A bedroom for two

Every year, in September, as if it were Groundhog Day, I feel overcome by an uncontrollable desire to redecorate the whole house. I’m sure that happens to many of you, am I right? Most of the time, all this motivation turns into hot air. After a week, I’ve usually forgotten all about my projects which are postponed until I come back from holiday next time (back to square one…).

This particular time, I finally took the bull by the horns (so funny this expression also exists in English) and devoted myself to decorating the children’s bedroom. We really wanted Inés and Théo to share a room. I’m absolutely sure they’ll build beautiful memories together and be even closer sleeping in the same room.

Théo joined Inés in her bedroom three months ago, when I stopped breastfeeding. At the beginning, it was tough because he wasn’t sleeping well (and when he was sleeping soundly, it was Inés who would wake up with nightmares, because she was thirsty or had to go to the bathroom…). But now they sleep through the night and are thrilled to share the same bedroom.

Until now, it was still Inés’ bedroom and it looked like Théo was just invited in his sister’s territory. That’s why I really wanted to make a few changes so that the bedroom reflected both personalities. I wanted the bedroom to be a mixed one, with a girl’s and a boy’s touch.

I wasn’t able to spend a lot of money and didn’t want to make drastic furniture changes either. I love buying new things, but I think twice before throwing away something that isn’t broken. The idea was to keep most of the things we already had and to add a few boy items.

Inés’ choices regarding colors are settled (pink, pink, pink). That’s why I took advantage of the fact that Théo doesn’t talk yet to choose the second color I wanted to add to the room: grey. I really love the combination of pink and grey and that’s what I aimed for.

If you read my posts from time to time, you’ll probably already have guessed what shop I went to to get the things I needed. Most of the items come from Kids Love Design, an online store with a shop in Divonnes-les-bains (I wrote about her beautiful owner Lisa here). The most urgent thing to me was to find a lamp in order to change the old fuchsia one. The lamp was what annoyed me most in the bedroom because it was too girly for my liking. I had been looking for a new lamp for a while and, in the end, I chose a Bloomingville lamp from Kids Love Design. I fell in love with it instantly when I saw it in the shop because it was grey and it wasn’t a kids lamp (which means I can use it elsewhere in the future if I feel like it). I’m thrilled with how it looks in the room and the kids are amazed when we switch it on as it projects beautiful lights and shadows onto the ceiling.

It was also at Kids Love Design that I found the butterfly lamp on the wall between Inés and Théo’s beds. This was clearly a whim, but it’s soooo cute I couldn’t resist. Théo keeps pointing at it every time we come into the room and asks me to switch it on.

Another element I wanted to add to the room was a shelf for Inés. I already had one for Théo, which we had bought together with his bed and changing table, but I wanted Inés to have her own space to showcase her favorite toys or treasures. Once again, I didn’t choose a piece of furniture for children but the String shelf. I believe it’s timeless and love how it looks like with the Maileg bunnies on it and the frame with Inés’ name I ordered online when she was born.

As I wrote when I started this post, I’m very sentimental with objects as they’ve been with us while we grew up as a family. The armchair in the room is a clear example of that. We had it in our previous apartment in Geneva. As it doesn’t fit in our bedroom, we put it in the kids’ room when we moved and it was really practical to breastfeed and read. We didn’t want to change it even if the pattern isn’t child-like.

As you can see on the pictures, I’m very minimalistic with decoration (I feel overwhelmed in overladen spaces). Even so, I added more cushions on the bed and the crib (also from Kids Love Design), a couple of banners in the windows (a pink one and a grey one, which adds to the one I already had from my friend @villic), a couple of photos (it was time to print a sample of the millions I take!) and a wall-paper with a matching basket and a dream catcher (which I hope will help with Inés’ nightmares).

I’m sure at this point you’ve realized that there aren’t a lot of children’s items in the room apart from their toys. I’m really not into design objects with children patterns, but when I saw the world carpet at Kids Love Design, it was love at first sight. I believe it was exactly what was missing in the room as it adds a playful touch and a little bit of color. Besides, we love travelling. Having the world at our feet is perfect to talk about past trips and future ones.

I haven’t finished decorating yet. I need to work on the reading corner. But with all the changes I’ve made I’m more than happy! I must say that I didn’t do this all by myself. I asked my friend Nienke Muller to help me as she’s the interior design expert. I had a couple of ideas, but she helped me a lot to decorate the room as a whole and not only with bits and pieces.

What do you think? Do you like the result? Do you have any idea to complete the decoration of the room? I’d be glad to read your suggestions!