Sleep, Play, Love

Idaho’s Lyndsey Marlor (mum, photographer and blogger at pillowthought.com), wanted a whimsical, dreamy room for two-year-old Lexi. She wanted a space for her to be happy spending time in — whether it was cuddling up with a book on her big bed adorned in pillows and cushions, or cooking up a storm in her play kitchen.

“This was a transitional room where she was moving out of her crib and into a big bed, so I wanted to make sure it was somewhere safe where she wanted to stay.”

White walls and bedding provide a clean, fresh canvas. From there, it’s all about the colour — coral, pink, lemon, turquoise and grey.

“I knew I wanted my carnival prints somehow displayed in her room, so I based my colour choices on those.

“I had to slowly work things in to see if they would work. Some colour choices didn’t look quite right so I would take them out as I went.”

The patterns too — chevrons, stripes and florals — were modern but, by sticking to the colour scheme, they all worked together.

A home-made tassel garland hangs above the window. Visit Lyndsey’s instructions and a neat how-to video guide here.

Lyndsey’s handy craft skills didn’t stop there. During a visit to an interiors store, she spied Scrabble letters being displayed as wall art.

With a little help from her local hardware store, where she bought 18.5cm squares of pine, plus a stencil, some sandpaper, a knife and a black paint pen, she made the “PLAY” tiles and her hubby whipped up the wooden shelf, to look like a Scrabble tile rack. You can find more detailed instructions at here.

There are a couple of sentimental finds that Lyndsey just had to have — a Pippi Longstocking doll and a couple of Snuffy bears — one that was Lyndsey’s own much-loved favourite teddy from childhood, and a new one she stumbled across a couple of years before Lexi arrived.

“I was so excited to find him, so I saved him for our future child.”

The open bookshelves are another inspired and very modern feature. Many books boast gorgeous covers and illustrations, so why not put them on show? Displayed this way, they’re also much more inviting for little people.

Lyndsey says some features can be updated at relatively little expense and effort but with maximum impact, such as the doorknobs on the wardrobes, and the pretty pink chandelier light-fitting. Also, cheap but effective, is a collection of wall art — an owl fixture over the light switch, a simple clipboard with a neat print and the eye-catching peach-coloured frame around the silver owl.

Indeed, small collections are a nice way to unify a room. In Lexi’s room there are a number of owls and piggy banks — not too many to be over the top, just enough to say someone’s been thinking. If the colour wasn’t quite right, Lyndsey simply got out the spray paint and gave the objects a make-over.

Her key piece of advice is to take the time to find all the right pieces “and don’t give up when things don’t look quite right”.

Now, don’t you just want to snuggle up in that big bed and spend an hour or two with Pippi Longstocking?

Read more from Lyndsey at her blog pillowthought.com.