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On “Home Town,” Erin and Ben Napier work hard to renovate homes with their clients’ styles in mind. But not everyone knows the best way to decorate their house, so the Napiers must often intervene to make sure the space turns out great.

In the Season 7 episode “Windy City to City Beautiful,” the Napiers meet Karen and John, a couple who are moving from Chicago to Laurel, MS. The pair buy a 1965 home for just $170,000 and plan to spend $120,000 on updates to make the house feel clean and fresh.

However, as Erin points out, “Fresh is a foundation, it’s not a look.”

Karen and John clarify that their style is modern and minimalist. Yet the risk with this, Erin notes, is that the home ends up having no personality at all.

Here’s how Erin and Ben manage to strike a balance between giving a home a clean, pared-down style with just enough character. Erin also reveals her absolute favorite upgrade she does whenever possible—take a look and see if you might be inspired to try it, too.

Brick can still feel modern

Before: The new homeowners loved this brick.

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Karen and John make it clear that they don’t want their house to look too rustic, so it’s a surprise when they tell Erin and Ben to keep the brick exterior. The brick just so happens to be from Chicago, so not only is it lovely, but it also serves as a reminder of their past home.

“Chicago brick has an orangey tone to it, but you can see there’s a lot of white mixed in there,” Ben says when he and Erin first tour the home with their clients.

After: Small exterior updates make the brick look more modern.

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So the Napiers keep the brick as is, but they make some other changes to make the exterior look a little more updated.

They upgrade the landscaping, add wood accents around the front porch, update the trim color, and even add a new front door.

While these changes might not seem drastic, when the home is finished, the house seems completely transformed, instantly going from dated midcentury to midcentury modern. It proves that homeowners don’t always need to change a lot of their home; sometimes all that’s needed are a few small updates.

Don’t go too minimalist

Before: John and Karen didn’t like the fireplace in the living room.

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While Karen and John want to keep the exterior brick as is, they don’t love the brick fireplace in the living room.

“They felt like having it on the interior was just a little bit dingy,” Erin says.

While Erin points out that putting a mortar smear over the brick would be an easy fix, the homeowners don’t like the uneven texture of mortar smear, so the team has no choice but to cover the entire fireplace with plasterboard, leaving space for the new, electric fireplace John and Karen requested.

This project is a new experience for Ben and Erin.

“I’ve never Sheetrocked over brick on a fireplace,” Erin says.

After: Erin Napier knew this wood accent would bring interest to the new fireplace.

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When the Sheetrock is finished, Erin doesn’t seem happy with the updated fireplace. She calls the look “unusual” and says, “This is just so minimalist, that it’s nothing.”

So she comes up with a plan to dress up the fireplace without losing the clean look Karen and John want. She asks the team to add thin strips of wood around the feature to break up the wall and make it feel connected to the crown molding, baseboards, and windows.

When the simple paneling is finished, Erin, John, and Karen are happy with the look. The feature is still simple and modern but, with the wood accents, it doesn’t look cold.

A little wainscoting goes a long way

This wainscoting adds some texture to the wall.

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On the other side of this living room, Erin and Ben remove a dated arch and more brick to give Karen and John that simple aesthetic they love. However, Erin isn’t happy with the bland look and decides to add wainscoting.

“Wainscoting’s my favorite thing. I love it,” she says. “I put it everywhere we can possibly afford to put it.”

While Erin doesn’t want to go overboard with the wainscoting, she is happy with the small bit of paneling in this room.

“We lost so much texture and personality when we had to lose the brick in here, and this brings the good part of that back,” she says. “It brings back texture.”

Add color with elegantly wrapped beams

Erin and Ben Napier wanted to add some more color to the dining room.

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Karen loves the color white, so Erin and Ben are sure to include a lot of white in their design. Still, they don’t want to include too much white, so they add a little bit of color to the ceiling.

“Everything in the dining room is Sheetrock wall, Sheetrock ceiling, and a lot of it, and all white,” Erin says. “So to break that up, we’re going to install ornamental beams across the entire ceiling.”

Ben uses cypress to box in the existing beams, giving the room an extra touch of warmth. The wood looks so beautiful that Erin decides the team won’t stain it.

“People stain wood too much,” she says. “You don’t have to stain the wood. You can put clear on it, and it’s beautiful guys, trust us.”

Go for creative colors or patterns

Before: This old kitchen needed some work.

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Erin and Ben know that John and Karen want their house, and their kitchen, to feel modern. So the team chooses modern features that give the space a lot of straight lines and a clean aesthetic. However, Erin once again worries that the simplistic design will end up looking too boring.

After: This kitchen is completely new.

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To add some interest to the kitchen, she selects a white tile to be laid in a herringbone design.

“Because we have so much white everywhere and we’ve got this white marble-look tile, it would fall a little flat if we don’t do something a little more visually interesting with it,” Erin explains. “So taking white but putting it in this herringbone pattern jazzes it up a little bit.”

Erin wanted an exciting backsplash tile pattern.

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