A long time ago, I read an article in House Beautiful wherein an interior decorator asked a young girl what her favorite colors were. “Pink, orange, and leopard.” The decorator went on to decorate an incredible bedroom that was indeed pink, orange, and leopard. I love the honesty and variety of children’s likes, and how much fun for a decorator to use a kid’s own wild answers as inspiration for a final room?
When it was time for us to furnish Bean’s big girl room, I gave up the reins and let her make the decisions. Well, mostly. Dave and I agreed to and bought the big items. Bean was then let loose in Ikea to pick smaller pieces of furniture, colors, her bed, and textiles.
Are you imagining a riot of colors and patterns? (Should I give you the hint that she may be a little obsessed with Ikea and furniture catalogs, even at the ripe age of 2?)
Here’s how we did.
First up, this is the mood board I came up with, to show Dave how I imagined our then-living room transformed into a kid’s room.
Greens, blues, pops of red and yellow. My Swedish moment may never pass.
Now, Bean had already picked out the bedspread and geometric pillow on prior Ikea visits, and I knew she’d insist on the child Poang chair based on how many hours she’d already spent sitting on one in the Ikea showroom with pleading glances. Like the adult I am, I picked items that coordinated with her bedspread but in a colorful, playful way.
Here’s what Bean picked.
Is it me, or does her room actually look more refined and cohesive than mine? Shades of grey, cream, blue, pink, and red. I found a quilt her grandmother sent us a year ago, that had been hanging in her nursery, and it fit seamlessly into Bean’s color palette. Also note the (faux) sheepskin rug she insisted we go home with, that anchors the chair and creates an incredibly cozy reading nook.
(Just an FYI, the hot pink lamp eventually had to go, because it caused stabbing pain in my eyes. Literally. We replaced it with the Ikea holiday lantern.)
Our experiment turned out pretty well, I think. I thought it’d be cute-funny, but it ended up being cute-cute. Who knew?
