Creating the perfect gender neutral bedroom at Granny & Grandad’s

I’m thrilled to share another client project here.  I was contacted by the delightful Dorothy and Dave who wanted help to turn a bedroom that had once belonged to their son into a bedroom for their grandchildren Artie and Bea to use when they came to stay.  Aged 1 and almost three at the time, the brief was to create a gender neutral room which was fun and engaging whilst offering a relaxing environment that was also easy for the couple to maintain.

After an initial site visit I met with the couple to present my ideas.  Presenting the mood boards above and below:

The plan

Dorothy and Dave wanted a space which would excite their granchildren, a place for them to play and learn as well as a place to sleep.  The room should have bunk beds for when the children are a little older, storage, a child’s desk and floor space for play time.

The room would need to have all the fitted furniture removed before work could begin and the wood chip wallpaper stripped from the ceiling and walls too.  Once all the existing fitted furniture and wallpaper was removed the walls would need to be made good and lining paper applied to ceiling and walls.  I arranged for a local tradesman to remove and dispose of all the existing furniture, after which the decorator spent time stripping, making good and re decorating the room.

The Starting Point

The starting point for the scheme was Borastapeter’s whimsical woodland Charlie wallpaper.  Available in two colourways, I chose the darker version, which I felt would help to create a calm and relaxing bedtime space.

Colour scheme

Farrow and Ball’s Blue Gray perfectly complemented the wallpaper and was used on two walls.  Light grey bunk beds, an oak wardrobe and a natural coloured wool carpet all picked out colours from the wallpaper.  Both the newly lined ceiling and the coving was freshened with a couple of coats of pure brilliant white.  The window was dressed with bespoke linen mix curtains with black out linings by local business I Stitch Bespoke

Storage and furniture

I worked with the clients to source furniture for the room, we decided on bunk beds and a slim wardrobe from Wayfair and a compact desk from Ikea.  Ikea’s Mosslanda picture ledges were perfect to display books and toys, pom pom belly baskets provided colourful storage for toys too.

Textiles

Ikea’s Emmie Ruta bedding was the perfect shade of green to complement the scheme.  I sourced vintage crochet blankets and patchwork cushions which added a homespun style to the room.  I also found some super cute hedgehog cushions at Dunelm which were perfect too.

 

 

Accessories

I sourced accessories that would complement to the vintage look and feel of the room, I included Russian dolls, a large jointed wooden Hennow Hare and a small metal star  both available in my online store.  The couple had kept many toys and books belonging to their children which were incorporated within the room, these included two original Pelham puppets, a policeman and a queen, which look fantastic displayed in the room, to be played with when the children are old enough.  A set of cute woodland animal prints from Etsy displayed in simple white frames were displayed over the desk.

 

Did I fulfil the brief?

Thanks

Huge thanks to Dorothy and Dave for trusting me to create a special place for their grandchildren.  Thanks also to Alex for these fantastic photos.