It’s Not Too Late to Set Resolutions for Your Home – These Easy Changes Instantly Refresh Older Schemes
With a bit of creative messaging, you can make a home you've lived in a while feel like a brand new space with a more vibrant energy ready for 2026
Interior designers Azar Fattahi and Lia McNairy, founders of the LA-based studio LALA Reimagined, have joined Homes & Gardens as Editors-at-Large for By Design. They’ll be sharing their insights on creating personality-filled interiors and the art of blending eclectic ideas into richly characterful schemes. See the rest of their articles here.
Every New Year, we set our intentions. We make lists of what we want to invite in, what we’re ready to let go of, and what we hope to create. It brings a sense of renewal – a clean slate, a fresh start – and there’s something deeply comforting about that ritual.
Refreshing your physical space can be just as powerful as resetting your mindset. In fact, the two are closely intertwined. And the best part? It doesn’t have to cost a thing. Sometimes, a ‘new’ space is simply a shifted one.
Start by reimagining your living room – or any room in your home. We often place a key piece of furniture, like a sofa, in the most obvious spot and never question it again. But moving it to a different wall, or rotating the layout entirely, can suddenly unlock a room’s potential. We see it time and again when stepping into a client’s home: a small shuffle, and suddenly the space feels completely new.
As you know, we don’t have many rules at LALA – but there is one non-negotiable design tip we swear by: never push furniture flat against a wall. Give each piece a little breathing room. Even six inches can make a space feel more intentional, more layered, and noticeably more alive.
Another area worth rethinking is your desk. Clearing, editing, and restyling your workspace can be surprisingly energizing. Try swapping in a lamp from another room, introducing a different chair, or bringing a few favorite objects to live with you while you work. We like to treat desks as small vignettes – a stack of books, a ceramic piece, something collected on a trip. These personal details add joy to everyday life and remind us why we love the objects we choose to surround ourselves with. A beautiful object in your line of sight can spark creativity and instantly lift your mood.
As self-proclaimed rule breakers, we also love to experiment with function.
Take our LALA bar cart, designed for our Anthropologie collection. Yes, it works beautifully as a bar cart – but one of us uses it as a side table in an empty corner of the primary bedroom that previously had no real purpose. Styled with a lamp, books, candles, and a few beautiful objects, it suddenly became a layered, intentional moment. And when it’s time for a girls’ night? It effortlessly transforms back into a proper martini station, complete with an ice bucket and all the necessary accoutrements – right there in the comfort of the bedroom while getting ready.
The takeaway is simple: shuffle things around. Question placement. Let go of what no longer feels right.
And if you’ve been living with a piece – a chair, a painting, an object – that you secretly dislike and have never dealt with, consider this your permission slip to release it. Make space for something better to find you in 2026.
Here’s to a year of clarity, beauty, health, and abundance – in our minds, in our homes, and in the lives we’re creating.
