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A woman redecorated her dimly lit apartment after her roommate disappeared for two months
The roommate, who hadn’t paid rent or replied to messages, returned expecting to move back in
Now the two women are at odds after the roommate finds the unexpected changes triggering her migraines
A woman turns to the Reddit community for advice following a dramatic fallout with her roommate over a major apartment makeover. In a now-viral post, she asks if she’s in the wrong for redecorating while her roommate was away.
“My roommate was struggling with work stress and said she needed to get away for a while,” she writes. According to the woman, her roommate called it a “temporary break” and said she’d be staying with her sister across the country.
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Stock photo of a woman painting her apartment
Confused by the vague nature of the departure, the woman asked for clarification. “She said she needed space to figure things out and asked me to give her that,” the post continues.
After her roommate left, the woman tried to reach out. “I sent her a few messages checking if she made it there okay and asking how she was doing,” she shares, adding that there was “radio silence.”
“I called once and left a voicemail asking if she was planning to come back at all. Nothing,” she writes. Feeling ghosted, she turned to her coworkers for support.
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“I was frustrated about being stuck with full rent,” she explains. Her manager encouraged her to “do something positive to reclaim the space and make it feel like mine again.”
The apartment had been kept dark to accommodate the roommate’s sensitivity. “My roommate has severe light sensitivity and migraines,” she notes, explaining why the space had been filled with “heavy curtains and soft lighting.”
But with no response and no rent from her roommate, she made a decision. “I figured she’d basically moved out without telling me,” she says, so she redecorated the entire place.
“I painted the walls bright white, hung sheer curtains, added several large mirrors, and installed new overhead LED fixtures,” she shares. “The place went from a cave to feeling like a sunny studio apartment.”
Two months later, the woman received a sudden message from her roommate. “She was flying back next week and we needed to discuss ‘resuming our arrangement,’ ” the post reads.
She says she was confused by the wording. “I texted back asking what she was talking about since she’d moved out,” she writes, and again, she received no response.
Then, out of the blue, her roommate appeared at the apartment. “She showed up with her suitcases talking about how much personal growth she’d done,” the woman writes, adding her roommate was “excited about our future as roommates.”
That excitement turned to outrage the moment she stepped inside. “She walked into the living room and completely lost it,” the post reads.
“She asked how I could redecorate everything when I know bright lights trigger her migraines,” the woman continues. “I told her that since she’d moved out, I didn’t think her preferences mattered anymore.”
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Stock photo of a woman decorating her apartment
The roommate insisted she never moved out. “She said she told me it was temporary and she was staying with family,” the woman recalls.
But the original poster stands firm. “I said abandoning me with no communication for two months was moving out,” she writes. “We went in circles until she said she had to leave because the lighting was already giving her a headache.”
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Now, the woman is wondering if she’s truly in the wrong. “I think she moved out and I had every right to redecorate my own place,” she writes. “She thinks she was just taking a break and I deliberately made the apartment unlivable for her.”
Commenters were quick to take sides, with many backing the poster. “Since she didn’t pay rent for 2 months, per your comment, you are NTA,” one writes. “She hadn’t responded to any of your texts, hadn’t paid rent, and therefore abandoned the apartment.”
Another adds, “If she had made a plan to stay in touch and pay rent it would have been one thing. However, she stopped paying rent and ghosted you entirely.”
As for the roommate’s return? “I’d change the locks and check your lease to see what your options are,” one user advises. For now, the woman is left in a much brighter space, but a very dark friendship.
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