Our recent house extension has allowed us to give all three of our children a room of their own. My twins have been sharing a room since birth and it is lovely for them to have a space to call their own. They have very different personalities and into very different things, so the rooms we’re always going to be completely different!
*Collaborative Post
It took Lily a long time to choose what she wanted in her room, we went around in circles and a range of colours and themes! But in the end, after looking up paint online and trying samples instore, she wanted to go for a warm woodland theme. With a dusty pink/lilac on the walls and woodland touches to the room. She loves nature, animals and being outside, so this was perfect for her.
Small Bedroom Tour
This is a small room, but Lily was quite happy to have this room as it meant it was all hers, and she hates tidying! She thinks a smaller room means it’s easier to keep tidy, but I knew that isn’t always the case! It can be harder as you don’t have many places to put things. So I had to think hard about the layout of this room, given her storage and a sense of space.
Small Bedroom Before
Here was the room before, I didn’t get a photo of when my son was in this bedroom, but he had his bed running along under the window and a large corner desk in the bottom right-hand side of this photo.
This room has had a few changes since we moved in 7 years ago, trying various layouts to get it to work nicely and as much room as possible.
Small Bedroom After
Video Tour Of A Small Bedroom
Layout Of A Small Bedroom
Desk In A Small Bedroom
We’ve placed the desk under the window as it’s lovely to work with natural daylight, and also we can use the full width of the room. Lily loves to draw, so having a desk that is large enough to have her computer one end and then a spare space to do her drawing on at the other end. She uses the bed as a chair and the thick red cushion to raise her up!
The desk is made from wood whiteboard that you can pick up in B&Q, we purchased a 2.4 length and screwed some wooden supports underneath it for the board to rest on. Get some whiteboard strip to cover the cut edges so it blends in nicely. Once cut to size we squeezed it into the space, meaning there weren’t any gaps around the sides. To make things neater we ran caulk along the ends to blend it into the walls and touched up with wall paint.
I purchased a little desk organiser that can be placed on the desk as she hasn’t got any drawers to store pens and notebooks in here. Hopefully, it helps her to stop leaving pens laying around…..!
It was from Amazon and has little pen pot around, folder area for books and a small drawer.
IKEA Desk Chair Hack
Lily had this desk chair originally from IKEA but it had seen better days. Fully functionally but needed some love and attention! I was working with Yorkshire Linen on a collaboration with some fabric we had chosen for this room, I’ve never upholstered before but thought it would look lovely to have this chair matching the room nicely.
So we gave this IKEA Jules desk chair a upholster, head over to the blog post if you want to see how.
We’ve cushioned it and made it more comfortable, as well as matching her headboard for her bed.
Bed Layout In A Small Bedroom
The bed has been in various spots in the room, up high and down low! But we decided the best place to have the bed is along the largest wall, with her bed up behind the door so no worries about light from the landing coming in and we had utilised the space behind her bed. This large wall would be perfect to have a wall mural along or fill it with artwork and wall canvases to add interest to the room.
As you can see we had a box over the stairs, this is quite common in these 3rd bedrooms that are over the stairs. I wanted to hide this and make it a useful space.
So we designed a made to measure storage system over this, with a storage box and shelving. Taking it right up to the ceiling and down to the floor to make it look more integrated into the room.
You wouldn’t know it was there now!
Upholstered Headboard
The storage box over the stair box allows you to hide lots of things and we even fitted a headboard into this space.
Her bed is an IKEA Malm bed with a hard headboard, I didn’t think this would be very comfortable for her, so using my Yorkshire Fabric Shop fabric we upholstered it to create a padded upholstered headboard.
Head over to this post if you want to see how to upholster a IKEA malm bed headboard
Paint Colour
We love Valspar paint, it always goes on so well and decent coverage. I also love that I can have any paint sample that I love from another brand colour matched and use Valspar paint. We went for Farrow and Ball Peignoir, which is a very soft dusty pinky purple colour. Lily likes purple but didn’t want a cold lilac or a dark purple in this room, so this colour works really well for her and gives a natural base to work with when adding other items into the room. A Suffolk Mum used a beautiful colour purple in her daughter’s bedroom here
Woodland Wall Art
We have started to put some things up on the wall for Lily, but wanted to keep with the woodland theme for her. We created a woodland wall art picture hanger!
Using branches from a bush we dug up in the garden, we strung some twine between both and allowed it to hang down. Filling the strings with pictures of all the memories Lily loves and her friends and family. She can also use it for a noticeboard and hanging her own drawings.
Pinecone Letter Art
We created an L shape on the wall out of pinecones, this was a great little craft that Lily could do herself.
Accessories
We did this room whilst in lockdown so we haven’t filled the room with lots of things yet, or sorted the storage out in the shelves, but we will add to this room over time and once we can get to the shops properly.
Her duvet is from Dunelm Mill and has embroidered leaves and flowers on, it picked out the warmer wood colour that she has in the room.
I picked up a few items for her room in the Dunelm sale as I was able to do a click and collect with them. I spotted these cute little hares reduced and I thought they worked really well for her window sil.
I hope you like the ideas we had for this small bedroom, you do really need to think carefully when you have a small space to work with. But the most important bit is Lily loves it and she was so excited to have this space that is all hers now. I think we’ve managed to pull off the small bedroom look quite well!
Shop The Look
- Duvet Set reduced to £13 – Dunelm
- Bronze Dancing Hares reduced £7.50 – Dunelm
- Large Fluffy Teddy Cushion reduced £5 – Dunelm
- Wicker Bin £6 – Dunelm
- Furniture Board Desk 2.5m x 600mm £19.82 – B&Q
- Furniture Board For Bookcase 2.5m x 500mm £16.99 – B&Q
- Gold Cabinet Handle £5.03 – B&Q
- Velvet Stag Fabric £17.99 per metre (gifted) – Yorkshire Fabric Shop
- Curtains reduced £20.99 (gifted) – Terrys Fabrics
- Valspar Paint Colour Matched ‘Farrow and Ball Peignoir’ – Valspar
- Desk Organiser £16.99 – Amazon
- Moon Clock £35 – ReRoom
- Cloud Light –IKEA
- IKEA MALM Bed £149 – IKEA
- IKEA Jules Desk Chair £25 – IKEA
- Twine For Wall Art £7.99 –Amazon
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30 Comments
Wow. You are so creative. I love the photos and also the headboard and chair cover.
Thanks very much, I really want to do more crafts, as I really enjoyed it
I love getting inspiration from your posts. Thank you!
Thanks!
What a fab transformation – well done you!
Thank you, it’s a lovely space for her now
I love that deer fabric! It’s beautiful.
It’s lovely isn’t it, really soft as well
Some great idea. Love the storage.
Thanks, had to think carefully on that one!
Wow! What an amazing job you’ve done! You have made the best of the space and I absolutely love the branch with the photos hanging off it!
Thank you very much, she loves that too with all her memories on it
Oh I love this! Great idea to have the end of her bed tucked under the desk. I absolutely adore the tree branch photo hanger. It looks lovely!
Thank you, trying to make the most of the space we have. She loves the pictures!
great transformation, love the desk over the bed idea
It works really well for her, thank you
Great use of space and fantastic ideas on how to maximise your living area. Thanks for sharing
Thanks!
It looks SO good! I love the woodland photo frame hanger!!! So clever.
She loves it so much too, cute idea isn’t it
That’s incredible what you have done. It looks so different well done totally motivating.
Thanks, looks so much different doesn’t it!
The desk under the window is such a good idea, great way to save space
Thanks, she loves how big it is!
What clever shopping! Loads of tips in here- I particularly liked your storage solutions. Great post
Thanks, got to love storage!!
Great transformation. I love the photo display!
Thanks, she loves that!
It looks great! You have really made good use of a small room with that desk. I love the simple decor which will adapt as she grows up too. Lovely makeover!
Thank you very much, it’s easy for her to change her mind later on isn’t it!!