Lou started by choosing a new, subtler color palette, “which is soft and cocooning,” she says — perfect for a living room. She adds that the new hues complement rather than overshadow. Her paint color choices are Rustoleum’s Homespun for everything below the picture rail, and Steamed Milk for the ceiling.

To elevate the walls even further, Lou added picture frame molding “to really highlight the height in here,” she explains. It was a first-time DIY for her, and it was tricky in a period home that, unsurprisingly, features a lot of irregularities. “I spent two days measuring and planning out all of the lengths and angles down to the smallest detail, but the house is so old that in practice, nothing is straight or has the same measurements,” Lou says. “In the end I just eyeballed it, and it worked perfectly.”