Decorating A Shared Bedroom For A Boy & Girl & How To Keep The Peace

Using her favorite color palette of purples

The room should not be themey or too babylike/childlike

As much storage as possible

Enough floor space for play. Although they have a game room where the kids all play together, she still wanted some play area in their room

Stylish and imaginative

Cohesive and gender neutral

Use color to add personality and define each kid’s special space. Here we started with “electric blue” walls as I called them. My client wanted to use purple as the color palette. Adding an interesting paint technique of the bold horizontal stripes brings in a ton of personality and made an interesting back drop for the rest of the space. A touch of blue identified the boy side of the room, and apple green identified the girl side of the room

Make the room fun, imaginative and add a personal touch for each kid – The “alphabet soup” on the walls was a great way for the kids to learn the alphabet. Although the letters were placed at random, it was a good way for them to identify letters out of order. You will notice that on each wall, each child’s name is spelt out in their special color. On the boy side ASHER was spelt out in blue. On the girl side  ORLI was spelt out in apple green. The custom upholstered headboards also were created to mimic the shape of Fall leaves, and the custom duvet covers were full of jungle animals that they could search for and identify

Go vertical. This is a great way to add storage to any room. I always try to bring in vertical bookcases into kids’ rooms as storage for books and toys

Create storage from what would otherwise be wasted space – I had the bed and bookcases custom built on site with storage drawers underneath each bed. But I didn’t stop there: I also created storage between each bed with a custom window seat with additional storage inside. This is a great place for story time!

Edit and store stuff outside of the room if possible. You will notice that the bookcases are not cluttered and have just a few of the things they use a lot. For this bedroom, I also commissioned custom built-ins inside the closet (not shown). This is where most of the books and toys they don’t use everyday are kept. They also have a game room nearby for larger toys

Leave enough floor space for play time. Kids love to hang out in their rooms. Even if there are other play areas in the home, they still need a good amount of floor space to play

Make it Artful and Inspiring. My clients once owned an art gallery, so they have an appreciation for original art and want to teach their kids how to collect great works by great artists. We commissioned this original piece “Mother and Child” by Virginia artist Duane Cregger. 24×36 oil and mix media on canvas. You can view it on his website here. It does not have to be a commissioned art piece that you use to make the room artful and inspiring. You can have the kids paint their own original works of art and frame them to infuse their personality.

Fun and Interesting Lighting. Kids love to read in bed, so having lots of lighting in the room is great. Instead of going with basic fixtures, it is a great opportunity to bring in fun and interesting lighting. Here I chose a sunburst chandelier to maximize lighting along with 2 wall sconces.