girls bedroom Archives - Emily A. Clark

Our Twins’ Shared Bedroom: A New Color Palette

May92019

This post is sponsored by Behr. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our boy/girl twins are still sharing a room (and will be for as long as possible!), but I had quickly painted it after we moved in and didn’t really ever finish the rest of it. I used the framed animal prints from our last house and my daughter insisted they scared her into getting up and coming into our room every night. . . (I personally think this has been her most creative excuse so far.) So, it felt like the perfect time to call her bluff and give their room an updated look with a new color palette.

This is how the “very scary” room looked before:

And after a new wall color (I used BEHR PREMIUM PLUS ULTRA® interior paint) and some fresh accessories:

The room doesn’t get a ton of natural light so I wanted something lighter and brighter. I love the soft quilts they already had on their beds and pulled my main wall color from those. An all-American red, white and (shades of blue) color palette felt like a good, classic choice for a boy/girl bedroom.

In case you’re up to your eyeballs in swatches. . .

A few of my best tips for choosing paint colors:

Choose your paint color last. This is such a tempting place to start for a lot of people, but it actually makes a lot of sense to choose your furniture and accessories for a room first. Then, pull out a main wall color and complementary accent colors from fabrics, rugs or art, for example. My palette for this room: Tranquil Sea PPL-73, Red My Mind MQ1-10, Basswood MQ2-46, Compass Blue MQ5-54 and Snowy Pine PPU10-13.

Take advantage of paint samples. For just a few dollars, you can pick up a sample of the color (and sheen) you’re considering. Painting a large swatch—on a board or the wall—can save a lot of time and effort.

Use the leftover samples to have your kids create art for their space. Even if it’s very “abstract”, the palette will work perfectly and it’s a sweet, personal touch.

Need more help with choosing a color? Join me for the Behr Color Clinic on Thursday, May 16th where I’ll be joining a Q&A session on the Behr Facebook Page from 10a.m. to noon EST.

So, I Bought The Frozen Sheets.

Sep292015

Before I had babies—or older kids with opinions—I vowed to never buy character bedding, sheets, pillows, etc. Then, like any good mom, I ate my words and bought the Frozen sheets.

My strategy for their bedrooms in this house is to give them a good “base” and let them do their own decorating on top of it. The other part of my strategy is to go upstairs as little as possible and/or close bedroom doors often. (Just look away, Emily. Look away.)

From the first time we told the kids that they’d all have their own rooms in this house, the planning ensued—mostly by my six-year-old, who was set on a Frozen room from the get-go. (Will this movie ever go away??) I talked her down from a purple wall with painted snowflakes and decided to compromise by buying the Anna and Elsa sheets, which automatically makes it a “Frozen bed”, in her mind. (For the record, these cheap sheets are the softest things ever. . . Wonder if they make them in a queen?) She also loooooves everything purple, which happens to just about be my least favorite color.

I just know some of you are in the same predicament. So, here’s how I plan to create a room we’ll both love. . .

Cool colors that still feel “icy” without being too princess purple. . .

Style at Home

To compromise on the purple, I’m painting her dresser a soft lavender and pairing with a gold mirror like the image above. She thinks it’s wonderful. (Lucky for me.)

Nick Olsen

I think this little bit of unexpected color will keep the room from looking too “soft”. And, I like that there’s no real theme to the room once the princess sheets bite the dust.

This is what will really tie everything together. The team at Minted let me choose a piece from their new fashion-inspired art collection, and I knew this abstract (“Here and There” by Sonal Nathwani) would be a perfect fit. It incorporates all of the colors I’m using in the room and is just such a fun painting for a kid’s room. (I also love the idea of her having a big piece of artwork to take with her when she grows up.)

I ordered the 30 x 40” size in the white wood frame and will eventually hang wall lamps and her own framed artwork on both sides.

So, that’s the plan. And, in case you don’t think there’s enough Anna and Elsa going on in here, the sweet girl decided to put her Frozen sheets on top of the comforter so everybody could see them. I tried. She wins. #LetItGo

The Girls’ Bedroom: A Window Treatment & A Bedding Update

Feb182014

The thing about sharing little progress here and there on a room is that it probably seems like I’ve been working on it forever. I have. And, I probably will be. But, that’s life. The beauty of decorating your home is being able to pick it apart if something doesn’t feel right—until it does. That’s pretty much what’s happening in the girls’ bedroom.

I had a cornice board made for their room last fall. I felt like the window needed something, but there aren’t many options when you have a bed pushed up next to it. Cornice board treatments are great solutions for kids’ rooms. They’re tailored, tough and out of reach. For this one, I went with a simple shape (that I’ll hopefully love forever) and neutral fabrics.