One of my clients has two young boys who share a bedroom. There are plenty of other rooms in the house, but they like to be in the same room, which I find very dear.
When we were decorating it, our goals were to:
a) make it cute
b) do something that distinguished each child’s space
c) keep the overall look cohesive. But still cute.
In a Washington Post story last year about children sharing bedrooms, we discussed the most obvious solution, which is to paint walls different colors. You effectively divide the room so each child has his or her own side.
That’s what we did for the clients in the Post article: green on the boy’s side, lavender on the girl’s side (which you can’t see), and yellow on the end walls, which were perforated by lots of doors and windows.
They loved it.
In my current clients’ case, however, the room wasn’t large enough to divide. And there was only one furniture arrangement that made sense.
The answer? So simple yet so significant: different comforters.
What could be easier?
Drawing on the colors in the Roman Shade (the fabric for which is Robert Allen‘s Kukula, color Pinata), each boy was allowed to choose the color of his comforter.
They thought that was AWESOME.
I love the airplane and rocket art over the beds.
And of course, each child has his own stuffed animals on his bed and his own dresser.
The colors, by the way, are Benjamin Moore‘s 752 How Blue am I? on the walls, and 2021-40 Yellow Highlighter on the ceiling.
You know how I think white ceilings are a wasted opportunity anyway, but in this case, the yellow ceiling makes the room more fun. It also brightens things up, since there’s only one window.
I’m not wild about the rug between the beds (a holdover from the previous house, I believe)…but the boys are happy, and that’s really all that matters.
Photo of the adorable kids is by Jonathan Newton for The Washington Post.Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She has been quoted in publications from The Washington Post to The Seattle Times and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.