When your kids are very little and their personalities and preferences are still emerging, coming up with a design scheme for their bedrooms often still falls primarily onto mum and dad’s shoulders – and it can sometimes be hard to know where to start.
Often, girl’s bedrooms can fall victim to being too ‘pinky-pinky’ and ‘girly-girly’. But choosing a couple of unexpected accent colours, such as a vibrant coral orange or a caramel brown, can make for a really nice alternative, adding a sense of fun and keeping things from looking too precious.
If you like the look of a well-matched space, bed linens can be a great place to start off a colour palette in a kids’ bedroom. Once you find a set you like, bring in a pillowcase or sheet to your local Resene ColorShop and the staff can help you find the perfect paint colours to match it. Or, upload a photo of the bedding (either from a store’s website or a well-lit one you’ve taken yourself) into the Resene Colour Palette Generator to get a list of Resene colours to try.
That’s what led us to pick Resene Big Bang and Resene Swiss Caramel as the accents to add some whimsy to an otherwise dusty pink palette which has walls in Resene Wafer and a floor in Resene Pearl Bush. We used a bit of high-quality painter’s masking tape to create the triangle design on the toy box in Resene Big Bang over a base coat of Resene Urbane. Layering in other soft pinks and dusty whites, such as the cacti pot in Resene Dust Storm, the small mason jar (with the colouring pencils) in Resene Spring Wood and the large mason jar in Resene Umber White, adds further depth to the scheme.
Other colours that could be added or swapped for Resene Big Bang and Resene Swiss Caramel which would have matched just as well with the bedding are Resene Escape, Resene Blue Moon and Resene Elephant. These three blues would be a great option to incorporate in a room that your little girl shares with a little boy. Or, forgo pink altogether and use Resene Ming on the walls, Resene Sea Nymph on the floor, Resene Possessed on the nightstand and add in a few accents of Resene Chilean Fire, Resene Beethoven and Resene Snow Drift.
The hand-painted polka dot pattern on the walls is easy for anyone to replicate at home. We used a level as a ruler to lightly draw vertical pencil lines across the wall 5cm apart as a general guide. Then, we dotted on Resene Double Alabaster using a large, round artist’s brush along each line approximately 5cm apart – though these we measured much less carefully, as we liked the casual look that the imperfectly spaced dots created.
Bringing in a low-pile rug in a kid’s room can provide a soft place for play. Look for one that’s made of cotton, so that’s its easily washable. Or, to keep things super easy to clean, try painting a rug on to the floor. It’ll give your design the same sort of look and a quick mop up is all you will need if any accidents happen. Plus, it’s simple to paint over it when your child’s tastes change as they grow up – or if things get a little crazy with the crayons.
Styling by Annick Larkin. Photography by Bryce Carleton. 2019
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