RENTAL HOUSE: OUR TWIN GIRLS' SHARED ROOM!

Well, here we are…the second room reveal of the rental house!!! If you caught the before photo in last week’s post of this space, you’ll remember that one twin wasn’t too thrilled about moving into that room. I’m happy to report that with a little re-decoration, both girls now love this space!

SHOP THE LOOK…

What started with a super basic room (and still is) has turned into a pretty and fresh space for my sweet girlies to make their own memories in. As with so many before and afters, a fresh coat of paint was a big help. I hesitated in sharing this room because the beds didn’t feel right. We have had these Ikea wood beds for a while now, waiting until we move into a permanent house where we could transition the girls into bigger, more substantial beds. It didn’t seem worth buying interim ones for this rental house, so we just painted them white and kept them as is. The pictures in the frames have been swapped out a few times, but the girls love these forest animals, so this is where we’ve landed for now.

After a full coat of paint, then adding a wall of wallpaper, the focus turned to finding enough space for a little storage. This dresser is more traditional than my typical style, but it was the exact fit for a functional side table and clothes keeper between the beds. I just love how the simple round mirror pulls the big wall together. The sweetest little lamb and bunny are from Cuddle + Kind, one of my favourite Canadian companies, who donate 10 meals to kids in need for every doll purchased.

You might have spotted these bookshelves before in the post about how to style your kids’ shelves. I still love the simplicity of these white metal shelves and recommend them for storing books and pretty things anywhere in your house.

In this next photo, you can see the window side of the room. This is South facing and lets in a lot of light! While I typically wouldn’t add custom shades to a rental, it was an absolute need to have blackout for this window. I just LOVE how these turned out and really feel that this fabric gives the space a little bit of a special feel. They are from Tonic Living, who were a joy to work with. You can also find the rug here.

The wood dollhouse is on my gift list each year and has been a firm favourite with our girls for a few years now. It is a big hit with play dates and I’m always amazed by how long our two girls play with it independently. The hooks are old from Anthropologie and the purses are from a trip to Australia. Above right are my sweet girls who I am so lucky to have been able to decorate this room for! Credit for this image goes to my patient husband who took the kids out of the house during quarantine so that I could shoot the room and then came back and snapped this photo for us.

In case anyone thought that their room looks like this all the time, please know that a styled shoot is just that! The second they walked in the door, the girls were up and jumping on their beds as usual and soon enough, the trinkets will be back on their dresser and shelves. After all, pretty spaces become even more beautiful when they are lived in and loved.

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RENTAL HOUSE: XAVIER'S NEUTRAL BUNK ROOM REVEAL!

ONE ROOM IS FINALLY DONE and that means it’s time for a room reveal! No surprise that the first completed space is a kids room, because let’s be honest, designing children’s rooms are the most fun of all.

Welcome to our rental home…and my sweet boy, Xavier’s bunk room! This Oeuf bunk bed has been on my list of favourites for what feels like forever and it was the very first piece purchased for his room. There are so many arguments for and against bunk beds, but having had one as a child, I only have the best of memories. Needless to say, the bunk bed made the transition from his old room to this one a dream! He truly loves it just as much as I do.

SHOP THE ROOM…

While I wanted this space to feel playful (Xavier plays in his top bunk ALL.THE.TIME), I really feel that for my own kids’ rooms I like them to also feel calm and restful (cue for more sleep please!). With Xavier in Grade 1 this year, it made sense to give him a little desk where he could do quiet activities or a spot to sit and draw.

The wallpaper is by Livette’s Wallpaper and is a removable paper of better quality than any other removable wallpaper I’ve used or seen. It has the best texture, almost like a nice piece of fabric. It is also created using non-toxic materials and inks while also being waterproof and washable! What’s not to love about all of that?! This is the linen colour and pattern is ‘Brushstroke Watercolour’ and I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. Just order a sample and you’ll see what I mean with the quality!

The house shaped chalk board is super cute and Xavier drew this amazing robot himself! The desk is from IKEA and stools are these wooden stools from the play table we used with our children’s playhouse a few years ago. They are now painted white. We love how versatile the magnetic wall sorter (on the left wall above) is and Xavier loves to change up what he keeps in here regularly.

“I love using practical items like this calendar block to teach little ones every day concepts such as the days and months of the year.”

I knew we wanted a good size dresser and one that could last from now until his teen years (if not first apartment!) and this solid dresser is well built and holds a lot. I was trying to decide between a mirror or art and since there wasn’t a lot of space on the other walls for art, it made sense to put a little gallery wall above the dresser for fun here. The sweet sun print is by Emzi Art Shop, the robot print can be found here and the ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ print is from Minted. We decided to put a nightlight bulb in the concrete lamp on the dresser to use for night time but when Xavier gets a little older, we will likely put a wall sconce on the wall next to his bed. So far this solution has worked well so that when it’s time for lights out, he doesn’t just flick the light back on again.

SHOP THE LOOK…

One thing that has added so much softness (and blocks out nearly all the outdoor light!) is the roman shade from Tonic Living. This shade was custom made for the space and is a snug fit on a very basic window. I decided on an inside mount but could have just as easily gone for an outside mount on this wall too. It adds so much softness to the room and the colour (Tuscany Linen, Oatmeal Slub) is the perfect neutral.

You know how much I love a good book wall and this area with the acrylic shelves creates a pretty cool vignette where you can rotate books just like art. The rug adds a cozy place on the floor to play and is soft underfoot for a wool rug. The knitted snake was handmade by Nana and is a firm fave that we treasure.

From the hallway, you have this view of the room and I think it’s one of my favourite views! I love catching glimpses of Xavier sitting at his desk or reading a book on his giant floor pillow from Natti Natti which is handmade in Brooklyn, New York.

The gorgeous bed linens are 100% linen and from new Canadian brand Dreams Jumper. You can also spot our favourite Cuddle and Kind dolls and Keva building planks.

SHOP THE LOOK…

Although this home is an interim rental for our family, I hope the memories that we make in here will last forever.

*Thank you to many of the brands listed in this post for their collaboration in this project.

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RAFA + LEO'S SHARED BABY & TODDLER ROOM

I am ridiculously excited to share our newest little clients' room, Rafael and Leonardo's shared baby and toddler boy room!!! Their gorgeous Mama contacted me when she was pregnant with her second baby in the hopes that we could maximize the space of her son's existing room to include the new baby. Although the room is small, I was confident that we could make it work and include the necessities for a new little one as well as the growing needs of her toddler son.

As part of our initial consultation, we discussed how the family wanted this space to feel. The words used were, "uncluttered and calm". There were A LOT of toys, clothes and items that had been collected over the years since Rafa, the 2 year old, was born and in order to make sure this space could really feel uncluttered, we needed to ensure that the toys could be stored somewhere where they could easily be played with and also tucked away for bedtime. 

The beautiful Oeuf classic crib was the only piece of furniture that they wanted to keep from the old room and I have been dying to use this Oeuf vertical shelf since it came onto the market, so this presented the perfect chance!

We played with different layouts until we came up with this one where the twin bed would cover a bit of the window. We wanted to maximize the floor space in the room to make sure the boys had a little play area. The key to making this work is that the bed is low to the ground as well as void of a footboard, so that the furniture really doesn't get in the way of the window at all.

I love how the beige star wall decals transform the main wall and give the effect of wallpaper (but have the ability to be easily removed).

The incredible baby mobile below was a find that Rafa and Leo's grandfather picked up on his travels in Greece and brought back for the room (seriously cool Grandfather I'd say!). 

One of the things that we have to consider when designing baby and kids rooms here in Vancouver is ensuring that the room is 'earthquake safe'. It's not something any of us like to think or talk about but I love that this tall wall shelf can so easily be secured to the wall. Safe not only for that but also for little toddlers that like to pull and tug on things.

The boys' Mom and Dad love to go to local markets around Vancouver on the weekends and many of the beautiful accessories and toys on the shelf and around the kids' room are handmade by local companies, including this alphabet poster. It's so much fun to be able to use such special pieces in this space.

Rafael is currently obsessed with little finger puppets so we popped these into a bowl that he can easily access on one of the lower shelves. I love how easy it is to move toys around and rotate new ones on the shelves that he can reach.

Although he is only 2, Rafa is growing up in a musical family and adores playing different instruments. He loves this little guitar. Other instruments are in one of the baskets on top of the shelves so that they can easily be brought down when baby brother Leo is awake and easily put away during nap times.

You've seen me use these clear bookshelves in a previous baby nursery but I couldn't resist using them here too. In this case, as we were putting the shelves above the bed, I wanted to ensure the books were on shelves that they couldn't easily fall off of. I really do adore how these shelves allow the books to be featured as art.

As I mentioned earlier, so many sweet accessories by local companies were brought into this space, such as the gorgeous heart blanket from Yarning Made and the darling wooden animals from Trae Designs. You can find this sweet name banner from Sprig West and the custom growth ruler on Etsy.

On the other side of the room you can see that we decided to turn the closet doors into a playful chalk board!!! I LOVE how these turned out and especially how Rafa and Leo's Mom decorated them for shoot day; just too cute. I imagine hours of fun here where Rafa draws pictures for his brother and one day baby Leo will be able to join in.

Have I told you that this is my dream job? This room was so much fun to create and I hope the result shows that. This is the room that so many adventures will happen in, sibling giggles, stories read, music played. I literally love creating spaces for little ones to make memories in.

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