the outdoors, you can't tell that it's small at all!

Gina works in the arts and loves color and camp, so wanted something cozy but fun for her small studio.

These two siblings own a start-up interior design studio and homeware shop and live together in this chic London space. And they weren't shy with color!

"Be intentional with the pieces you bring into your home, and use online room planning sites to get a feel of which layout works best," says renter Shelby.

A lover of bright colors and mixed textures, Madison can’t commit to any one color or style so she just buys what she loves and makes it work together beautifully.

With only 437 square feet in her studio apartment, Kelcey Harris knew she needed to keep things light and bright, but also wanted the furniture and decor to feel welcoming instead of cold or stark.

The inside is a colorful DIY mix of "coastal beachy shabby eclectic vintage."

Mallory was immediately drawn to this apartment for its unique features and history as a classroom — it retains its original hardwood floors and has large, paned glass windows.

The inside is DIY filled and cute, too!

There's a big orange velvet sectional, a dreamy red sofa from Facebook Marketplace, and a panther coffee table, all creating a dreamy space for lounging, 1970s style.

This loft conversion has character in spades, like beamed wooden ceilings, sliding barn doors, exposed brick walls, and excellent morning light.

Stacey Appel has adored '60s-'70s fashion and interiors since she was a teen, and it shows in the way she's painted and decorated her small rental apartment!

Because Barbara has no couch and only her bed, she uses rolled-up blankets and a million pillows to transform her bed into a couch each day.

Trent and Wesley's home-away-from-home is a cozy, Maltby-style log-sided cabin built in 1960, which gives it a quaint, early mid-century charm.

This apartment is one of three located in a house built in 1900, and many original charming historic details like exposed brick, a built-in bookshelf, and original doors were preserved.

This interior designer's home is fun, high-contrast, eclectic, and bold.

The house in Serbia's countryside was built in the ’50s and needed a really massive renovation, and Sanja and Igor spent more than two years remodeling it.

Living on her own has given Renata the opportunity to decorate to her heart's content and really explore her style.

Missy McCabe had fun filling this blank canvas with accent walls, wallpaper, and vintage and heirloom pieces.

Tiffany and Matt updated their rental apartment kitchen with fun new floors and bright white counters, and now it's light, airy, and the couple's favorite place to be.

Arabella and Ben's unit was all beige and cheap brass fixtures when they moved in, so they updated light fixtures, demoed the bathroom, and painted the walls by hand to create the home of their dreams.

Name: Kayleigh Kahn and my partner and all our plants!Location: Inner Sunset — San Francisco, CaliforniaType of home: ApartmentSize: 600 square feetYears lived in: 1 year, renting Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: My partner and I both work for a local grocery company (which is how we met!), so this year has been quite the whirlwind for us.

Karen Sawyer's Washington state house's style is like an "estate sale in a greenhouse."

This micro studio was renovated from an old brownstone, so it has a lot of classic charm like beautiful arched windows and an ornately carved mantel.

The decoration of Van Anh Langelaan's apartment is tremendously budget-friendly, with vintage furniture, DIY-wall decor, and even an old dresser she refurbished and painted herself.

Gizelle was raised on PBS period dramas, but until she gets to live in a traditional English manor home, she's furnished her industrial modern Chicago loft with antiques to blend in British colonial design inspiration.

Alexx and Rob joke that they styled their living room so that their cat, Meoweh, would look good anywhere in it.

Angelo and his boyfriend's strongest ability to decorate their small apartment is refurbishing old furniture to fit a more modern style (like their kitchen table, coffee table trunk, kitchen chairs) and they love creating art and furniture from scratch.