Design Gurus Share the Most Genius Spots In Their Homes

“I wasn’t that experienced with power tools, but I was really motivated to create a place where my family could chill,” says Ryia Jose, who lives in Houston. First up, the bench: “I had all kinds of sketches!” says Ryia. She built it from plywood, complete with storage; the top is stained Early American by Minwax. She attached shiplap-style boards to it and the walls (painted Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore). An elevated end is made for a cup of coffee and a book; the pileup of pillows calls for snuggling.

Three-foot-tall herons and pink seating morphed a sitting area in the Phoenix-area home of Kamille Magette into a tropical paradise. She’d seen and adored high-end heron wallpaper years ago; the peel-and-stick Wall Blush wallpaper with a salmon background was more reasonably priced. “Birds feel so alive to me, and these are fancy and elegant,” says Kamille. The sofa — by Joybird (of course!) — is an import from another part of the house, and she got the orange chair and coral pouf at Walmart and the fluffy rug from Overland. Kamille’s 13-year-old and her friends flock to the spot — they beg to crash here for sleepovers.

Not everyone gets giddy about a bland space, but Camille Kurtz saw only potential in the 12-foot-long entry of her new San Marcos, California, home. “I did the work mainly at night, after my kids were asleep,” says Camille. She amped up drama by painting the walls, embellished with decorative molding, gleaming white (High Reflective White by Sherwin-Williams) and the front door and doorframes black (Tricorn Black by Sherwin-Williams). Then she adhered stained 1-inch-by-2-inch pine slats to the ceiling (“killer arm workout!”). The flooring is stick-on vinyl tile from The Home Depot cut into a pattern. Says Camille, “It’s such a good marble dupe that guests can’t tell the difference.”

A few weeks after designer Dani Nagel bought a house in Palm Springs, California, to use as a getaway and an Airbnb, her artist grandmother died. “She never had the chance to show her work widely,” says Dani, who hadn’t yet decided on the living room look; now the paintings illuminated the way. Funky furniture, kaleidoscopic Hygge & West wallpaper and stripes of Fireclay ceramic floor tiles enhance their bohemian glory. “Grandma would be overjoyed seeing her art honored in such a special way,” says Dani, “with so many people seeing it.”

What happens when you have two dogs and a cat who like to hang in your bed? You end up doing a lot of laundry, like Christine Hanks of San Jose, California, does. To make an all-white area enticing, she used six peppy shades of Dunn-Edwards paint and freehanded splotches from floor to ceiling over the course of a week. “The more abstract the blobs, the less I had to worry about being perfect,” she says. “People think that it’s wallpaper, but I’m like, ‘Nope, I made this.’ ”

Yuni Min had tried to give the 16-inch-wide sliver of wall in her Atlanta-area kitchen a new life with photos. Nope. “The scale looked wrong,” she says. Her light bulb moment: Use it to show off cutting boards and vintage china. She hung beadboard wallpaper by Graham & Brown, then nailed in square dowels for shelves with strips of pine lattice in front to keep items secure. “I love how unexpected my plate rack is,” she says. “This space is valuable real estate!”