Image courtesy of Imani Keal, via @imaniathome
Imani Keal may be a renter, but she’s been making her apartments feel like home for years. The Washington, D.C. local started transforming her space as a way to “channel…anxiety after losing a part-time job” and working at home for a full-time position during the pandemic. Ace Hardware was one of the only places open during that time, so Keal started taking trips there to begin renovating her 490-square-foot studio apartment.
Even as a child, she loved all things interior design and funky colors—Keal would spend hours “watching ‘House Hunters,’ ‘Trading Spaces,’ and Nate Berkus segments on ‘Oprah.’” But staring at her walls 24/7 during the pandemic prompted her to put all those home improvement show binges to use. She painted, hung wallpaper and installed open shelves to maximize her limited square footage. Eventually, Keal started sharing her decor and small space tips on her blog and Instagram at Imani at Home.
To say that Keal was an instant hit is putting it lightly—she jumped from 10,000 followers to over 100,000 almost immediately after launching her page in 2022. People may have initially flocked to her because she’s not afraid to use dark and moody paint colors (someone once described her kitchen paint color as “IBS Brown” but it’s actually a rich yellow-brown called Coconut Husk from Valspar).
Her followers stay, though, because this creator fully believes that “it doesn’t matter if you rent or own; you deserve a beautiful home.” She shows renters that even though they may be “[staying] single longer [and finding] homeownership…harder and harder to achieve,” they don’t have to accept living in an ugly space just because they don’t own it.
We’re incredibly partial to one of Keal’s fun home design projects in her new two-bedroom apartment. She was ahead of the 2024 trend predictions and color-drenched her kitchen in Valspar’s warm orange hue Cattle Drive. But she also launched a peel-and-stick wallpaper collection with Otto Studio to great success and even created a template that helps renters ask their landlords for permission to renovate.