HOME DECOR: CHILDS PLAY

I love creating rooms for young people.

Children have boundless imaginations and interviewing them for a room redesign is a lesson in possibilities. Whether tweens, teens or preschoolers, they have no fear of color and they know exactly what they love. Nine year old Hailey wanted purple, hot pink, butterflies and fairies.

Oh, and her other favorite - turquoise.

Her mother was a little worried about that combination.

She feared that Hailey would grow out of a theme room and

wanted something that would grow up with her daughter. Here is Hailey's new room.

Fit for a beautiful princess, it is sophisticated enough to grow with her with minmal changes,

and has all the elements she wanted in a room of her own.

We started with the walls. A soft lavender with a touch of grey.

More subdued than Hailey first wanted.

I convinced her to 'wait and see' on the wall color.

If she didn't like the finished product, walls were easy to paint over.

What I wanted was a wall that complimented the room and didn't overpower it. Next came the fabrics. Mini check and larger checks in lavender.

Solid hot pink in the softest minky,

soft pink and white stripe.

And one wonderful floral with pink, hot pink, lavender and purple to pull it all together.

I was careful not to use juvenile patterns.

These fabrics were fresh and grown-up enough to last for many years.

I designed a simple cornice box valance for the smaller window in the room and had it covered in the larger check. A scalloped bottom added a feminine touch and the puffy posies - a fun little project I did myself - added a touch of whimsy and youth. (They are removable for when she is a little older down the road).

The room had a large window in an alcove that was a natural spot to create a window seat. We built it and framed it with draperies.I added floor length drapes to the scalloped cornice valance there. On the inside edge I repeated the scallop detail. We flanked the window seat in bookshelves.

Note the detail of trim and larger check fabric on the bottom of the curtain. Next to the curtain is a pompom pouf - one of Haileys favorite things in her room. Hot pink pompoms in varying sizes were glued to the lid of this soft pink ottoman, creating a very girlish and very soft seat.

Here is the finished window seat. I wanted it to be inviting, so covered it in a soft hot pink cushion and filled it with fabulous decorative pillows.

The window seat is a wonderful focal point and draws you into the room. Adjacent to the room, a private bathroom gets the same valance treatment and a shower curtain in the same fabrics as the bedroom. Above the doorway is a series of photos we had taken of Hailey at Blue Moon studio in Laguna Niguel. The studio provided wings, dress and floral wreath for her head, transforming her into a fairy. The photos were magical! Not only does she have a room fit for a fairy princess, she IS the fairy princess. Each time she looks at these photographs she will see how beautiful she really is.

Here is a close-up detail of the window seat pillows and a fairy doll I created from a pattern. Oh, and don't forget the turquoise our princess requested. We didn't forget the turquoise - I created a butterfly pillow in turquoise minky fabric and trimmed out some of the bed pillows in the same color.

The fairy doll has butterfly wings and pointy toes - and hair the same color as my little client.

The crowning touch for the window seat is this chic little chandelier, complete with pink crystal beads, clear droplets and soft pink shades.

We added wall sconces to match at each side of the bed and draped the bed curtains around them.

Our growing girl needed a bigger bed. We removed the twin size bed from the room and brought in a queen sized mattress and box spring, elevated with risers to allow for possible storage underneath. We turned the bed sideways because of space concerns and so that the bed didn't completely block the beautiful new window seat. I created and upholstered the headboard, in deep purple corduroy. The darker color adds a little drama, a little sophistication and a little depth to the room. We added a plush chenile shaggy area rug in the same color at the foot of the bed.

The crowning touch of the room is the bed cornice and draperies. My carpenter created the cornice from my drawings and specifications. Painted white and trimmed with decorative molding, it holds the beautiful draperies and valance that frames the bed. We used the pink and white stripe against the wall and repeated the same curtain as in the window seat area.

Our valance over the bed is trimmed in 3" long lavender, pink and white sparkling beaded trim for drama.

It is a little girls dream.

While Hailey wanted butterflies and fairies, I didn't want to create a 'theme' room.

So we brought in the fairies and butterflies in more subtle ways.

I created butterfly appliques to add to pillows on the window seat and made the fairy doll with golden hair and butterfly wings.

A bronze fairy sculpture sits on the nightstand (along with the most perfect lamp with a glass shade that has hand painted flowers in pink and purple).

Hailey's favorite thing in the room was the fairy garden under a glass dome that I crafted. The base is a soup tureen, minus the lid, and the pedestal is a scalloped bowl, turned upside down and epoxied to the tureen to give it height and the importance it needed. The glass dome fits it perfectly.

I love to add a personal touch to a room, and in Haileys room I was able to add several things that I created. This fairy dome was a delight to make.

I found the tiniest silk flowers, tiny ivy and mounds of dried preserved moss.

I had previously attended a fairy garden class at MandM Nursery in Santa Ana with a friend.

There I found Flower Fairy figurines, a little gated metal arbor and a tiny brick pathway.

This indoor version needs no watering!

It is difficult to see because of the glare on the glass, but if you look closely you will see the arbor covered in ivy and the fairy standing beneath it.

The adjacent bathroom has a large bronze fairy sculpture on the vanity,

bringing the fairy realm into that room as well.

Another view of the bed.

The picture on the wall is another portrait of Hailey

taken at the Blue Moon Photography salon in Laguna Niguel.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this room.

My client and I think it is magical -

which is after all what we were going for.

The very nature of a kids room is over the top as far as color, pattern, drama, whimsy and creativity,

and is the better for it.

Where else in your home can you have as much fun with as much abandon?

I would love your comments!

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