I’ve been so absent lately because I have been so busy behind the scenes designing and shooting so many projects. We finished and shot three full rooms in my brother’s house, and then went down to the mountain house to shoot the new rug collection for a week. It’s been a lot and this summer is not slowing down, but it’s extremely fun and fulfilling. I wanted to give you a little update on the next room we are tackling and show you more in-process as we are actually designing it. Here we go. This house has a lot of rooms which is both very fun and kinda daunting to figure out what gets done first. So my strategy is to pitch rooms to the partners that are appropriate to the room and as we secure contracts we tackle said room (if you want a whole substack on the inside of the business let me know in the comments, it’s something I’m very much excited to share as I have a wealth of experience, but probably more specific to those in the biz). When I’m pitching partners I don’t always do them in order, it’s really what contract gets finalized first and then based on the partner’s expectations and deadlines – which means that while you’d think I’d be pulling together the living room or dining room first, instead my 9-year-old niece is about to get a pretty dope bedroom (I’m going to call her Kay from now on here). She moved in with a mattress and an old dresser, which is honestly fine – she’s 9, but it motivated me to jump it on the priority list. I pitched Kay’s room to All Modern because her room (as is much of the house) lends itself to a more post-modern design (curvy, graphic, and contemporary with a lot of streamlined silhouettes and organic materials in non-rustic but warm finishes). They bit, we negotiated, and I pulled the design together, shooting in two weeks. But while Kay is a 9, she, like all girls, is both a child and an aspiring teenager. I learned a lot with Elliot’s bedroom (more on that later) that while they still play with stuffies and crawl into bed with us at night, they stylistically are desperate to identify with being a tween, if not a full-on teen. And I get that. I have proof of me feeling this way on a questionnaire from Kindergarten AND 3rd grade. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I said repeatedly “teenager”. So I get it. Ladies, if you want to decorate a “little girls” room you have maybe 6 years to do it. By the time they are 8, they are DONE with anything that looks “little kid” (yes, including butterfly wallpaper…again, more on that cautionary tale later). Anyway, I’ll show you the room and the major pieces. Then if you can help me with some tween ideas that would be just MAGICAL.
The Room – Headboard Wall
The room is big and has beautiful white oak Stuga floors and black Marvin windows. We love the windows and all the natural light they bring in, and I’ll incorporate hits of black into the room to ensure that these don’t become the focus and add window treatments so that their lines are softened. We chose Drift, from Stuga on the ceilings and white oak doors. It’s a pretty, big, well-lit box that literally anybody would be lucky to have.
She has a nice reach-in closet and a built-in bench seat. The ceilings are vaulted (with a really pretty chandelier that didn’t make it into these photos).
Storage Talk…
Ok as a reminder, the plans for this house were done 3-4 years ago when Kay was 5-6 and the future needs were kinda unknown. Besides, they are just kids’ rooms so the architect designed these niches and Ken/Katie put in bench seats. Great. But now Kay wants a desk. Do I think that Kay is going to sit at her desk to do her homework a lot? Who knows. But both she and my daughter really want a desk in their room (Elliot’s is for crafting and journaling, both of which she does like twice a month in her room) to mostly to feel older, I think. All I want to say is, “LADIES, YOU MAY HAVE DECADES OF SITTING AT A DESK LIKE AN ADULT, GRAB A BOOK AND SNUGGLE ON A BENCH SEAT!!” Only time will tell if she’ll use the bench a lot – I’ve stopped pretending that I know what kids will like or dislike in a couple of years. Those developing brains/identities and styles are unpredictable (as they should be). That’s all to say that while we have this awesome bench, we actually do need to bring in a dresser for storage and I’m also very excited to put a cute upholstered cushion on that bench. The sconces are from Rejuvenation and match the chandelier and we love how graphic, modern, and a bit playful they are.
The Closet
As you can see the closet was built out by a carpenter and then wallpapered (by Second Mile) in an awesome large gold Scandi pattern. Near the end of any remodel you start cutting costs, desperate to turn off the firehose of money, and the shelves were so much cheaper than drawers – still awesome, but yeah she needs some basic drawers for clothes.
What 9-Year-Old Kay Wants…
Ok, while I want her to like the room of course, her parents and I are MUCH more focused on making sure it’s simple enough that she can add whatever layer of “Kay stuff” she wants over the next 10 years because we know her style will change and we don’t want to box her in. She wanted lime green graphic wallpaper one day, purple the next. She does NOT want anything hot pink or pink in general (Whoops, too bad? It’s just the bedding!) so her mom and I settled on green for the actual bed (great, but not lime green) and some soft purple accents. So much more will be added of course, but here is the working mood board (most all from All Modern).
Table Mirror | Pink Lamp | Wood Tray | Desk | Desk Chair | Tapestry | Bed | Sconce | Bud Vase Set | Checkered Object | Green Pedestal | Squiggle Mirror | Drum Side Table | Black Lamp | Dresser | Striped Pillowcases | Blush Bedding | Blue Pillow | Floating Shelf | Curtain | Floor Mirror
All the major pieces here could absolutely go in a grownup room (some could even go in a living room). They are high quality and fit perfectly in the house. The accessories are a bit more trendy, but that’s fine – this room can’t look like a serious room so it is fun to bring in some shapes that feel more “now” (like the squiggle lamp and our DIY rick rack curtain – those are from Anthropologie, but we are doing a different version for blackout curtains). I’ll go into more detail about each piece later (including that awesome tapestry that we are using as art above the bed – I hope), but for now, I’m focused on bringing in the more fun stuff that feels more tween. I’m skipping symmetry in this bedroom in exchange for a more fun vibe, and hoping that the desk (on one side) will feel balanced by the dresser on the opposite-of-window wall. The rug, not known as it’s from our new collection, was designed literally just for her room, and yes it’s the most beautiful sophisticated “purple” (dark mauve) ever and one that I would honestly put in my own room (comes out in October!).
But What Do Tweens and Teens Like In Their Rooms?
So this question is for those of you who have or have had a tween/teen. I’m not on TikTok and don’t follow the tween influencers on YouTube (obviously, lol) but I have a sense that they want stuff that feels irreverent, funky, and very personal to them. I think they are still into “aesthetic” style (meaning creating a vibe) which might include some LED string lights, faux greenery (are they still doing that?), posters, and mini-polaroids. We have a fun corkboard DIY that we are trying and I’m on the hunt for funny-shaped pillows for the bench (are food pillows a thing?). I think they like to collect little things (at least Elliot does) so having a more dedicated spot for that could be good. Anyway, let me know if there are any fun themes or ideas that they are into. Charlie just wants posters and does NOT want me to “decorate” it (fine, bro, I have other fish to fry) and I get the feeling that that’s more what they want – a palette for them to put all their “stuff”. So it’s always an interesting existential conundrum when you need to properly reveal a nicely designed room to the internet, but 9-year-olds aren’t exactly excited about white oak. I know I can make it look good, but I want her to really feel like she can grow with it and make it HERS. It’s actually so much fun to work with a great partner and then add a really personal spin. Wish me luck!!!
*Photos by Kaitlin Green