A woman recently turned to Reddit for guidance after a dramatic fallout with her roommate over a bold apartment makeover. In a now-viral post, she asked the internet whether she was wrong for redecorating their shared space while her roommate was away.

“My roommate was overwhelmed with work stress and said she needed to get away for a while,” the woman explained. According to her, the roommate described the departure as a “temporary break” and mentioned staying with her sister on the other side of the country.

Seeking clarity, the woman asked what that meant exactly. “She said she needed space to figure things out and asked me to give her that,” she wrote.

After her roommate left, the woman attempted to stay in touch. “I sent her a few messages to make sure she arrived safely and to check how she was doing,” she recalled, adding that she received no reply.

“I called once and left a voicemail asking if she planned to come back at all. Still nothing,” she said. Feeling abandoned, she turned to her coworkers for emotional support.

“I was frustrated about being left to cover the full rent,” she shared. One of her managers encouraged her to “do something positive to reclaim the space and make it feel like mine again.”

The apartment had previously been kept dim to accommodate her roommate’s needs. “My roommate suffers from severe light sensitivity and migraines,” the woman noted, which is why the apartment had “heavy curtains and soft lighting.”

But after weeks of silence and no rent payments, she made a decision. “I figured she’d basically moved out without officially saying so,” she explained—and with that, she redecorated the entire place.

“I painted the walls bright white, swapped out the curtains for sheers, added large mirrors, and installed new overhead LED fixtures,” she wrote. “It went from feeling like a cave to looking like a bright, airy studio.”

Two months later, she received a surprise message: her roommate said she was flying back soon and wanted to talk about “resuming our arrangement.”

Confused by the message, the woman responded asking what her roommate meant—after all, she thought she had moved out. Once again, she received no reply.

Then, unexpectedly, the roommate showed up at the apartment with her luggage in hand. “She arrived talking about how much personal growth she’d had,” the woman shared, adding that the roommate seemed “excited about our future as roommates.”

That excitement didn’t last. “She stepped into the living room and completely lost it,” the post reads.

“She asked how I could possibly redecorate knowing bright lights trigger her migraines,” the woman continued. “I told her I didn’t think her preferences mattered anymore since she had moved out.”

But the roommate disagreed. “She insisted she told me it was temporary and that she was staying with family,” the woman said.

Still, the original poster held her ground. “I told her vanishing for two months with zero communication counted as moving out,” she wrote. The argument escalated until the roommate finally said she needed to leave—the new lighting was already giving her a headache.

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Now, the woman is questioning whether she overstepped. “I think she moved out, and I had every right to redecorate my own place,” she wrote. “She believes she was just taking a break and that I intentionally made the apartment unlivable for her.”

Reddit commenters were quick to weigh in—most siding with the woman. “Since she didn’t pay rent for 2 months, per your comment, you are NTA,” one wrote. “She hadn’t responded to any of your texts, hadn’t paid rent, and therefore abandoned the apartment.”

Another added, “If she had stayed in touch and continued paying rent, that would be one thing. But she ghosted you entirely.”

As for the roommate’s sudden return? One user had a blunt suggestion: “I’d change the locks and check your lease to see what your options are.”

For now, the woman may be living in a sunnier space—but the future of the friendship remains clouded.