Here's a magazine clipping showing the apartment of Beatrice Wood, a local potter and a devotee of Hindu art. Wood was 104 years old when this picture was taken and she died only a year later. Boy, somebody knew how to decorate! They took a simple corner of a room and made it come alive with interesting color and shapes. 
For comparison, here's (above) an earlier photo of Wood's apartment...Wood herself included... and the room around her has none of the appeal of the opening photo. Everything is dark and splotchy and the large pictures make the room seem small. Maybe some of that is the consequence of bad flash photography, but even so...what happened!?
My guess is that in the case of the large bright photo at the top a professional decorator got involved. The decorator favored smaller pictures and arranged them differently, added a few bookcases, improved the lighting, moved the sofa farther out into the room, added color to the sofa, and lightened up the statuary on the shelf.
Geez, a professional touch made all the difference. Interesting, huh?
