‘Tween bedroom make-over
Recently my best friend Jenny mentioned that her 10 year old daughter was keen for a room makeover. Only a year away from highschool, E (as I will call her) was tiring of the room that had suited her so well since early childhood.
A teacher, and creative personality, Jenny had personally decorated her then toddler daughter’s room with many pieces of homemade art. Finished in a lavender and white theme, the room had been perfect for a young lady. Here are some pics taken when E was still quite young.
Being the lovely and supportive person she is, Jenny asked me if I would like to re-design E’s room to better suit her as she heads into her tweens and teens. Over the years the room had begun to lose its little girl charm and was stuck somewhere inbetween cute and out-of-date.
To say that I was excited at this opportunity would be an understatement!
After confirming that E was on board with ‘Aunty Ambre’ doing this, I got cracking.
The ‘before photos’
Before I started, I asked Jenny to send me some photos of the room as it currently stands so that I could get a better sense of the space and feel of the room. Here are some pictures taken recently.
Full ‘tween ahead…
Next step then was to have E let me know what she liked AND didn’t like. E’s brief was clear.
nothing overtly ‘girly’
gold accents would be great.
although she loves cats, there was no need to go over the top with cat related items (I am also a cat lover so she was obviously worried I might get a bit carried away ;-))
Fave colours were:
I used that information to put together a pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com.au/theinteriorologyden/emmys-room/ with a collection of pictures that might be of interest to her.
E was really good at quickly getting back to me ( obviously also a design enthusiast!) and very helpfully circled what she liked most.
With that information, I decided that I wanted to deliver four different products to her.
2d floor plan proposal.
3d room renders with options in her chosen colours.
style boards with options in her chosen colours.
colour palettes that would help E continue to decorate her room over time.
Layout and floor plan
E’s room currently has a bed with its head against an internal wall, and facing the window in the bedroom. When you walk into the room, the first thing you see in front of you is her bed,
Although I am not normally a fan of putting a bed against a window, in this case I decided to try re-arranging her bedroom so that the bed head rested on the same wall as her window. The idea here was to hopefully create a sense of more space - walking into the bedroom, you would no longer be in danger of falling straight into bed.
Once I had the exact dimensions of her room, I got cracking on building a 2d layout of the room. I know that there are heaps of 2d and 3d design programs out there, but at the moment I am really loving Coohom (coohom.com) so decided to use that.
Coohom lets you first start with a 2d room and then shift to a 3d version, where you can select from a large library of items to furnish and decorate. In this regard, the program reminds me a little of Style Sourcebook (see my recent blog on Style Sourcebook for more information).
Once I was happy with the positioning of the bed, I had a think about what sort of items a young woman might need in her room. A desk was a must as was a bedside table and bookshelf.
What do you think about this layout?
New layout. Previously, E’s bed was against the wall I have now placed the desk against. Also, the window was blocked by a bookcase and toys.
3d render
With a layout in place, I started to think about colours.
To do this, I flipped over to the 3d function of Coohom.
Initially, I fiddled around with a room that had equal emphasis on both the chosen colours, blue and aqua. However, I quickly came to the conclusion it was a bit too ‘much’ visually. Applying the 60/30/10 rule, I decided to create two versions, one with a predominant blue palette (the 60%), with aqua making up 30% and gold 10% (Version 1), and one with the opposite combination of blue and aqua (Version 2).
I just loved the results, particularly Version 1 which I think is slightly bolder and perhaps a bit more adventurous. What do you think?
Version 1
Version 2
Style Boards
Of course, as beautiful as the 3d rendered photos are, I don’t expect that E will go out and purchase all these items wholesale. Given that, I wanted to give her some style suggestions that would guide her as she decorates and grows her room over time.
Following the logic of the 3d render, I inititally started with two versions, one with blue being the predominant colour, and the other being with an emphasis on aqua. However, for some reason, I didn’t feel as though I had exhausted all the possibilities when I completed these two and so put together a third board that kind of sits in between the two other boards.
Colour palettes
The final step was to leave E with something she could keep referring back to over time. Although I had completed the renders and styleboards using her chosen colours, over time tastes can change and I thought it would be nice if she had a sense of what other colours would go with key elements of her room, no matter how she tweaked my design suggestions.
I used Coolers (coolers.com) to put together a variety of options, using the Colour Generator function. Given that I am a sucker for options, I used all the various colour combination sequences possible - analogous, monochromatic, triadic, tetradic, complimentary, split complimentary and square. If that doesn’t mean too much to you, don’t worry as I am planning on doing a post on this one day.
Anyway, using E’s three preferred colours as a base (blue, aqua and gold accents), I used a four panel set-up and selected those combinations I thought she might best like. Here are a few. Which ones do you like best? Let me know in the comments.
Alternative endings
In the world of e-design, change is easy. Certainly much easier that when we had to shift furniture around by hand!
Given that, I decided to provide an alternative layout in case E really didn’t want to shift too far from the current layout of her room. In that case, I reverted to something like she already has, with the bed back in the same place as it currently sits. Of course I applied all the new style and colour suggestions. Using Version 1 as an example, here are a few renders of how the room would look with a different layout. What do you think?.
Results
Final feedback was extremely positive although Jenny asked about the possibility of adding in a bit more storage over and above the built in wardrobe and the free-standing bookcase. Desperate to please (!) I have worked up a few last images, based on Version 1, that have been tweaked to provide more obvious access to storage. In this case, I have suggested a bed that has room underneath for slim-line storage boxes, additional bookshelves over the desk, and finally two storage containers that on the outside look like seats. Perfect!
As always, I love to hear your thoughts and comments. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of my work or are keen to explore how I might be able to help you.
Ax