This Influencer Spent $2,697 to Make Her Guest Room Look Like a Boutique Hotel Restaurant

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Photo: Paige Newton

When Nnedy Obiwuru worked in sports marketing, travel was one of the job’s major perks. For the millennial, the highlight of every business trip was checking into a boutique hotel; she loved having permission to indulge in the comfort and hospitality of these luxurious spaces—an extravagance that was completely foreign to her as a child of immigrants growing up in Los Angeles. While the concept of taking a vacation has been a huge learning curve for Obiwuru since then, she’s certainly not complaining about being a booked and busy adult now.

So when Obiwuru and her fiancé moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Austin, she was adamant about recreating the boutique hotel experience within the 1335-square-foot space. As soon as she began posting the transformation process on TikTok and Instagram in 2023, Obiwuru quickly attracted an audience of devotees fully invested in her ongoing journey. “There’s nothing I’ve done that isn’t irreversible, it’s just thinking outside of the box,” she insists.

Even though the thirtysomething lives in a rental, that hasn’t discouraged her from taking big risks like installing wall panels with ornamental molding or building custom furniture. For Obiwuru, the reward is living in a space that embodies her most authentic self within every single detail. “The idea of having a home is just a little bit farther out than I thought it would be when I was 21,” she says. “This is where we are for the foreseeable future, so I’m going to make it as big and as grand as I can.” Hotel Chelsea in New York City and The Hoxton in Los Angeles served as Obiwuru’s main points of reference, but when it came to designing a home bar on the level of the iconic El Quijote in the spare guest room, she turned to another protagonist for inspiration: Shrek.

“As a kid, I felt so connected to the ogre experience, being different from people at school and the world around me, and never feeling like I really fit in,” she explains. “I named this bar The Last Layer, which is a nod to Shrek and ogres having layers... It’s also the last layer of our home and our last big room transformation for 2024.”

Complete with a fully functional (and foldable) bar, red velvet banquette seating, moody lighting, and framed photos of jazz legends on the walls, it feels like stepping into a modern speakeasy. Are you now wondering, Is it time to break up with my bar cart? Obiwuru certainly thinks so. “We had the bar cart, it was one of the first things I bought,” she admits. “You’re not making drinks on top of it, it’s just a glorified shelf. Having this dedicated space for bar activity, and also other things, elevates the experience.”

Another magic touch? When overnight guests come to town, the café tables, bistro chairs, and bar can all be swapped out for a bed frame and mattress. “Most of the time we have [the bar] in our closet, we only bring it out if people are coming or if we want to have a date,” she adds.

While swampy aesthetics were not included on the moodboard for The Last Layer (leave that to Airbnb), there are subtle Shrek motifs embedded throughout the space, like branded matchboxes with the title character’s illustration on the back. “We call them hidden Shreks because I don’t like anything to be too obvious, so it’s fun when you find those little nuggets,” Obiwuru laughs. In addition to moving her infamous Shrek painting from the hallway to the bar, plans for a Shrek-themed cocktail menu are underway for upcoming functions.

“It’s definitely the room I’m probably the most proud of,” she says. “It’s wild to think a movie like Shrek would continue to have the impact that it does, you can be inspired by anything. So, while it doesn’t look like a swamp in here, it still gives off the same feeling as watching the film.”

Did you have a budget?

The budget is always zero, honestly. There’s no budget. Because I thrift a lot, I always think, “This is what I want to do, how do I do it the cheapest?” I also spread it out and don’t do everything at once. In this room, my brain was like, “Keep it under $2,000.” The budget is always no budget and then get it as cheap as you can.

How would you describe your aesthetic?

I love all things old. With my parents being immigrants and coming here, I didn’t have a lot of things passed down—I think that’s why I find myself leaning more toward vintage and heirloom pieces that are meaningful. My style is vintage and traditional. Once I turned 30, there was a funk that started coming out… There’s a hotel in New Orleans called Maison Métier and they really play with this sexy, funky, traditional vibe; that’s where I find myself landing. Honestly, it’ll probably change with age, but that’s where my thirties are looking.

What was your inspiration for this room specifically?

I wanted this to be a place where you’re peeling off the layers of the day. When we get home from work or come back from a hard day, we leave everything outside, come in here, close the door, put a record on, and we’re able to be our full selves. I’ve got these little matchboxes that say “The Last Layer” with Shrek on the back. I’ve also got coasters and menus in here, when people come in we get to have a restaurant experience. All the layers of yourself really get to be celebrated in this room.

What was your approach to furnishing the room?

[The banquette] was the first piece of furniture I built—I don’t know if I’d recommend doing that again, but it did work. This room is so multifunctional; it’s our office, a guest room, and a dining space. The banquette took us about two or three weeks to build. The chairs I already had and then I built the bar after I did [the banquette]. Our approach to furniture was, “What do I already have on hand and how can I zhuzh that up?”

This room was a completely empty white box when we moved in. I got this paneling and molding on top at Home Depot. Granted everything is renter friendly—saying “renter friendly” for me is, if there’s a couple holes, I know how to fill them and get the security deposit back. We made sure to put minimal holes on this. Sometimes people use command strips or things like that, but we are going to be here for a while. It was so inexpensive.

What was your biggest splurge?

Overall, the biggest splurge was this banquette. It’s also fully removable so I can take this out and put it in the kitchen if I want. I wanted banquette seating and online they cost $4,000 or $5,000, which wasn’t something I could do. Taking out the cost of buying the tools, it was $700, which is unheard of for a nine-by-four-foot bench. That was definitely the biggest splurge, but I knew it was going to set the whole vibe of the room, especially when I wanted to go in with brown walls. I knew having a red velvet against brown was not common, but it’s comforting enough to the eyes that it wouldn’t be off-putting.

What was your best deal?

Everyone had the craze with the picture lights from Amazon. I have them everywhere, but I felt like it limited how luxurious the space could feel and look because it wasn’t real metal. I didn’t want to have the cord because you can’t do any hard wiring here. These are pricey for me, they’re $100 each, and for a rental space that would be over budget. But for me, I feel like the bang for your buck is just six batteries… It’s a small detail that changes everything in here. Those are the things you can’t thrift—I thrift a ton, but it’s hard to thrift wall sconces. The pieces I love the most are the ones that I find with my hands and didn’t necessarily go looking for. This is leaning away from that, but then we get into the politics of cost and accessibility.

What are some things that, to you, were well worth the price?

I know it’s simple, but I would say paint. Specifically painting the ceiling. It’s not the most expensive, but if you’re adding in labor costs for outsourcing it or doing it yourself. It’s like mental warfare, painting a whole room and a ceiling. As a renter, it’s the easiest thing you can do to transform the space. It wasn’t the most fun or the easiest, but if this room was just painted alone with nothing else in it I think it could still have some type of a feeling.

When we first moved in, I was like, “We need the paneling up and we need all the rooms painted the first day.” I was really into green, so originally this room was a very dark army green—it’s maybe not the best for your mental [health] to be sitting in that color all day. I know people shy away from a glossy paint job, especially in apartments, but a lot of the restaurants that I would go to with speakeasy feelings are always glossy. I was between this brown, a dark navy, or a dark red, but I started seeing more red popping around and navy felt too nautical. It was just going to be this bottom half that was brown, I wanted it to look like wood, but then I kept going. That whole process of selecting brown was probably just a day.

Do you have a favorite piece in the room?

I have two favorite pieces, but the serious favorite piece is this fringe lamp. It’s so fun. Three years ago I would be mortified by this lamp. It would be too busy, too much. As I’ve been on my self-love journey, what was once too much is just right right now. Being able to bring the funk into this classic-looking, Italian-feeling room really just sparks so much. All the things I have coming up in this room are leaning more into that funky fringe feel. I saw it at [Homesense] and had an emotional attachment to it, but I was like, “No, it’s too much. I can’t.” Two weeks later, I went back to go get it and it wasn’t there. I went across the street to HomeGoods and it was sitting there in the corner so I just grabbed it. It’s definitely the most talked about piece in this room. On the less serious side, I have an “employee’s only” sticker on my closet [door]. It’s such a small touch, but I’m kind of playing house here like when you’re a kid. Having that sticker on there is the one thing that’s so common outside in a restaurant. Every time I see it, that makes me laugh.

Do you regret making any purchases?

What I’ve learned as a [self-taught] designer is that the best things take a little bit of time; when you’re building it immediately you remove the character from it. Every time I see [my rugs] it’s probably my least favorite. That’s my weak spot, rugs and pillows. It wasn’t something I grew up with, like this pillow for here and this rug for there, so I have no emotional connection to those items. I was rushing to buy rugs that don’t necessarily fit the space anymore, they outgrew it within a couple months. I haven’t cracked it yet; if I get it right it feels like luck whereas everything else I have a pretty good handle on. The rugs that we did get were from this store called Tuesday Morning and there are knicks on them so you get them for cheap. Both of the rugs we got were under $200, which was super exciting at the time, but I wish I just held on to the $400.

At this point, is the room complete or is it still a work in progress?

The next step for us is this bar. For [my fiancé] John’s birthday we’re throwing a “bring a bottle” party because stocking the bar by yourself is a big feat. We’ll be decking out and adding lighting in the bar. We want to make the walls a bit more innate and add some more art, and finally figure out the rug situation. As far the room goes, the bones are done. I’m not someone who painted it brown today and then next year it’s going to be red. It’ll probably be brown for its entire life. I did it all with intention so it won’t change fast because it was a hard project.

Shop products inspired by Nnedy Obiwuru’s guest room

Full Length Wall Mirror

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Set of 2 Emery Metal Bistro Chair

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Leandro Hazel Green Single L-Shaped Loveseat Dining Banquette

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Modern Vintage Drumbare Dimmable Chandelier

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Aiwen Vintage Modern Wall Sconce

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Employees Only Sign

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5-Shelf Bookcase with Adjustable Shelves

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Behr Rave Raisin

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This story is a part of Room Receipts, a series where we get real about the costs behind one well-designed room. From big budget spenders to thrifty thinkers, we’re talking to people from different worlds about their worth-it splurges, budget hacks, and purchase regrets. We’re always on the hunt for cool homes with a unique story, so if you’re interested in being featured tell us more about your space here.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest