With a splash of colour and bucketloads of charm, two small kid’s rooms are beautifully transformed
If you’re familiar with Julie Stuart’s business alter-ego, Clever Poppy, you’ll know that her style is pretty, whimsical and packed with DIY goodness. Her most recent project, creating two unique rooms for her children Piper and Harvey, delivers her signature approach in spades. With fabulous feature wallpapers, soft gelato colours and walls dripping with DIY artwork (both hers and the kids’), Julie has turned an old office and a shared kids’ room into two utterly adorable spaces.
What were the rooms before you transformed them into bedrooms?
These two rooms have changed a lot since we bought our house more than a decade ago. They’ve both had their turn as an office, nursery and bedroom. Most recently, Harvey’s room was the kids’ shared room and Piper’s was an office.
Before:
After:
Why did you make the decision to give the kids separate rooms?
We really liked the children sharing a room. But we moved our businesses to a new workshop in the middle of last year, and that freed up an extra room in our home. We decided that it would be best to give them their own separate rooms – mainly because one’s a late sleeper and the other’s an early waker, so they were wreaking havoc on each other’s sleep patterns.
What problems did you encounter when transforming the rooms?
Both rooms are relatively small, so the biggest challenge was trying to fit in furniture that would age well. I spent quite a bit of time mapping out the floor plans with furniture measurements in PowerPoint before we settled on any new pieces for the rooms. It was also quite tricky choosing the blinds for Piper’s room, because one of them sat right over top of the illustrated wallpaper. A consultant at Harvey Furnishings convinced me that a subtle pattern would look softer than a block colour against the wallpaper, and he was absolutely right. I love the result.
What inspired you to do the colour blocking in both rooms?
I have found that the kids’ bedrooms naturally end up filled with so much stuff, so adding a paint effect that wraps around the room really ties it all together. The deeper colour on the lower half of the walls seems to make the space feel bigger.
How do you create big looks in small spaces?
Feature walls. They honestly make such a difference. I can’t believe how much bigger the rooms feel now that they have an illustrated wallpaper on one wall. A paint effect helps a lot with this aspect too.
What do you think is important to remember when designing kids’ bedrooms?
I know that the room will be dismantled and pulled apart daily. So, it’s important that we have lots of storage options. This means we can throw the toys back into their baskets at the end of the day. It looks tidy enough (even if the inside of the basket is a bit of a mess!).
What are your tips for gallery hangs?
I usually start with the largest piece and place that off-centre. Then, I add items around it, going from biggest to smallest, until the space seems balanced. I think it helps to choose pieces that have quite contrasting shapes and hang them in different ways. I try to use both rectangular and circular pieces, and hang them with a mix of hooks, hangers, washi tape etc.
Tell us what you’ve done with Piper’s room.
We’ve transformed it from a stark white box into a little girl’s room that is full of fun. To start with, we added the scalloped paint effect and put up the feature wallpaper. These both added so much personality to the space. Next, we chose the blinds, installed the furniture and added fun storage options around the room, so that her gorgeous toys and dress-up outfits could be on display. The final touch was to add some art and handmade creations to the room.
Did Piper have any special requests?
Unicorns and Frozen (you can guess which direction I steered her in). Piper is still little, so I narrowed down options for things like wallpaper to my top two or three favourites, then asked which one she was the most excited about. That way Piper was part of the process, but we were working with things I knew would stand the test of time.
How did you decide on the colour palette?
We chose the wallpaper first, then used it as our key piece to draw the entire room’s colour palette from. Dulux Hint of Lavender looks beautiful with it.
What is your favourite feature in the room?
I love her bed; it’s got such a beautiful shape and sets the tone of the room. It looks especially sweet when it’s made up with the pinstripe linen and some snuggly pillows.
What is Piper’s favourite feature in the room?
Most of all she loves all the little storage boxes full of her toys. She can spend ages getting them down, rearranging her little treasures and turning them into pretend places.
How did you achieve a perfect scallop pattern on the walls?
To make the scalloped pattern, I cut out a cardboard half circle template and traced around that to create the scalloped effect. If you look super close, each scallop isn’t perfectly even.
Harvey’s room used to be their shared bedroom, what have you done to make it his?
Luckily, the room was already well set up to suit Harvey’s vibe. All I needed to do was change some of the art on the walls, add a vintage desk, the storage drawers, and rearrange the layout.
What is your favourite feature in this room?
I still love the wallpaper so much. It just totally transforms the room and gives me that ‘ah’ moment as I walk in, even two years later.
What is Harvey’s favourite feature in his room?
I think he is most excited about seeing his framed art on the wall. He was so chuffed when he saw it ready to go, it was super cute.
Top tips for kids’ bedroom makeovers
- Embrace handmade accents. Adding handmade items to the room through art, cushions, toys and upcycled furniture will make the room feel inviting and comfortable.
- Add a feature wall It brings in so much personality and can be swapped out relatively easily down the track.
- Invest in black-out curtains and blinds It’s noticeably different how much longer the kids sleep now that the sun isn’t streaming into their windows in the morning.
- Get some cool storage options It will make it much easier to tidy the room after the whirlwinds have been through. Plus, it might even encourage them to tidy up after themselves.
- Frame your child’s art I love taking a crazily colourful piece of art my kid has brought home from school and framing it myself in a classic white or wood frame (nothing fancy, plain poster frames work a trick). It instantly transforms the art into something special and stylish, and the kids feel so proud seeing them on display.
Words by: Bea Taylor. Photography by: Babiche Martens.
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