For nearly a decade, my boys have been sharing a room. At first it was a necessity as our New York apartment where we lived when Sam was born was tiny. When we arrived in Dubai, they started in separate rooms. But when I invested in the Oeuf NYC bunk bed (which had been on my personal wish list for a long time) the boys happily chose their obvious bunk. Jack up – Sam down. They loved being together in the mornings and evenings and I can tell you, it made the bedtime routine easy for me.

Now, almost 10 years down the line, my boys want their own room. And I fully understand. Although I am having some emotional moments realising that they are growing up, I am secretly very happy with a new project in the house. It’s been a while since I got my hands dirty on my own turf. Besides that I am very excited about working with some new brands and products in this make over. Bye bye guest room, hello Sam’s new room.

Bye bye guest room

The guest room was kept very basic. So we did need to work with a few make-over essentials. The first one being a beautiful wall paper. The water color grey from Photowall seems like a choice that Sam (almost a teen now) will enjoy for the coming years. We always want to create a space that kids grow into, not out of.

Storage is a fundamental element in any space we design. If you are, like us, happy to keep toys, stationary and homework behind closed doors, we recommend bringing in some kind of cabinet. Where in the shared room we used a vintage dresser, now I wanted to use one of my own babies. Fronteriors offers doors, sides and tops for IKEA cabinets. The beige slated door is one of the more recent collection and I added it to a BESTA unit that we hung on the wall.

This room will still be for family and friends when they come to visit. Therefore Sam will be enjoying this spacious double bed. Yet to make it his (opposed to the white bedding that I normally use for guests) we chose for a greyish green linen set complemented with a mix and match cushion covers from Alex & Alexa. A new find is the oak bed side table which suddenly made it a boys room.

Shop around the house

For this make-over, I wanted to work with furniture that we have in the house. Mostly, shopping around your own house will give you plenty of options. I brought in the &tradition lounger from my bedroom. I feels like a good match in terms of color and materials and makes a perfect reading corner for those slow starts on the weekend.

Art work is always an essential for me. Not only because there are so mant creatives out there making stunning prints, it’s also the best way to change the vibe of a room. For Sam I chose two prints that I found on my recent trip to Stockholm. The art from Facade Apt bring in some stunning color.

Get your essentials right

For now I have a happy son, and hopefully happy guests at some point. And let’s not forget that I had fun taking on this project. It demonstrates once again that make overs are easier then often thought. If you have the right essentials (a statement wall, storage, bedding and artwork), you can pull of any project in no time. Go for it!