Sarah Sherman Samuel transformed our blank-slate set into a kids’ dream room
The designer and ultimate DIYer shows us how to create an epic, imagination-station kids’ space.
On her sketch-to-studio vision:
“I like to break the rules and push boundaries,” says Sarah. For this Design Challenge build-out, she concepted a kids’ bedroom-playroom hybrid that goes big on whimsical architectural details, playful pattern-mixing and room for creativity. (Plus, keeping this project pandemic safe upped the ante: Sarah brought her design to life remotely via emails, calls and Zooms from her Grand Rapids, Michigan, home to our Brooklyn studio!)
Photo by John Stoffer
“If I were to redesign my own kids’ room, what would the dream scenario be?”
On kid-friendly design:
“Kids’ bedrooms are one of my favorites to design because it’s fun to be imaginative,” says Sarah. “If you’re decorating your own kid’s room, look to them for inspiration—it’s their room.”
She recommends three guiding principles when tackling your own project:
■ Limit your color palette to keep it streamlined and sophisticated.
■ Mix large- and small-scale patterns for visual interest.
■ Avoid leaning on a theme! Instead, turn to your kid’s imagination for inspiration.
To strike the perfect shade of muted yellow, textile designer Maria Romero hand dyed our Modern Muslin Canopies with kid-safe onion and pomegranate skins.
On looking to your kids for inspiration:
“For kids’ rooms, my inspiration comes from children’s books, nature and my kids themselves,” says Sarah, a mother of two. “My daughter’s favorite color is blue, so I chose blue as the main color for this space. Both my kids are super into books and I am, too. Having a little library or reading nook like this inside my kids’ bedroom would be amazing.”
On knowing where to start:
“Find one piece you love—a rug, piece of furniture or art—and build the room around it,” Sarah says. This room’s pattern play all started with our graphic Stacked Strata Rug. Sarah mirrored the print with smaller hand-painted stripes on the walls and ceiling and balanced the bold lines with bedding in delicate dots.
“When it comes to design, do what you love. Your space should be a reflection of you.”
On the pitfalls of a Themed Bedroom™:
“I typically stay away from strongly themed kids’ bedrooms,” Sarah says. (It’s a room not a birthday party, after all.) “Leaving it more open-ended leaves more imagination. In this room, the canopies could become rocket ships, or the reading nook could become a cave.”
On her favorite organizational solve for kids’ spaces:
“Bookshelves—and baskets on bookshelves.”
On choosing materials:
“I like to keep things soft and comfortable, so I lean a lot on natural materials like cotton and wool. I use quite a bit of velvet as well because it brings a little bit of sophistication, and it’s also a very soft material.”