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Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief Charli Penn has shared a makeover of her primary bedroom, replacing a cramped layout and dated furniture with a boutique-hotel-inspired design. The reported changes include moving the bed in front of a window, adding Benjamin Moore Pashmina paint and framed black-and-gold wallpaper, and introducing an upholstered bed and oversized nightstands. The source does not give a total project cost.
Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief Charli Penn has published a before-and-after account of redesigning her primary bedroom, changing its layout and adding new finishes and furniture to create what she describes as a modern boutique-hotel suite. The makeover centers on placing the bed in front of a window, a choice Penn said improved the flow of the narrow room, alongside warm neutral paint, framed patterned wallpaper and a new upholstered bed.
Penn wrote that she and her husband kept their dated bedroom furniture after buying their first home in late 2019, choosing to spend money on other parts of the house. The bedroom remained a beige, underused priority for years. She said its narrow shape and a door or window on every wall made arranging furniture difficult. Keeping the bed away from a window had left it dividing the room, with the bedroom door opening nearly directly onto it.
To test a different arrangement, Penn developed a vision board and used room measurements and furniture selections to make renderings. She ultimately placed the bed in front of a window. In her account, the change opened floor space and made the room feel more balanced. She kept a neutral palette, selecting Benjamin Moore’s Pashmina paint after testing oversized peel-and-stick samples on the walls for a week under different lighting.
A black-and-gold, Art Deco-inspired Deco Fan wallpaper from Mitchell Black’s Bohemian Bungalow collection became the design’s focal point. Rather than covering a full accent wall, Penn framed the wallpaper in peel-and-stick architectural molding. She paired it with an ivory upholstered Arhaus Wyller bed in Tania Cashmere fabric and two 32-inch Saatva Arden nightstands in black oak. The reported finishing touches include an ivory hand-knotted rug, linen pinch-pleat curtains and brass curtain rods.
A Layout Change Opens the Room
The project’s main reported change is not simply a new color scheme: it is a rethink of the bed’s position. Penn’s account offers a specific example of how a conventional decorating rule—avoiding a bed in front of a window—can be reconsidered when a room’s doors and windows constrain other options. She said the new placement improved circulation and left more usable floor space.
The makeover also shows how Penn built the room around a limited set of visual choices rather than replacing every surface or covering a full wall. The framed wallpaper panels, black nightstands, ivory bed and brass details create contrast within a neutral palette. Readers considering a bedroom refresh can take away the planning approach—testing paint in changing light and visualizing furniture placement—but the article does not establish that the same products or arrangement will suit every room.
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From a 2019 Home Purchase
Penn’s account places the project against a longer period of putting the bedroom makeover off. She and her husband bought their first home in late 2019 after years of apartment living and kept their existing bedroom set to save money. Other home projects and rooms used for entertaining took priority, leaving the bedroom largely unchanged for nearly seven years, according to her report.
The article is a personal home-design report, not an independent renovation audit. It presents Penn’s experience and product selections, with the publication noting that it independently selects products and may earn a commission if readers buy through its links. The listing leaves several project fields—including cost, home type and skill level—as not available.
““What if I just ignored the window?””
— Charli Penn, Apartment Therapy editor-in-chief
Project Cost Remains Unlisted
The source does not state the total cost of the makeover, how much of the furniture was newly purchased, or whether the work involved professional installation. The listing marks cost, home type, project type, style, skill level and rental suitability as unavailable, so readers cannot use it as a full project budget or scope breakdown.
The account also does not provide measured room dimensions, before-and-after floor plans or independent evaluation of the materials. The description of better flow and a more hotel-like atmosphere is Penn’s own assessment; the report does not quantify the change in usable floor area or establish how the design performs over time.
No Further Project Update Listed
The published report describes the completed makeover but does not announce another renovation phase or a scheduled follow-up. Any next steps—such as additional bedroom changes, longer-term reviews of the furniture or a full accounting of expenses—have not been specified in the source material.
For now, the available update is Penn’s account of the finished room and the decisions behind it. Readers interested in costs or product details would need to consult the original article and its linked product information; prices were accurate at the time of publishing, according to Apartment Therapy.
Key Questions
What was the main change in Charli Penn’s bedroom makeover?
Penn moved the bed in front of a window, a layout change she said opened floor space and improved the room’s balance.
What colors and finishes did she use?
The palette combines Benjamin Moore Pashmina with ivory, beige, black and brass. A black-and-gold Art Deco-inspired wallpaper is framed in peel-and-stick molding.
Which furniture pieces are named in the report?
Penn lists an Arhaus Wyller upholstered bed in Tania Cashmere fabric and two 32-inch Saatva Arden nightstands in black oak.
How much did the bedroom makeover cost?
The report does not provide a total. Its project listing marks cost as unavailable, and the publication says product prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
