Before and After: This Bedroom Redo Looks Like It Belongs in a Fancy Hotel

Written by

Megan Baker DetloffHome Projects Director
Megan Baker DetloffHome Projects Director
Megan is a writer and editor who specializes in home upgrades, DIY projects, hacks, and design. Before Apartment Therapy, she was an editor at HGTV Magazine and This Old House Magazine. Megan has a degree in Magazine Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of…read more
published Apr 11, 2021
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About this before & after
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Rental Friendly
Before: Bedroom with no headboard and light green walls

It’s easy to ignore the spaces at home that are visible only to you, like private bathrooms, closets, bedrooms, and other zones that guests don’t visit. For years, Jennifer Harrup (Jennifer Laura Living) and her husband Kris left their bedroom pretty much alone. “It was a room we had always neglected due to it being a space very few people saw,” Jennifer says. But once they moved into their new home, she knew that she wanted that to change.

Their new bedroom was big with plenty of space for lounging, but the heavy shutters darkened the space and the light minty green color wasn’t Jennifer’s favorite, either. She and Kris set out to create a space that was brighter and more welcoming, with a functional sitting area to boot.

Over the course of a year, Jennifer and Kris made lots of small changes that added up to a seriously big transformation. They started with new paint in a soothing blue and added furnishings that were a mix of traditional (like the nightstands) and more modern (like the arched mirrors). Of course, a cozy bed was a must, too — they added an upholstered one here in a breezy white color.

Where the shutters once were, the couple added blue curtains in a shade similar to their wall color. The huge bay window was tricky to find a curtain rod for, Jennifer says, and after lots of unsuccessful searching she realized she’d likely have to custom order something. That was not in the budget, so Jennifer got creative, building her own oversized curtain rod with copper pipes from the hardware store that she painted gold.

“My favorite part about the after are the new curtains,” Jennifer says. “Saying goodbye to the shutters was even more of a game-changer than I had expected!” The windows now let in tons of light when the curtains are open (and none when they’re shut), which means the bedroom’s just as suited for daytime reading as nighttime snoozing.

While Jennifer says she still has projects in mind for this room — like new light fixtures, or maybe some special wallpaper on the ceiling — she’s really happy with how far it’s come. For anyone else who’s been putting off a room redo, Jennifer has some words of advice: “Just do it, even if you can’t afford a big renovation or the entire project right now just get started,” she says. “Get one thing today that is going to inch you closer to creating the feeling that you want to come home to!”

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