My Moody Bedroom Refresh

Initially, revamping my bedroom was all about getting better sleep. And then things really got FUN.

Hi hi…today’s newsletter is FREE, so please share it far + wide if the spirit moves you. This Bedroom Makeover story marks the final week to lock in A Tiny Apt.’s current paid subs price of $5/month + $50/year, because next week, our first-ever price increase—in more than three years—will take effect. If you’re on the Free list, you currently get one, occasionally two stories a month. With Paid, you’ll get every story, plus full access to our 200+ archive, commenting status, (epic) flash vintage sales and giveaways, chat threads, and ALL the good ✨ that comes w/supporting an independent publication about personal style/space/second-hand EVERYTHING that you can really use. Upgrading now means you’ll get our current rate For Life. Because even tho this newsletter is only 3+ yo, it’s also the culmination of 2+ decades of experience + immersion in the design/style/media fields, and it (lovingly) demands the bulk of my time. If you love it, consider an investment to Paid. And, if that’s just not in the cards now and you want the full ride, message me and we’ll figure it out. Thanks for being here. YOU are the magic, and for that, I’m grateful.❤️

In the beginning, simply having a bedroom was a novel thing.

After spending eight years in one micro studio apartment only to shift over to living with my then boyfriend/now husband in his only-slightly-larger studio, the idea of having an actual Separate Room (with a door!) made me positively GIDDY.

I remember when we were close to finishing our initial renovation on this apartment in 2013. I met my husband one evening after the contractors had gone home, and slowly walked down our hallway—an actual hallway, I thought…I have a HALLWAY—to not one but two tiny bedrooms. I think I might have cried (I am sure I cried). I just couldn’t believe that at the ripe old age of 40-whatever, I finally had a separate room of my own where I could move and rest and get dressed and snuggle/have sexy time, and also SLEEP. A room that was symbolic…almost sacred.

A room I would never, ever take for granted.

Bedtime stories: Over the last 10+ years, this room has been home to a rotating cast of quilts, artwork, floor coverings, and random ephemera. It was time for a blank slate...something simpler, more serious, but still ME.

And yet, eventually, I did take it for granted. At the start, having a classic all-white Scandinavian style was the goal…the vibe. Keeping it simple, clean, and uncomplicated. But over time, I began to layer on more (and more!) color. Adding/subtracting artwork. More gaping nail holes in the wrong spots. A tiny leak by the skylight left a haunting abstract shape of sad, discolored paint. I loved our bedroom, but over the decade that we’d lived here, it was the one room that hadn’t been properly tended to. My daughter’s room already cycled through five lives. The living room was repainted twice with a thrice-time sofa switch. We’d tested out four dining tables, and our two lounge chairs had been recovered and pivoted to different spots numerous times.

Before: Discolored walls and too many misplaced nail holes to count. It was TIME.

A Tiny Room Grows in Brooklyn

Our bedroom, tho, never complained. It was obedient and reliable, a steady place to decompress or simply hide away when the pressures/intensity of life would feel like too much. And then, of course, MENOPAUSE made sleeping and anything else happening in this beloved room a ROLL of the dice, a comedy of errors, a disquieting place in the dead of night to stare at the discolored spot on the ceiling and reflect on the pending fall of civilization as well as stuff like, when really is the right time/age to get a facelift.

This was not good. It was time for a change. A dramatic change. I knew it.

The inspiration.

I wanted our bedroom to be a space that felt more focused, more beautiful, more grown up. And more restful both to my eyes AND to my frazzled, intermittently hormone-ravaged nature. Looking around, I yearned for a space that was simply a truer reflection of who I was now—who me and my partner are and what we need from this room that is ours…just ours.

And mostly, I wanted to feel like entering this room was a little bit like accessing a secret passageway—shit might be falling apart OUT THERE, but across this threshold, things are OKAY. (And, there’s Hacks and a slight hotel vibe here, too:). And so, that’s what we created…an escape. With a small budget, some quality upgrades, and a lot of recycled objects we already owned.

Not long ago, I came upon one of Wendy Goodman’s home tours in New York Magazine, this time at the designer Ryan Lawson’s small, alluringly homey NYC apartment. As soon as I saw his bedroom, I knew which direction I was heading. (I even DM’d him to fangirl AND ask all about the dark rich gray/blue paint color he had custom-designed.) I reached out to the interiors stylist Julia Stevens who had been on set for a Domino story here, and I always loved her eye, so I asked if I could hire her to be my creative sounding board. After a few conversations, we started to link together the key components I was working with/needed most—a new rug, a fresh foundational coat of paint, a new bedspread, and potentially new lighting and window shades. I knew I didn’t want to change out our art or furniture (not yet), however, once we started scheming, we came up with the brilliant hack of creating a slipcover for my headboard…something subtly graphic to pull all these new features together (more on that below).

Above, some of the inspiration I was working with: A reference room for Farrow & Ball’s shade Hopper Head; designer Ryan Lawson’s NYC apartment bedroom pinned both in my journal AND my heart For Eternity; a room at one of Terence Conran’s estates, the bedspread of which also HAUNTS me. Does anyone want to partner with me to create a version of this so we can all have it? It’s wonderful, isn’t it? I want it in fuchsia or violet, too.

All photos by Alejandra Vzqz. Above, blazer by Jamie Haller, track pants are vintage.

Not just any rug…THE rug.

Bedspread by Morrow; the rug by Revival; artwork diptych by the late Dennis Byng; dresser is now vintage West Elm; and the pillows are also now vintage Rebecca Atwood. Accent pillow was made from a vintage Alexander Girard fabric remnant. The lamp is Tom Dixon, excavated out of storage retirement for this very moment…notes below! Below: The floor lamp is vintage, found on the sidewalk last year (can you BELIEVE??), and the tiny cordless chrome lamp on the shelf is by Louis Poulsen…a classic.

When we first moved in, we white-washed our 120-year-old wood plank floors. But when Raffi arrived, we layered on some durable, sound-insulating sisal. I still love the sisal, but it was beginning to read a little flat…like I forgot it was there. At the same time, I was in conversations with Revival rugs, an incredible purveyor of one-of-a-kind sustainable pieces as well as washable options crafted from recycled materials. Choosing from all the designs seemed impossible, I didn’t want anything too loud or trendy, so when I saw this Milord design made of New Zealand wool woven on a cotton foundation, I fell in love instantly. (Fun fact: The description shares that “you might find traces of hay, grass, or straw from grazing sheep in your rug, too”…and I do not mind). I love that it feels a bit vintage, almost feminine, but the colors and shapes are slightly modernist. I just love it.

The bed…

I can thank Julia for introducing me to Morrow, the brand that made the vintage stripe coverlet. I love that you can switch the stripes depending on how you fold or layer it (it looks just as beautiful folded at the foot of a simple white down comforter.

I definitely collect textiles and this vintage Fred Leighton Mexican blanket I found on eBay about 20 years ago is one of the things I would grab in a fire. I wanted to layer it on top but given the more subdued vibe of our new room…I refrained.

Alejandra shooting our tiny bedroom…thanks to her, it feels even more grand:). Isn’t that Kartell/DWR cabinet cute? The best tiny storage that also feels a little like functional ART.

The details…

The dark gray Hopper Head paint by Farrow & Ball really makes every detail pop—color, reflective materials, anything textured…you can really SEE it against this dense charcoal background (I loved how my vintage silver Sigerson Morrison shoes boxes really came ALIVE again, too). It was the boldest decision I think I’ve ever made space-wise, but every time I walk in our room now, my heart kind of skips a beat.

Julia and I tried to figure out an interesting, no-nonsense way to make the bed frame feel a little more elevated (Kevin and I have had this bed frame for….15 years?). We came up with a pretty genius hack—using Maharam fabric to create a “slipcover” that slides over the headboard. I took three yards of this textured Croft fabric to my local dry cleaner with the exact measurements—I even pinned it to size so they knew what I wanted—and a week and $100 later, it was ready. I highly recommend trying it, especially if you have any remnant fabric or feel a bit bored with your headboard (no pun intended). Speaking of things “popping” my friend Erin from Underwater Weaving let me take a few progress baskets and pieces for a photo shoot at our cabin upstate when it’s ready, and when I spontaneously popped this one on a closet hook like a hat, it made me so happy….it really is the little things.

We decided to skip replacing the blinds and make that investment at a later date. But I did give myself $100 max budget to spend on a new vintage mirror. A few trips to different resale places and I found these two simple Ogee options at the Hudson Antiques Warehouse…the larger one I chose ended up being $40. What a SCORE! (And I feel like Ryan Lawson would approve:).

Since light and how it’s imbued can make such a huge difference in any room (and especially at different times of day), I decided to switch our table lamp for something a little more sophisticated and sculptural. I looked everywhere and felt overwhelmed by how pricey everything was, particularly with all our other house expenses lately. But then I remembered a Tom Dixon pendant we used to use in our living room that we put in storage when I found a different vintage pendant I liked a little better. In this room, in this way, the ridged Dixon light is absolutely perfect…and illuminates the space in such a magical way…I was enchanted (a good reminder to shop your own closet when you can if you’re craving a refresh w/out the crazy costs). The patterned vase from Italy belonged to my great grandmother, and I grew up with it on every shelf I can remember. It’s lived everywhere with me, in all of my apartments. But here—seeing it every morning when I wake up—is a sweet reminder that I’m home…and also, where I come from. ❤️

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Before I go—Some tiny bits, the BEST bits:

Quick True Story and something wonderful you might like to try out w/a glorious discount: Back in 2012, I co-hosted a tiny dinner party at my friend Marissa's house for the designer Norma Kamali (this dress!!). Norma had become a friend and we ended up assembling the most incredible group of women to listen to Norma share stories about her unbelievable life while eating the most wonderful vegetarian food (Norma’s fave)—from a (then) new wellness food company called Sakara. The founders, Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle aimed to make a wider range of whole foods/progressive nutrition + ancient food wisdom more available to busy people, and over the last 14 years, Sakara has helped thousands of people improve their energy, increase focus, balance hormones, and even reverse their biological age. WELL...they just launched a tight line of daily vitamins, that I've been taking for two weeks now, and so far, SO GOOD (the Metabolism Bites and Daily Elixir are my favorites). Because they love us/A Tiny Apt., they’ve shared a 20% discount code for new customers on orders $100+: use CHRISTENEBARBERICH at checkout, and do let me know what you think. #sakarapartner 💚

The Return of the SNUG: ATA subscriber Chris sent me a link to this story in UK House & Garden from a few weeks ago, and it’s made me SOOOO excited about my upcoming feature on YOUR favorite nooks (I‘ve gotten so many WONDERFUL submissions and my heart is kind of bursting for this one). In general, the piece reminds us why we need small spaces/nooks of our own, even in huge or expansive spaces, because they make us feel safe and loved and cared for…no matter what.

A bedroom SNUG, aka: the tiniest tour: Music The Knife, Heartbeats (Live)

Craving some classic/no no-nonsense prescription sunglasses (but not crappy ones). Intrigued by these, these, and these (all Warby Parker, because I have a gift card and need to use it stat). The last ones are kind of a wild card in the baby blue, but also kind of weird wonderful. Maybe better in the more basic tortoise, hard to say.

Also, someone sent me this salty/sweet granola as a gift and I ate it in two sittings (it says there are six servings/pkg but whatever…my granola, my choice). I really don’t know what to give anyone for Mother’s Day but fancy granola seems kind of a slam dunk to me.

All the links to today’s story are here in my Tiny Shop for the taking! Don’t forget, if you click on or buy anything, there’s a chance we could make a tiny commission…which, honestly, is just as delightful as my gifted fancy granola. Sending you all lots of love and good wishes for a killer week. This Wednesday evening at 5:30 EST, my friend Virginia Chamlee of the fantastic newsletter What’s Left and I will be doing a Live here on Substack sharing our favorite thrifting secrets (we’re penning a newsletter together, too, so stay tuned…OVER AND OUT…xxCb