Shared Spaces: Sibling Revelry

I love the idea of a brother and sister sharing a room, and with a few simple steps, it’s actually not too hard to pull off a cohesive look. When designing a bedroom, I most often start with the bedding. It tends to make the biggest statement in the room. In the case of a boy/girls shared room, I suggest sticking with classic patterns. Think plaids, dots, stripes, ginghams. The patterns are timeless and can work for boy and girl. Use the same pattern for both beds, just change up the color palette based on their preference. (Quick aside, the plaid duvet in the pink is AMAZING!!! It’s the first thing I bought for my daughter from the new fall collection.) Also, mix in some basics in solid colors, so the prints don’t overwhelm. Our sweatshirt and moving blankets are good options.

Next, I’d choose a rug. You can go one of two ways with this. You can pick one that has a lot of color in it, including the colors in the bedding. This will help pull everything together and add a little punch to the room. Or, if there’s a common color in both beds, in this case it would be navy, choose a solid rug in that color. Again, this will help the two beds make sense together.

Then, for the furniture, I’d opt for classic, clean lines. With, ideally, both beds being the same.    If you do have one child that’s particularly opinionated, let’s say a super girly, girl that wants a dramatic headboard, then at least try to stick with the same finish on the two beds.

For the accessories, I’d suggest a color-coding system. Since you have so much color already happening in the bedding and rug, think about choosing one color for each child and getting them a lamp, storage and other accessories in their colors.  It should cut down on arguments, and look visually pleasing.

Lastly, be sure you give each child a space to make their own. In this case, we used bulletin boards over their beds, so each could display their collections and art.

By Danielle Kurtz

Danielle is the Creative Director at Nod and an over-protective mother of two. She’s also completely obsessed with Pinterest, Twitter and her Kindle, but not necessarily in that order. Danielle loves to craft, sew and crochet, but all her supplies have a layer of dust on them about 5-years-thick, wonder if it's just a coincidence that her oldest kiddo is 5 years old?