Perfectly Mismatched

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about children’s rooms. My two are back to sharing again, at least for the next year until we find somewhere bigger to live. The boy-girl share thing is always a bit tricky, especially when they get a bit older, like my twelve and nine year old. Luckily, my son is very artistic and really appreciates the handmade touches. And my daughter is at that age – she’s the twelve year old – where she doesn’t want anything too young and girly. So it’s a good balance.

I’ve taken the route of not going too planned and overly decorated. This is a rental and I don’t know how long we’ll be here. We’re going for that eclectic mish-mash of patterns and colours. To me these are the perfect rooms for children because they are ok when they’re a bit messy. Rooms like these encourage children to pin up their latest painting or a colourful leaf they found on a walk and it all works together.

Here’s what they used to share in LA. Handmade cardboard/fabric birdhouses from my Anthropologie display days and the tree I painted for the birds to sit in. It’s a bit young for them both now, sadly. And when we moved to London we had to paint over the tree for our tenants.

The room below is great for it’s mismatched beds. We tend to think we need a matching pair, but clearly that’s not the case. The look is unified by the matching nightstands and similarly coloured bed linens.

Another mismatched bed set. In fact, mismatched everything.

Amazing colours, below.

My favourite. In this case the beds do match, but the bedding doesn’t. Great idea for a boy-girl set-up.

Chalkboard wall taken to the extreme. And that great black and white Ikea rug that shows up in even the fanciest of houses.

I LOVE these rooms. 

Image credits: Living Etc, paperscissorsoranges, Milk Magazine, Domino, Westbrook Interiors