A Modern Baby’s Room - Future-Proofed
Our youngest, Miki, turned one this Summer, and up until now has been sleeping in a small, sterile, box room next to the master bedroom – which was meant to be my office.
When we moved into the house last year, there was still so much to do, this space was part of a hallway on the top floor, originally designed to become an open plan office – but we had so many other priorities at the time! Once we started living in, and using the space, I figured that I could separate the hallway and office with some clever storage, so I designed a solution of two back-to-back, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves sandwiching a 1m wide door, which slides between the shelves to be almost completely hidden.
This solution, not only keeps the space feeling open and free-flowing when the door is open, but when the sliding door is closed, it forms a small, private bedroom.
The room is compact and measures just over 2m square and was painted in an extremely pale grey before I started on it. The thinking behind the design of this space, is that I wanted it to feel cosy and calm as a kid’s bedroom, but down the line, it also had to function as an office, so I kept both functions in mind throughout the design process, particularly for any permanent elements.
I always aim to be bold with the design in smaller rooms, I think that if you keep them painted white - with the traditional thinking that white makes a room feel larger - the room can end up looking a bit plain and uninspiring. To add interest to the blank walls, I decided to add the modern, angled wood panelling, it’s quite easy to achieve, I did this myself using wooden battens and a hand saw (but I would recommend using an electrical one!) fixing the longer pieces with screws, but mainly using an adhesive like No More Nails for the majority of the smaller pieces. Then filling and sanding any gaps before painting. You can see a photo I took during the process below.
As this is mainly Miki’s sleeping space – playing and other activities usually take place downstairs in the open-plan living areas, I decided to go dark on two of the walls, choosing a mossy grey-green by Farrow & Ball caled Green Smoke. It works with the existing light grey and darkens it just enough for that cosy feeling at bed-time, but it’s also a colour I really like, and find quite calming, so when it becomes my office, I won’t need to re-decorate.
In contrast to the angles and moody colour, and to make the room more playful for a little one, I included lots of texture and softer elements in the form of velvet, wicker, string and felt.
The light grey and white stars rug is from the new nursery collection by Carpetright, was kindly gifted to me, it lightens the floor with subtle pattern, but I love that you can still see the wooden herringbone flooring around the edges of the room.
I couldn’t believe my luck when I found the perfect length gold velvet fabric in a charity shop which I made into a curtain. The gold works really well next to the smoky green and softens the look of the wooden shutters. Putting my trusty old sewing machine to work, I also made the mustard star cushion and seat pad out of some Ikea cushion covers.
I wanted to add a textural, playful light to the room, after researching dozens online, I had the idea of by wrapping natural twine around an old wire frame shade to create the hanging pendant – finishing it off by adding a few brightly coloured tassels.
The gorgeous cloud and raindrops hanging is from a new brand I discovered recently called Liten Hem, and the plant hanging I found in a store in France when we were on holiday. The beautiful tiger print bedding is by Lulu & Nat, who do playful bedding and PJs in fun, original prints.
I feel I’ve certainly made this small room earn it’s place in the house. Miki absolutely loves it and can’t wait to take it over as my office in the next couple of years - when I’ll probably write another blog post about it!
With thanks to Carpetright for gifting the bespoke size stars rug, which was made by cutting to size and whipping the edges, it’s available in a range of colours from blue or pink to neutral silver or natural beige.