Makeover: A Simple Scandinavian Children’s Bedroom with Natural accents

October 10, 2018

Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018

Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018

AD – This post contains gifted items.

Now I don’t know about you, but I think a lot of us who have kids (and some kind of aesthetic taste!) really struggle with how to decorate their rooms. So much plastic, turtles, superheroes, firemen (or is this just my child?!). When we first moved here three years ago Ted was only just one, so he had no input whatsoever when I created his vintage inspired nursery. I was trying to get as much of the house done as possible so budgets were tight, I had sourced some cheap second hand furniture which I upcycled and painted, bought a few wooden toys and a vintage horse rocking chair. I put up a showstopper of a pastoral wallpaper from Farrow & Ball called Gable which had exactly the kind of interwar vibe I was looking for.

  We loved the room, it was just perfect, but it became tired over time, the rocking horse chair broke (and one does wonder how when children had been playing on it for 70 years before unharmed!) and the parts that had been make-do-and-mend started to look the wrong side of shabby chic!  

Teds room is a little in flux since he has inherited the box room of the house. It accommodates the toddler bed we bought last year but I know there’s no way a single bed will be feasible without the room looking horribly crowded. But I’m also not ready to give up the spacious study next door to our bedroom, just yet!

  So, the room had to be a compromise space, one which works for Ted now, but which isn’t so cutesy that I’ll have to redecorate it when I move my desk and bookcases in. Getting the balance between a use-able space which could be converted later to another purpose without leaving it feeling sterile was a tight brief to balance, but I think, after months of thinking about it, we have achieved something that works.

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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
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I wanted Ted to have some input in the design (some input people, I wasn’t about to give Fireman Sam total free reign on the space) and with a little gentle nudging from the shortlist I compiled from Rebel Walls incredible array of surface prints we chose Enchanted Forest (Daylight). I love this design, it seems to sit in the hinterland of adult and child. Perfectly able to be styled within a grown up modern Scandinavian scheme, but also completely charming to a child’s eye. Rebel Walls print these murals to match the size of your wall and they couldn’t be simpler to put up, especially if you’re slightly nervous of wallpaper as I am, as everything is measured for you there’s no need for calculating pattern repeats, you just paste the wall and go! 
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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
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Next up was the paint choices (I pretty well always start with the walls). Ted loves both blue and pink, so when I received the press pack from Farrow and Ball in the summer (you may remember how excited this collection has made me from my piece here)  I knew Sulking Room Pink was going to be a great fit for the chimney breast. I could drown in this colour, I love it so, but we also needed a colour to act as the neutralising element of the room. Step in School House White, another of the new shades from Farrow & Ball. With its milky, greenish tinge it was the absolute perfect shade, a really pretty white, with just enough punch to create mood. It reflects beautifully with the forest wall mural and acts as a perfect conduit between that and the Sulking Room Pink on the chimney.
 
Next up, was the window, I will admit I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out. Ted has plastic windows which thankfully still have their wooden architrave. My idea was to go with a very dark colour on the wooden part to distract from the plastic sash and also to look a little like a child had drawn the outline of their window in crayon! I used Paean Black by Farrow & Ball which is a black with a smudge of purple in the mix. I was worried that my idea would not translate, that the window may look half finished, but on the contrary it’s one of my favourite details in the space.
 
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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
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And the final bones of the new room design was the flooring. Teds room had the last piece of grotty carpet we’d inherited and I’d left it there thinking it was appropriate as a soft surface to play on. But it was forever dirty, a real dust grabber and my back was not thanking me for the brutal hoovering it required! I had styled a piece for Woodpecker back in January and really loved their Salcombe Sandy Oak engineered wood flooring. It sat quietly at the back of my mind, and I knew it would be just perfect in this space. This white wood flooring compliments the simple Scandinavian elements of the room and it’s gives the space the nice clean lines it lacked before. I have softened the space Ted most regularly sits to play on with a rug ordered from Urbanara.
 
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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 (16) Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 (16) Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018 (16)
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When thinking about the furniture, I wanted a chest of drawers that would be less obtrusive on the eye-line. We were fantastically lucky to be gifted the Deco  Marble Chest of Drawers from Atkin & Thyme (whom I bought my sofa in the study through) which I had been coveting for a while. In all honesty, with its stunning marble top with gold inlaid lines, and beautiful brass flush, it is a little too good for a little boy! But Ted has promised me that he’s going to be very careful to keep his room looking as lovely as it does at the moment, and when he does make the move to a bigger bedroom I have a mind to keep this!
 
 
The final thing that we added to Teds room was the West Elm chair from downstairs. I was offered a gorgeous chair which was perfect for our living room space so I had fun shopping the home and moving bits around. Ted’s vintage Ercol chair has been homed in the study, which left space for the tufted chair in his room, we really have had a game of musical chairs up here!
 
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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
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And the verdict? Well, when Ted walked into his finished room he actually said “Wow” which is a pretty perfect endorsement in my eyes. He has commented a few times on how much he loves the pink (I’m tempted to paint the dining room in it now) and the wall mural reminds him of the hundred acre wood. We’re reading Winnie the Pooh at the moment and have visited the woods it was inspired by in Sussex quite recently so it’s a pretty perfectly enchanting design for him. As someone who loves nature it will also work perfectly for me when the room becomes my home office.
 
So that’s it Teds more grown up and functional space, and not a piece of plastic in sight! I’ve left the walls fairly bare to allow the mural to take centre stage, there will be a couple of artwork editions and perhaps some hooks, but I’m in no rush for now. What do you think? I’d love to know in the comments below.
 
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Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
Simple scandinavian childrens bedroom design with natural elements using the new Farrow & Ball paint colours 2018
 
 
 
All Images: Design Soda
 
 
List of products used in makeover:
 
 
Walls:
 
Paint:
 
Floor:
 
Furniture:
 
I have not received payment for this piece, however I was gifted the products listed. They are all pieces I genuinely love and thought would work well in our home. As ever, all opinions are honest and my own.
 
 
 
 
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6 thoughts on “Makeover: A Simple Scandinavian Children’s Bedroom with Natural accents

  1. Pingback: A modern Scandinavian living room in soft tones accepted with natural materials

  2. Tisha

    It is lovely! I stumbled upon your post searching ‘sulking room pink’, since that is the colour i’m about to use in my child’s room. Combining it with natural oak flooring like you, black & white & mustard. Funnily enough, my 1,5 yr old girl is called….Teddy!

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Makeover Reveal : A Small Creative Home Office Space

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