Having dreamed about redecorating her apartment for years, writer and comedian Mamrie Hart finally decided to pull the trigger during the COVID-19 shutdown. “You can overlook your space, especially the bedroom, when it’s just the place you’re sleeping, but being stuck inside, I realized how dang boring it was,” she says.

She and her friend, creative director Claire Thomas, had been looking for a design project to tackle—perhaps a vacation getaway—but with the pandemic, staying closer to home made the most sense.

They started with a blank slate, but worked within a limited budget; Mamrie works in the entertainment industry, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Since the home is a rental, “everything is stuff you can take with you, like a hermit crab,” says Thomas.

Before: Bedroom

Fortunately, both women have experience in production and are used to being scrappy. “Claire comes from the perspective of building it like a set design, and I think I live in a movie starring me at all moments, so it was perfect,” jokes Mamrie.

Thomas’s main goal with the makeover was to create a space that reflected her friend and client’s style and personality. “One of my favorite things about Mamrie is that she has this glamorous underbelly—the red hair, these amazing lashes, fabulous colors,” says Thomas. “She’s so expressive and has such a clear aesthetic when it comes to herself, but the house just didn’t reflect all the amazing things.”

The design came together over many months of Zoom calls with the two sharing mood boards and finessing the narrative of the space: a glam, yet campy, 1940s boudoir (think Joan Crawford–meets–Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice).

After: Bedroom

Since Mamrie was spending so much time in the bedroom while sheltering in place, they decided to start there. “I wanted a warm space that I would actually want to hang out in when I wasn’t just waking up or going to sleep,” she says.

One wall is given over to large windows and doors that face the backyard, so she also wanted to temper the brightness with more saturated colors. They chose sorbet pink, rich green, and marigold, which Thomas calls her “redhead palette” because it’s so flattering for those with fiery locks.

Despite having swatched the colors, the two saw that they were the wrong shades as the sun set on a full day of painting. “I felt like I was in the belly of a watermelon,” says Mamrie. “I could have green-screened an entire show.”

“I pride myself on having a good gut for color, so it was so demoralizing,” says Thomas. “The blush pink looked more neutral as a swatch, and the green ended up being too vibrant.”

“It was like two friends who are awesome to hang out with separately, but when they get together, they are just so loud,” adds Mamrie.

In the end, they repainted the lower half of the room with a richer, darker green with more blue tones that “completely changed the space.” The final selections of Green Bayou and Cedarville, both by Dunn-Edwards Paints, complement each other without being overwhelming.

They also balanced the feminine hues with unexpected materials and black-and-white accents. “We needed pieces to ground it, so it didn’t feel like a full-blown movie set,” explains Thomas.

To add texture, she covered the wall behind the bed with cork, a feature Mamrie wasn’t so sure of at first. “I was a little worried that you would expect to thumbtack a note to my wall when you walked in,” she says.

But by arranging 1' x 2' cork tiles in a herringbone pattern, Thomas created an intriguing wall covering for just $350. “When people come over, I’m going to lie and tell them I made the wall with the corks from all the wine I drank during quarantine,” says Mamrie.

A moss-green velvet bed anchors the room, and a white-and-maple dresser from Article with black leather pulls adds a clean, modern element. Light fixtures from Hudson Valley Lighting bring in a bit of quirk: A floor lamp with offset shades looks like a “cutesy pitchfork,” while a table lamp has black squiggles that remind Thomas of the worms from Beetlejuice. Over the bed, one can light was replaced with a glass globe that looks like a martini olive pierced with a toothpick.

The drapes presented a major challenge. Given the expanse of windows that needed to be covered, Thomas thought they would need a custom solution, but that proved to be too expensive. She found a rod that would be long enough on Amazon, and they chose white drapes lined with black pom-poms from Pottery Barn Teen.

Shop The Look

While the bedroom came together in six months, the living room only took a week. It had been painted “a kind of sad” blue-gray, and the windows were shaded by an abundance of foliage, so the first order of business was to boost the quality of light by repainting the entire room white.

Before: Living Room

Then, Mamrie’s landlord trimmed the trees—“a quarantine haircut,” says Mamrie—which flooded the room with light. Teal velvet drapes with citron tassels from Target’s Opalhouse line, however, help modulate the space.

After: Living Room

The colors pull from the ’70s-inspired rug, a vintage Etsy find, whose wavy lines of red and blue lends the living room a sunken-lounge vibe.

A marigold velvet sofa with two ottomans, a brass quatrefoil coffee table, and vintage plaid-and-chrome chairs round out the disco look. A geometric mural inspired by block prints and hand-painted by Thomas is the finishing touch.

“Claire’s design brought out the classy, adult version of me, while still maintaining fun,” says Mamrie.

Have you taken on an ambitious Rental Revamp—or do you know someone who has? We want to hear about it! Reach out to edit@dwell.com with photos and a brief description.

More Rental Revamp stories:

An Architect Couple Reimagine a Dated Queens Apartment for Just $5K

Project Credits:

Interior Design: Claire Thomas / @clairethomas

Lighting: Hudson Valley Lighting

Paint: Dunn-Edwards Paints

Furniture: Joybird, Article

Textiles: The Citizenry

Appears In

Rental Revamp: A Comedian’s L.A. Digs Get a Plush, Boudoir Treatment