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.
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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.
