Before and After: A Historic Bedroom Gets a Chic Redo That Preserves Its Original Features
February is Bedroom Month on Apartment Therapy! We’re sharing stories all month about bedrooms — from how to decorate them, to the fascinating history of them, and so much more. Head over here to see them all!
Does your house have a quality roof and a sturdy foundation? Original hardwood floors? Beams across the ceiling or other one-of-a-kind architectural details? Congratulations, that means your house has great, enviable bones. Not every home comes with such treasures, so they’re worth preserving even if you want to make some aesthetic changes.
Lily Sawyer’s (@layered.home) bedroom in her 1940s apartment came with a traditional sash window with a great view of the town, wall-to-wall built-ins, and a gorgeous fireplace mantel (albeit without the fireplace). Lily didn’t want to lose any of those assets, but did want to make the room reflect her personality — “easygoing and informal but also creative and a little bold.”
“I am really delighted that I was able to transform this room without any structural changes and without ripping out the old built-in wardrobes,” she says. “Instead, making them into a feature in themselves just by using paint proved really effective.”
She and her husband painted the cabinetry with light pink chalk paint; now, the wardrobe serves as a feature wall in the room. The rest of the walls got a paint makeover in a soothing clay shade (Craig & Rose’s Grisaille). “The transformation took a few days due to the high walls and wardrobes to paint,” Lily says. “My husband had to help with painting the higher part of the walls as I couldn’t reach them.”
Other changes in the space include new furniture and new lighting — no-wiring-necessary plug-in sconces that Lily installed. For the furniture, Lily says she wanted to shoot for “an industrial style to contrast with the traditional feel of the wardrobes.”
For the bed, Lily bought a deep blue channel-tufted velvet headboard from Oak Furnitureland. “The velvet texture adds interest and depth,” she says.
She also wanted to draw the eye upward in the space, so she hung artwork above the headboard and added a mirror above the mantel. There was plenty of room for both given the high walls, Lily says. “I love the bold personality from the artwork and mirror in contrast with the plain bedding,” she adds.
She also added a rug toward the foot of the bed to cover up the old carpeting and filled in the rest of the space with thrifted finds.
Lily’s main takeaway: “Don’t rush to rip off old built-in closets,” she says. “Think of a way to make them a feature and add in contemporary industrial touches for contrast.”
You can add her bedroom redo to your vision board for classic-meets-contemporary ASAP.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.