The Online Home Decorating Blog

So far, we’ve taken care of the “essential” pieces in the room.  We have a bed, nightstands, and some storage.  Now, let’s finish out the big pieces with a workspace, and a whimsical seating area.

Again here’s our inspiration:

Our First Decorating Inspiration

Unless it’s a nursery, I always try to give kids their own workspace.  An enticing desk area fosters creativity, and makes homework just that much more bearable.  Remember, our young lady is right at school age, so she’ll be needing this soon, if not immediately.   Furthermore, if we think even further down the road, she’ll be wanting a vanity in a few years.  Why not choose a desk that can serve double duty, like this one:

White Desk / Vanity

Stylistically, I hope you see a trend developing with our earlier furniture selections.  Ahem:  “When it comes to children’s rooms, simpler is always better.”  Great clean lines, with elegant and classic detailing.  I want you to notice the pewter knobs, and how they relate back to the knobs on our dresser.  This is going to become important.  This “smart technology” desk features built-in plugs for chargers, laptop, blowdryer, curling iron… whatever.  The size is a perfect 48″ x 22″… wide enough to spread out projects, but shallow enough not to overwhelm the room. 

To work at the desk, we need a desk chair:

Wrought Iron Desk Chair

As I said, the metal is going to become important.  Iron is an integral part of that “garden feel” we’re creating, and I love that this desk chair feels like you could just as easily bring it out to the patio and be right at home – perfect for our look!  This chair is a regular size, not toddler size.  Make her feel important now, and she’ll have grown into it before you can blink.  (I’ve seen it happen.)  Later, when she has friends over, it can move anywhere in the room with ease for extra seating.

Now, for the desk to double as a vanity, we’ll have to have a great mirror:

Wrought Iron Garden Gate Mirror

Omg, too fabulous for words.  My original plan for the mirror had been to choose something white, in a window pane style.  I got to thinking down the road though, and started visualizing it caked with makeup and hairspray… Hmmm… Maybe not the best plan.  This mirror?  Now this mirror I am IN LOVE WITH.  When the “gates” are closed, it’s a beautiful garden ornament.  When opened, a smooth expanse of mirror, ideal for The Fairest Of Them All to prep herself for her subjects.

“But Kristy, we’re mixing metals!!!!!”  Shhhh…. I know, it’s ok.  You can do that!  “I can?”  Yes, you can.  Now don’t go throwing in some slick nickel business, or a gilded French mantel mirror.  What’s important is that you keep sight of your objective.  As long as you have your desired finished look in mind, everyone will play nicely together at the end. 

Finally, what little girl doesn’t dream of a window seat?  (And what parent doesn’t dream of more storage for all her crap… I mean “treasures“?)  This piece gives you BOTH what you want:

White Bench = Windowseat!

Look at all those drawers and baskets!  It comes in several sizes (from 24″ to 60″), making it workable under almost any window, but certainly, it could also go at the foot of the bed, depending on what size frame you’re using.  The baskets have exactly the garden appeal we’re looking for, and yet again, the lines of the piece are pretty, but uncomplicated.  The baskets could be lined, pillows added, and the cushion easily re-covered with a lovely coordinating fabric, like one of these:

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

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(FYI, sample 3 is much more brilliant in real life – vivid lime and aqua and blue.  If you want to order yardage of any of these fabrics, let me know.  I can order them for you at a substantial discount over retail.)

That takes care of all of the furniture pieces – our room is now fully functional.  No matter what your requirements, or how odd your space shape, these items can be used any number of ways to meet your needs. 

Next up, we add the pretty stuff, and bring the room to life!

Until next time,

P.S.  Need a boy’s room?  Or a teen room?  Check these out:  http://www.onlinehomedecorating.com/kids-rooms

Welcome back! 

Today we’re going to be adding furniture to our little girl’s butterfly garden bedroom.  To refresh, the item that started us down this path was this lovely bedding ensemble:

Our First Decorating Inspiration

Now, we need a bed to put it on.  In the photo above, they show a white wrought iron bed, which I think is the right idea.  The fine lines of the wrought iron keep the bed feeling light and open.  This is great for small spaces, as children’s rooms tend to be.  I also like the fact that it allows you to appreciate the bedding more fully.  A bed with a solid footboard would cause you to lose a good deal of the pattern.  This is the bed we’ll be going with:

White Wrought Iron Bed

When it comes to children’s furniture, simpler is always better.  I love the clean lines of this piece.  It will transition with her, as her tastes inevitably change.  It can be so tempting, especially in girls’ rooms, to go over-the-top girlie, just because we can, but if you don’t want to be redoing this in a few years, resist the urge (and save your dollars).  Plus, just look at those glass bed-post finials…  FABULOUS!!  Those will take her from princess, to punk rock, to preppy with no problem.

Now, the nightstands:

Open Shelf Nightstands

I didn’t say we weren’t putting ANY curves in this room!  This piece is beautiful, unique, and multi-functional – everything you want in a kid’s room design.  The petite size (only 21.5″ wide) allows it to work even in tiny rooms.  Use two if your space is larger, or use the bigger size they have available.  Need closed storage?  Add baskets to the shelves (which is great for sorting papers, books, magazines, and toys anyway).  Small room?  Leave the shelves open and just add a few books or decorative pieces for color and texture.  Like the bed above, open space will make the room feel larger.

If you have kids, you have stuff, and for stuff you need storage:

5-Shelf Bookcase

I LOVE this bookcase.  Girls in particular always need space to display their personal treasures and accomplishments, but all kids need storage for books, toys, photos, music, school supplies, stuffed animals… you name it.  The great thing about bookcases is that they become whatever you need, whenever you need them to.  Look at the way the bun feet and the rounded columns tie in with the nightstands… feminine, but classic.  We’re going with a 60″, 5-shelf bookcase, which is more appropriately scaled for a small child’s room than a full 72″ height, and it’s only 31″ wide, again keeping in mind that kids’ rooms tend to be smaller. 

When I’m pressed for space, the first piece of furniture I eliminate is usually the dresser.  I find them cumbersome, they require a great deal of valuable wall space, they tend to be havens for junk we don’t know what to do with, and in most modern homes, are completely unnecessary.  I know not everyone shares that opinion, and I know that there are homes where more storage for clothing is essential, so for those spaces, this is the dresser we’ll be using:

8-Drawer Dresser

When selecting the dresser, I was going back and forth between two options – this one, and one with a serpentine front, ring pulls on the drawers, and trumpet shaped legs.  The other one was beautiful (and over twice the price), but remember what I said about the bed?  ”When it comes to children’s rooms, simpler is ALWAYS better.”  Keep this in mind on any major investment pieces.  You WILL thank yourself later, and so will she.  With any luck, these pieces will see her not just through her youth, but through highschool, into college, and and maybe even into her first place.  How cool would this piece look with funky knobs?  With fabric or paper applied to the drawer fronts?  Painted black?  (Hint:  VERY.) 

Note:  This is a freebie for blog readers only!  The dresser does not appear in the finished room design!

We’ll finish up furniture in our next post.  Yep, there’s more, and yep, it can absolutely all fit beautifully, even in a small space!  Trust me!  :D

Until next time,

P.S.  For more fabulous kids’ room ideas, visit the Online Home Decorating kid’s room department!

Ok, I’m assuming you’ve got your _________ in hand, and are ready to design a room around it.  Sooooooo…  now what?

The first step is to figure out what room your _________ is going in.  What room are we designing here?  Sometimes this is obvious.  Eg:  My inspiration piece is a bedding ensemble.  I’m reasonably certain we’re doing a bedroom.  If your _________ could go just about anywhere, then decide to put it in whatever room you were doing next.  POOF!  Starting point!

The next room on my to-do list was a young girl’s room.  I wanted to target the little misses who are definitely still children – out of their baby years, but not yet hardened “tweens…” :P  Think 6-8ish.  This can be a tough age for parents to figure out what to do with their daughter’s space.  They know they need something that will keep her satisfied for quite some time (college is still a loooooooong ways off), but that’s not too grown up (for heaven’s sake, she’s only six!). 

This was the __________ that lit up MY life:

Behold: My "Whatsit"

I fell in love with this ensemble for a several reasons: 

• First, the color palette.  Lime and aqua are nearly omni-present right now, and frankly, when you’re a designer, on-going trends can get a little tiresome.  But this feels different… fresh, and snappy… which I attribute to the addition of the vibrant blue. 
• Second, the butterflies.  Butterflies are a common theme for girl’s rooms, but these are neither too sophisticated, nor too babyish.  Instead, they’re graphically rendered, and combined with rather retro-feeling flowers.  With a little tweaking down the road, this could keep even our worldly tween happy!
• Third, they didn’t feel the need to hit you over the head with too much repetition in the ensemble.  As much as I love the economics of the bed-in-a-bag, one of my beefs is that they tend to use waaaaaaay too much of one or two patterns.  Does it have to look  like a bed-in-a-bag?  With this ensemble, the sheet and pillowcases have been  scaled down to a floral miniprint, which is great, because I’m pretty sure that a duvet full of giant butterflies is plenty.
• Fourth, machine washable.  ‘Nuff said, right parents?  Right.

The next step is to determine what you want to accomplish with your inspiration piece.  What look will you be going for?  How do you want it to feel when you’re done?

Since the pattern on the duvet makes me want to put on a frilly dress and pour everyone lemonade, I decided to create a playful garden feel – the ideal place for our petite princess to hostess a perfect tea party, or to dream her way to fairy-land.  By the way, this is a perfectly valid way to decide what to do with a room.  If you were your new __________, what kind of room would you belong in?  What does it make you feel like doing?

The answers to those questions will define all of your selections from this point, making your life much, MUCH easier, by means of eliminating the riff-raff.  For example, if the piece I am considering is not…

• whimsical / playful
• fresh
• garden-feeling
• relaxed / vintage
• youthful but not childish

… Then it’s not going in my room.

Now that we’ve established where we’re headed, and what the criteria are for those who wish to join us, we’re ready to start decorating!

Until next time,

P.S.  If you pay close attention going forward, you’ll see I’m pretty much giving away a free room design. ;-)  Shhhh.