As you know, I recently surrendered my home office so that my daughters could have their own rooms, but that was only part one of our three room swap. Once we got 8-year old Emilie settled in her new room, we decided to swap rooms with our oldest daughter, Chloe. Her room was a little bigger and brighter than ours, and we were all ready to change things up.
Thinking of making some changes of your own? Here’s how we made the swap (for the most part) easy and efficient – and you can too:
Start with a Vision
I find that when approaching any design project, it’s crucial to have a clear vision to guide the project and stay on track with your goals. Chloe really just wanted her own space, but she’s also transitioning from a little girl to a pre-teen, so she wanted her room to feel more grown up.
Since I am always on the go, I wanted our new bedroom to feel calm, serene, and totally free from distractions. Even though we have a puppy and two kids, I had a vision of a white bed that would feel like floating on a cloud. Life is too short to be practical, I say! Here is how the new bedroom (the girls’ old bedroom) turned out:
Create a Clean Slate
We started the project by selling and donating all of the extraneous furniture and decor that didn’t align with the vision we had for our new spaces. Ten-year old Chloe wanted to create a more grown-up vibe in her new space, so we donated outgrown toys, books, games, and clothes, and kept only items that made the cut for her new space. I also discovered that we had three (!) random stools which served no purpose whatsoever, so we gave them to my friend, Ariel, who runs an art studio and camp.
Here is how Chloe’s new room (our old room) came together:
Repurpose as Much as Possible
The truth is, we’d planned on bringing most of our old furniture to the new room, but we quickly realized that our queen bed was nearly impossible to move. So, we decided to take the path of least resistance and leave most of our bedroom furniture behind for Chloe’s new room – a massive upgrade for her! We sold Chloe’s twin bed, side table, and our nightstands, and used the money to invest in new furniture for our room. Chloe kept her own rug, desk, and mirror for her new room, and we were able to move the loveseat from my former office (now Emilie’s room) into our new master. Here’s the old loveseat in our new space:
Constrain Your Shopping
As much as I love interior design and styling, I actually don’t enjoy spending time shopping. Because of this, I like to constrain my shopping to as few sources as possible – preferably one. In this case, I’ve always loved the quality and simple, modern style at Room and Board, so I challenged myself to pick out a new bed, dresser, and nightstand in less than fifteen minutes at their showroom. Mission accomplished.
As you can see, we mounted our TV above the dresser because we love a cozy movie night as much as anyone. For styling and finishing touches, I consulted with my friend Brittany, founder of The Vintage Rug Shop. I showed her a few pictures of our space once the furniture had arrived, and she helped me to select pillows, throws, books, and decor to style and update our space. I’m obsessed with Brittany’s entire collection of curated goods, so I was able to completely finish the project with one stop! Get yourself someone who looks at you the way I look at Brittany’s shop.
All told, I’m thrilled with how the swap turned out. Chloe feels like she won the lottery scoring a queen sized bed, and I love that our new room feels both cozy and spacious at the same time. And, Emilie is used to turning lemons into lemonade – sorry, younger kid!
Just for a little context, here was the girls’ room before it became our master bedroom:
And here was our room before it became Chloe’s new room:
In all honesty, the biggest challenge of our room swap was giving up our closet for a smaller shared closet. Stay tuned to see the big closet makeover reveal with California Closets next week!
Image Credit: Vivian Johnson Photography
