Most of the time, I love my little 1920’s California bungalow. But, recently I’ve realized our tiny home is not totally ideal. The problem is that my daughters, Denali and Olivia, have to share a room.  This doesn’t seem like it would be a big issue, but there is a big age gap between them. Denali is 11 (going on 16) and Olivia is just a year old. I want them to have a space that is appealing and organized for both of them. I don’t want the room to look like a nursery, or on the other extreme, like a mature teenage space either. The room does have furniture, but really no defined style. The bedding, rug and walls are grey and light pink and I do love that color combo.  But, beyond color, there isn’t much else. I’m struggling to give my toddler and tween the space and design that they each need. I want their room to be a place that they both love. We need function and funk folks.

They both have vintage beds. Denali’s is a full sized metal frame from Lonnie’s grandparent’s farm and Olivia’s crib was my Jenny Lind crib from when I was a baby. Obviously our house is also old, but I think the space needs a splash of modern and playful.

To start, I put together an inspiration board of fun pieces that I think could help bridge this age gap in design. I think The Land of Nod has beautiful pieces that will provide my toddler and tween with the unique and quirky style that I’m looking for.

I ended up getting all the pieces on my inspiration board except the storage bench and the new duvet cover.  I decided there really wasn’t room in the space for another piece of furniture. And after getting the adorable gold dot sheets, I was totally fine with keeping her old duvet cover.  The sheets added spunk and a fresh vibe to the bed.

Taking what we already had and mixing in the new fun things from The Land of Nod, made all the difference.  Even though it has a lot of familiar old pieces, it feels like a whole new space.

I love the juxtaposition created by pairing my Grandma’s vintage horse prints with the modern art pieces like The Amethyst.  I played around with the arrangement of art pieces for quite a while before I decided on this arrangement.  I think the colors and shapes play so nicely together.

The metal bicycle that hangs over the crib was a baby shower gift from a dear friend.  I made a little basket liner and some tissue paper flowers for it.  The bicycle goes well with the quilt my mother in law made for my baby.

I made a couple new pillows for the bed.  The geometric heart is my personal favorite and I’ll be sharing this sewing DIY very soon.  I made a giant version of this pattern for Valentine’s day, it’s fun to have a miniature version that I can keep in my home all year long.

The new leather chair is fabulous.  I really hope when my daughter moves away for college, that this stays with me.  It really added to the modern look I was hoping to infuse into the space.   An extra bonus is that it’s very comfortable.

My oldest daughter has a collection of porcelain birthday bears that her Grandma has given her.  I had them on a couple little shelves above her dresser, but I found them a new home in the corner of the room on a shelf from my Grandma’s house that I refinished.  Now I’m looking at the space over the dresser thinking that a mirror would look pretty fantastic (this one in particular).

To help with storage issues I made these under crib storage bins.  I found these two wooden drawers are a garage sale, I believe I paid $4 for each of them.  I gave them a coat of fresh white paint, added casters to the bottom, and put a fun glass pull on the front.  Now they slide easily under the crib and help keep the clutter at bay.

I gave their old lamp a facelift with a coat of metallic gold paint and a new shade to match the sheets.  This lamp shade is an easy DIY.  I took an inexpensive white lamp shade, did a little measuring and taping and then I painted on polka dots with metallic gold paint.  I’ll be back to share this DIY with you soon.

Here’s the little shelf from my Grandma’s house that I painted white for a crisp clean look.

Post by: Jeran Oleander and Palm