This Dreamy Kids’ Bedroom Is Packed with Stylish Organizing Solutions

If you hop over to designer Sarah Sherman Samuel’s Instagram page on any given day, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling … while saving every other image along the way. Packed with inspo from both clients’ spaces and her own, her feed highlights her signature aesthetic: all things clean, contemporary, and California cool (even though she now lives in her native Michigan). The same can also be found on Samuel’s website, which hosts not only her portfolio but also a handful of her recent product collabs. And speaking of, the multi-hyphenate’s latest project is a true design delight: the ultimate fun-meets-modern children’s room. It’s so good that, even if you don’t have little ones, you’ll want to take note of some of these design ideas.

Working with West Elm, Samuel, herself a mother of two, took on a recent Design Challenge using products from the brand’s newly-launched kids collection. Sure, she was working with a blank slate to start, but that didn’t stop her from going big and bold. The space features a vibrant bedroom and attached reading nook/playroom — all of which she planned and created fully remotely (save construction and installation, of course) via Zoom from her home in Grand Rapids, MI. If there were ever a golden age of e-design, this is it.

Tapping her own children for design ideas (a must, in her book), Samuel decked out the bedroom with a predominantly primary palette. Blue, one of her daughter’s favorite colors, takes a central role on the floors and walls, while mustards and reds provide accents as textiles, furnishings, and artwork. Using a graphic statement rug as an initial focal point, Samuel integrated playful patterns aplenty, with the hand-painted wall treatment (stripes above a whimsical scalloped faux wainscoting) and dotted sheets. Yes, let’s talk about those beds — in a look I wish I could steal for my own room, Samuel topped both with matching muslin canopies in a perfect mellow yellow.

The nook area takes a turn for the more cozy and neutral, with classic grasscloth wallpaper that’s a warm minimalist dream, and side-by-side low slung bookcases, which provide easy access to toys and books for littles. Here, it’s all about the accents: a punchy framed print from Minted, another striped rug, and sophisticated brass sconces. Plus, that beanbag-style chair has storytime snuggles written all over it.

Ultimately, when it comes to children’s rooms, Samuel votes the more creativity, the better. “I typically stay away from strongly themed kids’ bedrooms,” she says of her design ethos. “Leaving it more open-ended leaves more imagination. In this room, the canopies could become rocket ships, or the reading nook could become a cave.” The above-curtained opening could also become “a stage” for putting on plays, or it could just be an inexpensive (and reversible!) hack anyone can use for creating some semblance of separation in a rental or open concept home without putting up any walls.

This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Designer Sarah Sherman Samuel Just Put Together the Most Amazing Kids’ Bedroom… All Via Zoom