3 Interior Designers Transform The Same Kid’s Bedroom | Space Savers | Architectural Digest

These three interior designers have been given a photograph of an empty kid's bedroom. They have free reign to design it in any way they please. My name is Jenny Kaplan. My design style is color-forward, thoughtful, and a little weird. I'm Darren Jett, and my designs are full of life and full of fantasy. My name is Kiata Dereje, and my design style is warm, modern, and eclectic. No clients, no restrictions. Blank space. My first impression in the original rendering, it's a simple wood bed frame and nightstand. So kind of like the world is your oyster to do whatever you want with this space. Right now, it feels a little bit like a monastery. There is really no particular architectural details. We're working within basically four walls, and it looks like we can have some fun. In the original rendering, the twin bed is kind of smushed into the corner of the room with where the window is. So I decided to bump up the bed and make it more of a full size, more to the front of the room, and designed a built-in situation for the bed. And this beige color created this kind of cozy nook. I really think in a bedroom, no matter if it's a kid's bedroom or an adult's bedroom, you really want the bed to be the center of attention. And if we do that here and create sort of a niche, we could actually have closets flanking on either side for all the storage that this child might need. And then underneath the bed, we can actually build sort of slide-out drawers. So what I like to do is to have a sort of daybed situation, and we would actually lacquer the bed in a sort of green color. So right now, I'm looking in kind of this range here, and I'm thinking about going in a sort of aquamarine world. It's very lonely, just a little bed and a side table. I would move the bed to the center. I might also even want to make it a full-size bed. I just think centering it gives us space on the sides to do more. So with the bed, I'm planning on sourcing an antique or vintage wood bed, maybe Gustavian or carved, something with... detail and interest to it. For the bedding, I went with linen fabrication. I just think linen for bedding is very modern and it's comfortable and it's soft and it feels good on your skin. And color-wise, I went with a navy. You know, this is a kid's bedroom, and my intentions with the room were to create a space that was gender-neutral. So with the bed, I really wanted to approach it by being something that was slightly whimsical, something that was sort of all-enveloping. I like the idea of enclosing it fully on three walls, and then having a curtain on the three walls around the bed. I love a fabric like this that is a sort of seafoam color, but actually when you hold it up, it's pretty sheer. For the window treatments, I would do curtains, and I would hang the curtains as high up as possible to really stress the height in the room. And I would maybe do like a beautiful leather hardware that would return into the wall, and just like a traditional French pleated curtain. Right now, the window feels a little small to me. It also just feels kind of insignificant, so. If we have the window here letting in a ton of light into the bedroom, you know, imagine if we have a desk or some sort of situation beneath it, just make it a bit bigger, make the room brighter. This is an exterior wall, it's a house. I think right now we're just trying to push the design a bit further and I think if we can do it, let's do it. So for the window, I'm keeping it in the original orientation. I just went with a really beautiful linen pleated shade in this accrue color. You can't go wrong with a cream linen shade. It will inevitably match whatever changes you will make to the room down the road. In every room, you want to soften a window visually. And I really love the stripe from CNC Milano. It's actually a linen, which is perfect. And instead of doing like a floor-to-ceiling curtain situation, I don't think that's a good idea in a kid's room generally. You know, when they're very young, they might be yanking, they might be pulling. You can have something that's hung above the window itself. In this case, we could do a Roman shade. I do the focal point, the wall that the headboard is at, in a wallpaper. And I co-founded this line called Maison C, and this is one of my favorite patterns. It's called Prairie. This is Prairie in Midnight. And I find it so fun because it's young and whimsical, but can also grow. Originally, the room felt a bit bland. It had no character. So if we think about that millwork actually including a baseboard along the bottom and also a crown molding along the top, we can make that whole room feel very considered. I wanted to do a wallpaper and I chose a wallpaper by my friends at Calico Wallpaper. It's subdued yet. bold at the same time it kind of has this like plaid motif to it and there's this really striking cobalt blue mixed with the ivory and I decided to paper the entire room rather than doing an accent wall with paint just to make a really bold statement you know in general I try to avoid doing thematic rooms but I think in a kid's room it's a lot of fun just to lean into it you know kids have their own interest in this instance I was really thinking about this room being my own when I was a child, and I just loved anything that was involving underwater, aquamarine life. And there's this fantastic wallpaper by Degournay, and it can come in any colorway that you want. I particularly love this sort of pearlescent colorway with lots of greens and blues. And it's just full of life, it's full of corals, it's full of fish, it's full of seahorses. I would actually probably do cork, but I do cork in a beautiful herringbone pattern. The great thing about cork is that it's absorbent. The child falls, it's pretty soft. It's also sound absorbent, which is really nice as well. We are going with these floor tiles. With floor, they come in squares that you can cut to fit your flooring perfectly. So it's basically like a wall-to-wall carpet situation. And they're super kid-friendly because if you spill something on a tile, you can easily just rip up The one or two or how many squares are tarnished and replace them with a fresh one. I think they're also priced at a really appropriate price point for a kid's room. I like to provide a bit of softness, especially when you're dealing with a child. We're going in a sort of aquamarine, blue-green world. If we could just sort of cut through that a little bit and do something that's a little bit of like a yellow sort of green here that works wonderfully with... So, for the rug, I really wanted something neutral but interesting enough to work well off of the pattern on the wallpaper, and also soft and durable. And I chose a Doris Leslie Blau Kilim. I think every child's room needs to have a desk or at least a surface where they can do work. Child will grow up, they will go do homework, they will go to school. I would like to have a desk underneath the window just to really let in all of that extra light. This particular desk, it is by Maison Le Loup in any color. I like tying that color into the bed. You know, it has these sort of angles and these lines that come out. It's very amorphous in a way, which to me, it reads kid. And it also reads underwater. With the desk, I'd love to pair it with a really fun chair. This particular chair is by Frank Gehry. So, when I was a kid, I had a ton of fish. I think having a little fish like this is a great way for a child to develop a little bit of responsibility, and it's also just fun. For the built-in couch, it's an extension of the bed frame. Similar frame, I went with a velvet seat covering. Actually, an indoor-outdoor-friendly ivory. velvet and I painted the frame the same color as the bed frame so everything just blends in really seamlessly. I would switch this existing bedside table out. I would love something with a pop of color, a little bit more of a traditional scale and I chose this Serato Livia side table and it's in this really fun yellow which I love and then it has this really subtle but beautiful patterned fabric. Behind it, I love a classic Scandinavian easy chair. I love it in the sheepskin. I just think these chairs are so transitional. You can put them in any environment. The room itself is not too small. It's actually a pretty good size. And I think if we're creating a sort of zone for like play, for hanging out, it would be great to have something that the child can just pull out, plop themselves on. Read a book. So why not have some throw pillows on the floor that are pretty big, pretty substantial, but in sort of that clam shape. I actually really like the idea of this vintage oak wall-mounted bookshelf that I placed over here. And it's just like a simple pale oak, which looks really nice off of the paper. I think a mirror is really great for any room, especially across from a window. It really bounces all the light into the room. It really makes the room also just feel a bit bigger. In this particular one, I really like the idea that it could be completely ensconced in shelves. Placement-wise, the desk is facing directly across from the built-in sofa, and this was done intentionally, so whatever kid is habitating in this room can hang out on the sofa, maybe play a video game, watch TV. The desk, the bottom, The cabinets are made out of a walnut and for the surface I went with a really fun terrazzo. I thought it was really playful. The colors are kind of more primary colors so I went with red, white, and blue in the terrazzo. We are going with one of my favorite chairs, the Vernon Pantone chair. I feel like for a kid's room, an adult room, it's a piece that you can grow with. I think it's important to have a desk. I wouldn't want it to take up too much of this space though, so I really love the BDDW cloud shelves. The lower shelf is a perfect desk. I chose the Giancarlo Valle Scott chair because of its timeless design. It works at a dining table, but at a desk it can work anywhere. So for the shelves above the desk, these are some of my favorite shelving. They're by Vitsoe. They're modular. You can expand with them. Again, like the chair, I feel like these are a really nice investment that It will last you a lifetime if you take care of them. And I really like the open shelving, especially for a kid's bedroom, so you can display your artwork, or found objects, books, et cetera. I really love to create a space, especially with children's rooms, where there's moments in those rooms, where if someone's had a rough day, it brings them a little bit of joy. Just an added dimension to the space. So the Tarzan swing. I think I, as a kid, always wanted a swing in every room and never got that. And I'm still now promising my own daughter a swing in one of our rooms one day. So I think any room like this that has more of a play space, a sort of working space, needs to have a central light above. And this particular light, it is by Stilnovo. So it's a vintage piece from the 1970s. It's metal. Side note, I think it looks a little bit like a submarine, which is kind of fun. I source a lot from Urban Electric, and I love this light. It's the stamp light because it gives amazing light, for sure. But also, I think that if... If there's a hockey puck that goes flying through the sky or whatever it might be, this light is not in the way and is not too precious and is not too fragile. So we're going with a chandelier in the center of the bedroom. It gives a really nice, soft... Glow and look that catches your eye, and it's a pendant by a lighting company called Ripley and Willing. So the sconces in the room that are flanking the mirror, they're actually seahorses, which I just think are so much fun. Actually my favorite animal. Again, I'm designing for a little Darren here. And they're actually Italian 1950s by Vietri. They are glazed ceramic. I think all of this stuff is gonna be great for the child's imagination. To the side of the bed, a lark. Sconce, it's a swivel sconce that I sourced at Stahl and Band. And it's great because if someone is sitting in that easy chair and reading, they can articulate it over to them. Again, brings in the leather, which I think is really pretty in this scheme. I also love having sconces by a bed, especially when you're creating a sort of canopy, a space like this. I think we can go with something that's a bit more of like a reading light. And that would just be fantastic for, you know, in the evening whenever you're reading to the child. The desk light. I also really love, I think the color and the shape really is like a nice compliment to all of the other bold accents in the room. Ceramic table light by Giancarlo Valle and Natalie Weinberger is another source of light, which I think is a little bit more elevated and grown up. I am a huge fan of Tommaso Barbie, vintage Italian designer. Oftentimes his pieces are made out of brass and they are in the shape of leaves. Even though this may not be an underwater leaf, I think you can use your imagination and it clearly goes really well. Our zigzag planter. It's by Pieces. It's one of my favorites. It's a really fun and playful shape, shown in the mustard color, and it's just playful and unique. I'd like to lean into using some art or something really engaging, and I sourced on First Dibs these beautiful brass butterflies by the artist Paul Walensky, and I was thinking it would be really fun To have these go up the wall onto the ceiling for this kind of more playful, whimsical moment. And I actually showed this to my 8-year-old daughter and then to an 11-year-old boy who's a friend and wanted their feedback. It was clear that these butterflies need to be like a climbing wall and Then the cork really comes in handy because that makes it even safer for the kids should they fall. But I really, I think that bedrooms should be more than just a place where they go to sleep. I think it's so important to really create a place for them to be imaginative and play. We have to talk about the castle. The castle is actually from The Little Mermaid and I think this would be the perfect little play space for dolls and things like that. I would have been super excited to have this room growing up as a kid. I love that it's a space that a small child can grow into, you know, into like their early teen years. I've done a few kids rooms that are a bit more on the geometric sort of post-modern world. I've always wanted to do a child's room that was leaning into a bit more of that traditional world instead. I love it. I wish I was a kid again. I would have all my friends over. Looking at my finished room, I'm really happy with it. I'm really happy that it also got the seal of approval of some children. Wow. Wow, okay. They're all so different. They're so different. I love this. Can you maybe tell us about what the material is on the wall? The wall is a wallpaper by one of my favorites, our friends over at Calico Wallpaper. And I wanted to do something that was playful for a kid's room, but still neutral. Did you have an age somewhere maybe in like this? Six to seven range. It's like a room that they could grow into, you know, as like a preteen or even teenager. What about you, Chiara? I kind of, well, I tested this on my 8-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old boy. And I think that was kind of, I was thinking like 7 to 12, really. But I still wanted it to be playful. Okay, so I was sort of imagining myself as a kid. When I was growing up, my favorite movie was Little Mermaid. Probably like a lot of kids from the 90s, I was completely obsessed. I love Little Mermaid. Yeah, right? So I just really wanted to like lean into that world and not be afraid of like doing a theme for a child. I think that can be kind of fun. And I love the seated throw pillows, too. Yeah, the little shells. We also have a starfish up here. And now I see the Little Mermaid reference with the castle. Yeah, that was intentional, yeah.