Littlest Luxuries: My pre-teen daughter's bedroom

Cole & Son Hummingbird wallpaper girls neon teenage bedroom

 

If you follow along on instagram you may have seen that we are in the process of a huge renovation to our house in London at the moment.  As part of this I will finally be decorating a room for my younger daughter.  As we knew we would be renovating when she was born (the renovation has been delayed by almost a year because of Covid) I never decorated a nursery for her so I'm excited to create a room for her now.  As she'll be 2.5 years old when we move back to the house, I want to design a bedroom which will grow with her.  As I've been scouring Pinterest for inspiration, it took me back to the process of decorating my older daughter's bedroom a few years ago.  It turned out beautifully and every time I post pictures on instagram I have so many messages that I thought it would be useful to share some of the resources here.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and had some of the existing furniture already, but I called on the help of a lovely decorator I had met through my time at House & Garden magazine.  Jessica Buckley was a relatively new and up and coming designer at the time and did a wonderful job in sourcing some pieces and pulling it all together.  She has become quite a name now in UK decorating circles, so I'm thrilled that I was an early adopter! 

We started with the wallpaper and colour scheme.  I knew I wanted to use the Cole & Son Hummingbird wallpaper, which has been a favourite for years, but I was veering towards one of the more classic, muted shades.  Jessica pushed me towards the fresher white and green colour as she felt it would work better for Chloé as she headed towards her teenage years.  We both love it. 

The chair (which actually prompted the whole bedroom re-design) I found at the amazing Kempton antiques fair.  In 'normal' times the fair is held twice a month at the Kempton racecourse and is an amazing shopping resource.  Lots of dealers come over from Europe, and it's quite a hidden gem of the UK antiques and interiors industry. My top tip: get there super early (around 6.00 a.m) and be quick off the mark otherwise the dealers have nabbed all the best bits.  There is no dilly-dallying at Kempton!  If you see something you like, snap it up as by the time you've thought about it and come back someone else will have bought it!  The chair was a complete steal, I think it cost around £50 and I re-covered it in this simple Diamond Dot fabric from Lewis & Wood. 

Cole & Son Hummingbird wallpaper girls neon bedroom

The bedframe came from Feather & Black.  The bedside table was bought at Oka.

The artichoke lamp base , which has sadly been discontinued, was also bought at Oka, and the fun green lampshade was purchased at Pooky who do a great range of lighting. 

I adore the pop of neon in the bedlinen, which we bought at Designers Guild.   

I already had the throw cushion for her bed which I bought from a company called Vandehurd.  Again, I love the pop of neon pink.

Neon pink girls bedroom teenage bedroom Cole & Son Hummingbird

I already had the blind installed into the nursery.  The fabric has a little pink polka dot on a white background so it worked well with the new scheme so we didn't bother to change it.  I did add the fun Samuel & Son pom pom trim.  I had seen it a few years before and knew I wanted to use it in the room.  It adds such a fun finish to the blinds, and again ties in with the pop of neon.

I found the little chandelier in a lighting shop in Chiswick and already had it in the nursery so we didn't need to make any changes here.

The room is at the top of the house and had a sloping chimney breast which we covered up with built in wardrobes.  I had a joiner build them in to hide the chimney breast and square off the room.  I had seen similar wallpaper-ed wardrobe doors on Pinterest and copied the idea, having the carpenter design the panelling.  I bought the little perspex handles at Antropolgie in New York years ago and re-purposed them from an old dressing table we no longer needed.  The same carpenter built the bookshelves for me. 

We took the pictures just after the room had been decorated and I have since added some fun artwork.  I bought this Flamingo artwork from The Animal Print Shop and it now hangs above the bed.  If you are looking for animal artwork for a child's bedroom or nursery, do take a look.  I had a series of sweet baby animals hung in my son's bedroom from when he was a baby and am going to re-purpose them in my younger daughter's bedroom once we re-decorate.  

The room turned out beautifully and is still one of my favourite rooms in the house.  If only it was always this tidy!  


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