Trevor Tondo for House Beautiful

Besides the master suite, we didn’t do much to the layout of the second floor. When picking bedrooms for the kids, I let Grace choose hers- probably my favorite room filled with light and its own tiny bathroom. Two additional bedrooms share a Jack and Jill bath, so we designed a space for Harry in one, and moved our nursery furniture into the other where Harry slept until he was ready to move on up.

Grace threw herself out of her crib in a fit of toddler rage before her second birthday. I opened the door just in time to watch her sail over the edge onto the floor. It was one of those traumatic parenting moments you can only have with your first when you are certain you are the worst parent in the world, and we immediately moved her to a daybed. Harry is so much wilder than Grace was at the same age, I thought for sure he would be out of his crib even earlier, but Harry is also a man who enjoys his comforts and as it turned out, he quite enjoyed his crib. He never tried to crawl out, and in fact sometimes would ask to go to his crib just for a moment to himself. 

We didn’t see the point in rushing it, so the room I had designed for him remained unoccupied for quite awhile after we moved in- until, one day, he announced it was time for him to sleep in his “bigboybed” (said as a singular word). I was TERRIFIED of how our wild boy would handle the responsibility of not only free-ranging it out of his crib- would he wander the house at night trying all of the naughty things we stop him from doing in the daylight?- but also the allure of the top bunk. 

Which was probably not information necessary to experiencing the before & after of his room, but nevertheless, here we are. 

So above was the shot that ran in House Beautiful, of Harry’s dresser, but I have for you today a wider view of the room.

Harry used to have to sleep with an oxygen machine in his room, and when I was designing his room I thought about him being a little older and having friends over and perhaps not wanting to have medical equipment out in his room. We came up with the design for a built in bunk with a cabinet that could keep his oxygen machine concealed next to his bed. For those who have been following along– I am happy to report Harry no longer needs his oxygen machine day-to-day, but we have still enjoyed the functionality of all the built in storage.

I wanted the space to be fun for this time in Harry’s life, but the bunk would be built to last, and I wanted it to be able to transition to a more grown up design down the road and I was inspired by the cabins of old trains. Which gave me some good ideas for the overall structure- but were a little too grown up for a little boys room.

So then my twisty mind went to The Darjeeling Limited, and this fun scheme using my favorite Caitlin McGauley elephant wallpaper, and a super peppy color scheme to paint out the bunk and all of its trimmings. But me being me, I got all stuck in my head that Harry was still so little and I didn’t really know what he would be into yet and that design was just so extra it would be hard to work in, say, a Paw Patrol theme as his interests developed.

At the last minute I decided to just paint the bunk white with some blue accents, and chose the stripe wallpaper which would be a much more forgiving backdrop for Harry to add his own accessories. The Warhol print that was in his nursery inspired the primary color accent palette- and window shades in Pierre Frey Arty helped keep the youthful/sophisticated balance, and the chandelier was a 1st dibs miracle find that is just too perfect.

We used our Nacogdoches print sheeting, a custom quilt, and a bolster from our new Linen Accent line with a monogram I am OBSESSED with.  

I’ll show you more around the room when I get the rest of the pictures back, and I apologize for my poor quality pics but I am really enjoying seeing before & afters of the same view of the room- and couldn’t wait!