7 Design Ideas to Steal from this Bright and Colorful Playroom (It Doubles As a Guest Room!)

When Krista Nye Nicholas and Tami Ramsay, the partners behind the design firm Cloth + Kind, made over this guest bedroom for their clients, they had already worked on much of the rest of the house. But with a growing family that now included two kids, the parents wanted to make better use of a guest bedroom. Instead of a room that only got used when guests would visit, the plan was to make the space into one that could be a playroom 365 days of the year and host guests as needed. Here’s how they created a bright and colorful playroom that does double duty as a guest suite.

To maximize the space, Nicholas and Ramsay created built-in bunk beds, which take up much less floor space than two single beds. Working with their builder, Cloth + Kind redesigned a blank wall to include a deep closet and built-in bunks. They opted for stairs instead of a ladder because they are easier to climb (especially for any grown-ups who might be staying on the top bunk). To create visual symmetry, Nicholas and Ramsay had the stairs hidden by an identical door to the one on the closet. A trundle beneath the bunk creates another place to sleep without taking up extra floor space.

Cloth + Kind added vertical V-groove wainscot to the room to add texture and depth and to also provide a sturdier surface that could “stand up to sticky fingers and crayons,” says Ramsay, who notes that wainscot “automatically elevates the whole vibe.” This is a relatively simple woodworking project that you could DIY or hire out to a handyperson.

The built-in bookcases along the wall offer plenty of space for the kids’ toys to get put away when guests visit without taking up too much of the room’s precious floor space. Canvas bins from Hable Construction corral smaller toys and can be stashed in the deep closet, if the parents want to clear some space for their guests. “Everything that we used that added to the playroom aspect of it was very movable,” says Ramsay. “You could have thrown all the baskets of toys and the play furniture into the closet for a quick change, if you’d want to utilize that lower trundle bed.”

The main colors in the room are shades of aqua, blue, and green, an analogous color scheme, with just a few pops of contrasting color. Because the foundation is all cool tones it doesn’t feel too kiddie. Ramsay selected the paint colors — Sherwin Williams’ “Bubble”* on the wainscoting, and Farrow & Ball’s “Arsenic” on the bookcases — to work with the Hygge & West wallpaper and fabric selections, which include fabric by Electra Egglston on the draperies.

*”Bubble” is an “archived” color; “Watery” is a close match.

Cloth + Kind used a variety of vintage pieces, in particular lighting, to decorate the room. Ramsay says the vintage accessories “tame the newness of things.” The mid-century modern chandelier was sourced from 1stdibs and the tabletop double-bulb lamps on the bookcase were found at 214 Modern Vintage at High Point Market.

Ramsay says that this particular client had a real appreciation for art, so she filled the playroom/guest suite with art that has a youthful spirit but won’t feel too childish anytime soon. The collage print is from Susan Hable for Sourcier Marin (Cloth + Kind sells this through their showroom), while the art in the bathroom is some the client found on a trip to Mexico and Ramsay had custom framed.

The bathroom’s lampshades were custom ordered from Shandells, but Ramsay says you can definitely DIY similar marble paper lampshades. “If you Google how to cover a lampshade with paper, there are loads of tutorials,” she says, and you can often find marbled paper at high-end stationary shops and art stores.

Get the look:

• Wallpaper — Daydream from Hygge and West
• Paint — Arsenic from Farrow & Ball and Watery from Sherwin Williams (close match)
• Rug — Surya
• Striped Throw — Ooak Bolivian and Marbel from Sundance
• Wall Art — Hable Construction