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Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief Charli Penn has shared a makeover of the primary bedroom in the home she bought with her husband in 2019. The redesign centers on placing the bed in front of a window, adding warm neutral paint and framed black-and-gold wallpaper, and choosing an upholstered bed and oversized nightstands. The source does not provide a project budget or a complete account of the work.
Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief Charli Penn has published a before-and-after account of turning the primary bedroom in her family’s first home into a hotel-inspired suite, changing the bed’s position and layering in warm neutral paint, black-and-gold wallpaper and new furnishings. The redesign addresses a layout that Penn said had left the narrow room awkward and short on usable floor space.
Penn wrote that she and her husband bought their first home in late 2019 after years of apartment living. They kept the bedroom furniture to save money while they focused on other parts of the house, she said. By the time she began the makeover, the room still had the same dated furniture and beige walls. Apartment Therapy’s report does not list a total project cost.
The key change was moving the bed in front of a window. Penn said a door or window interrupted each wall, making furniture placement difficult. She had avoided putting the bed at the window because she considered it a design mistake, but said that alternative arrangements made the bed divide the room and left the entrance opening toward it. Planning renderings helped her assess the new layout before committing, according to her account.
For the finishes, Penn kept an ivory, beige and brass palette but added Benjamin Moore Pashmina paint and black-and-gold Art Deco-inspired wallpaper. She said she tested oversized peel-and-stick paint samples on the walls for a week to see how the shade changed in different light. Rather than covering a full accent wall, she framed wallpaper panels with peel-and-stick architectural molding. Furnishings and details included an ivory upholstered Arhaus Wyller bed, black-oak Saatva Arden nightstands, an ivory rug and linen pinch-pleat curtains hung on brass rods.
A New Layout Opens the Room
The makeover’s most consequential choice was not simply a change in color or furniture: it was a rethink of the room’s layout. Penn said putting the bed in front of the window improved the flow and opened more floor space. Her account shows how a design rule can be reconsidered when a room’s doors and windows constrain conventional arrangements.
The project also offers a specific example of how a hotel-inspired look can be built from coordinated choices rather than a single statement purchase. In Penn’s description, the framed wallpaper guided the contrast and finishes, while the upholstered headboard, substantial nightstands, layered curtains and rug added texture. The report does not establish that these choices will work for every bedroom, but it documents the reasoning behind this particular redesign.
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From Beige Room to Planned Redesign
Penn described the bedroom as a project postponed while she and her husband concentrated on the home’s curb appeal and entertaining spaces. The couple had kept their older furniture when they purchased the house in late 2019, and the room remained largely unchanged for years, according to her report.
Before buying into the new arrangement, Penn gathered room measurements, furniture selections and a vision board into renderings. She also tested paint samples over a full week rather than choosing the wall color from a single viewing. These steps formed part of her process for addressing both the tight floor plan and the way the chosen neutral paint appeared under changing light.
“What if I just ignored the window?”
— Charli Penn, Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief
Project Costs and Full Scope
The Apartment Therapy listing gives no project budget, room dimensions, skill level or complete materials total; several project-information fields are marked unavailable. The source also does not provide enough detail to calculate the full cost of the bed, nightstands, wallpaper, paint, rug, curtains and hardware.
The account is Penn’s personal description of her choices and results. It does not include an independent assessment of the room’s dimensions, a detailed construction specification or a comparison of the finished space with a hotel suite. The supplied report also ends partway through its description of the curtains, so further finishing details and the complete project scope are not established here.
No Further Project Plans Reported
The source presents the makeover as a completed before-and-after project and does not announce a follow-up renovation, additional work or a future publication date. Readers can refer to Penn’s Apartment Therapy account for its accompanying images and product references, while keeping in mind that prices were accurate when the article was published and may change.
For now, the next steps for anyone considering a similar update are personal planning decisions: measure the room, test colors in its actual lighting and check whether a window-positioned bed suits the space. Those are practical takeaways from Penn’s process, not further developments announced by her or Apartment Therapy.
Key Questions
What was the main change in Charli Penn’s bedroom?
She moved the bed in front of a window, a layout she had previously avoided. Penn said the change improved the room’s flow and opened more floor space.
What paint and wallpaper did Penn use?
Penn chose Benjamin Moore Pashmina for the walls and black-and-gold Art Deco-inspired wallpaper from Mitchell Black’s Deco Fan by Bohemian Bungalow collection. She framed the wallpaper panels with peel-and-stick architectural molding.
What furnishings are named in the report?
The account names an Arhaus Wyller upholstered bed in Tania Cashmere fabric and a pair of 32-inch Saatva Arden nightstands in black oak. It also mentions an ivory rug and linen pinch-pleat curtains.
How much did the bedroom makeover cost?
The report does not give a total project cost. Its project-information fields list cost as unavailable, so the complete expense cannot be determined from the supplied account.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
