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Janus et Cie: Agatha
This is just about the cutest set of children’s table and chairs. Janus et Cie created this series of Agatha Side Chairs as part of their wide range of outdoor and contract furniture.
Kids deserve a little fun, don’t they? Whether you’re designing for a school, a day care, or a health care facility, a child’s life is improved when someone makes the extra effort for them. No one appreciates something that’s special like a child.
Unfortunately, they’re not sold in retail stores -but only to the trade. Hey, you can always shoot me an email for prices, etc.,on this line.
My point is to get those creative ideas flowing. Skip the Disney characters and create your own vision.
Chair of the Day: Viva
Speaking of Thanksgiving (see earlier post), when the whole family gets together you need a place to park the kids. Something like Viva, designed by Tine Mouritsen, could be just the thing.
This looks like fun. I like the philosophy that children should have basic things to play with. Like tunnels, blocks, and other such nondescript things. Children get a chance to actually use their imaginations to turn those blocks and a tunnel with a door into a submarine, or a time tunnel.
It also looks like a great place to take an after-Thanksgiving dinner nap.
Amenity for the Nursery
These are just about the cutest things I’ve seen for a baby’s room. I’m not a fan of licensed cartoon character theme rooms. Decorating with pillows and blankets like these are a great way to make a room unique as well as stylish.
These are from the Wetlands Collection from Amenity. Cute! You’ll find them over at Design Public.
I found these at
Mary-Kate’s New Room
Mary-Kate is the 9 year-old daughter of a Sarah, a good friend of mine. This sophisticated fourth-grader was ready for a change to her personal space. She’s a girl after my own heart because she has always understood the importance of decorating a room that’s uniquely one’s own. By that I mean, no theme rooms covered in Disney characters.
Mary-Kate’s Room “Before”
Her before look was terrific - a Lilly Pulitzer style that was bright and cheerful. But Mary-Kate’s mom sells marked-down Lilly at an online shop. So she sees it everyday and got bored; she wanted something that set her apart. And let’s face it, when it comes to kids defining who they are it’s (a) very important to them, and (b) changes often, and (c) is best defined by the space they inhabit.
This means that parents should be prepared for change within reasonable limits. Start with basic furniture that can carry off different looks. Look for bargains and shop carefully for things you know won’t be around forever. Finally, take a tip from Mary-Kate’s Mom. Once your child has really outgrown something, try selling it on Craig’s List. (I’ve had success with this, too).
Mary-Kate’s room: “after”
Mary-Kate designed the room’s basic look by herself. “I wanted a more modern look,” she said. “So I picked out black and green for the colors.” She chose a bright green paint for the walls - Chopped Chive, from Ace Hardware.
Sarah sold her old furniture on Craig’s list and bought a more contemporary daybed from West Elm. It’s covered in a polka dot duvet cover from PB Teen. The toss pillows, floor lamp and art hanging to the right of the bed are all from Target. The area rug is from Lowe’s - what a fantastic find. Sarah is a woman who knows where to find a bargain. She amazes me.
Sarah’s best trick is the art hanging to the left of the bed. She took a white frame she already had and used gift wrap for the artwork. (Sarah, you need to start your own blog. Call it Design on a Penny!)
The Parson’s desk is another find from West Elm. White is a good choice for a girl growing into her teenage years. It’s a good basic that will take her through high school. The shelves and desk chair are from IKEA.
Now for the best part - the window treatment. Sarah has a fantastic seamstress who made up this Roman shade with Mary-Kate’s monogram in the valance. I think that’s such a great idea. Matching pillows tie the look together. The fabric and ribbon are JoAnn Fabrics. They were very inexpensive and you don’t need a lot of yardage with this type of shade. I love that monogram.
Mary-Kate, you did a great job on your first decorating job. I love the color choices and the way all the patterns work together. I can’t wait to see your next project.
Cube 6 by Naho Matsuno
This was an imaginative design from Japanese designer, Naho Matsuno.
Cube 6 is a puzzle of stools that fit together to form a cube. An aptly named product.
Matsuno said her inspiration came from the need to design furniture for schools where space is limited.
Here she is demonstrating her design for us. She showed her work at the Satellite pavilion.
The cube is made of maple. the craftsmanship was perfect. Very nicely done.
Nanimarquina Carpets
Nanimarquina’s carpets are always a beautiful surprise. Her designs celebrate modern design, but with a sense of fun. This year was no different.
My top fave was Rangoli, which takes its name from the classic Hindu mosaics. These are typically found at the entrance of Hindu homes and are symbols are good luck. Rangoli comes in three sizes (each with a slightly different pattern), and two colors.
The aptly named Victoria is a colorful take on a classic, Baroque style. Partida is more minimalist – a series of dots that, from a distance, blend together to form a single color with a path in the center. (more…)
When It Comes To Teen Avoid The Themes
I wrote a post last week about design ideas for Teen bedrooms. You can read the entire post here. The gist of what I wrote was that teenagers are trying to find their own identities. Because of that, they frequently change their minds about who they are. Their bedrooms are an expression of that ever-changing personality.
Let your teen personalize with magnetic paintThat’s why, when it comes to decorating teen bedrooms, I encourage parents to find a way to allow them to become masters of their universe/bedroom. Set some guidelines, but allow them to experiment and make changes. Don’t like it? Close the door.
This was reinforced when I was looking through the PB Teen catalog. To be sure, they’ve got some nice things. But I have a problem with some of the themed, and clearly youthful furniture. Here’s why.
What are you going to do with PB Teen’s Snowboard Bed when your son discovers girls and starts playing the guitar? Or leaves for college? Are you going to keep that bed for your new guest room? Is your college grad going to move it to his new apartment after graduation? I think not. So why waste $1,395 on a theme?
Likewise, the Display-It Bed will rapidly age (Same with having to constantly worry about breaking the glass panels covering the corkboard). How will you feel when your daughter begins to associate that $1,600 bed with her youth? Even though you just bought it last year? That’s how fast things change.
So what do you do when your teenager begs you for a mosh pit and rolls her eyes at how dorky you are for not allowing her to rip up the carpet and paint the floor black?
Here’s how. When it comes to major purchases such as the bed, choose furniture that can live through several personality changes. In other words, something simple where the style comes from the sheets. The Classic Iron Bed (on sale for $699), or better yet, the Beadboard Bed (below, $699) both from PB Teen would be good choices.
Another suggestion (my fave) is to visit Goodwill and buy something you can take home and paint. If you have an aesthetically-minded teen, he or she can cover the whole thing with stickers. Who cares? Another coat of paint will create a new vision. Make sure it’s your teen who does the painting.
Chalkboard paint can be used on anythingMore tips:
- Buy furniture and accessories from junk shops (they’re vintage (!) and much more individual),
- Create an accent wall with chalkboard paint, magnetic paint, or other products mentioned in last week’s post,
- Create a collage wall by first covering the wall with wallpaper liner. When the collage becomes so last year it will peel off easily.
- Auto body shops will Bondo and paint furniture to give it a new-car look for very little $$,
- Create a budget and let your teen shop with her friends for accessories.
If you don’t like your teen’s creation, again, you can always close the door. When they go to college you can hold a bonfire party in the back yard. But I’ll bet you’ll be missing them too much to do it. That is, until they come home with their laundry.
Teen Rooms
I have an older friend who raised her children during the 60’s. She told me a funny story about her teenage daughter personalizing her room by hanging balls of aluminum foil all around her canopy bed. My friend said she tore it all down - frightened that her daughter was turning into a hippy.
Yikes! It’s Hippies!Likewise, when my college roommate was a teen, her room was professionally decorated to the nines - complete with matching pink pencils. She was never allowed to change or move anything, much less actually use those pink pencils. On her wedding day they were still in the pink pencil holder on her desk.
She grew to hate it.
My point? Decorating a Teen room has its own set of guidelines. Teenagers are busy finding themselves, figuring out who they are, what kind of music they like, what sort of people they hang out with, what style of clothes they’ll wear, etc. Are you going to be a Goth or a Cheerleader? A jock or in school play?
It’s part of something we all have to go through - defining ourselves and separating from our parents’ identities. This is why it’s universal to find teen rooms filled with posters, magazine clippings and even tin foil all over the place. They’re saying, “This is my space, this is who I am, and this is what I like.”
What’s that got to do with decorating? For one, it means that if you want your teen’s room to look like it belongs in a magazine, you’re fighting a losing battle. For another, it means really understanding what a teen’s bedroom is. My college roommate’s parents thought it was just a bedroom. But teen rooms are really a combination laboratory and billboard.
So how do you make the room look great, but still give them room to express themselves? Here are some ideas. Since they’re going to want to put up pictures of the stuff they like anyway, (see photo below)…
Actual teenager’s bedroom.… make the decorations part of the decor.
I did this for a teenage boy’s room, which was featured in KidSpace. I installed sheets of perforated, galvanized steel from McNichols. They precut the steel so that all the installer had to do was frame it out. It’s magnetic, so the teenager in question could display his current passions using magnets, rather than taping photos to the wall. It also allows a teen to customize the look easily. Here’s what it looked like soon after it was completed.
A 13 year-old’s room.Here’s the same room a few years down the road. It’s evolved quite a bit.
Same teen’s room two years later. There are all sorts of customizable materials out there. They make a design statement all by themselves. Memerase makes whiteboard “wallpaper” that comes in different colors, including black. What teen wouldn’t love that? Of course, there’s blackboard paint, too. You could also consider mounting a push-pinnable surface to the wall. The one pictured, below, is from Robin Reigi. It comes in 2′ x 4′ black or white acoustical (they can play their music loud!) panels.
Memerase in white and black, Acoustical panels from Robin Reigi, and Steel from McNichols.
One last tip: come to an agreement as to what part of your teen’s room is fair game for customization. In the photo, below, it was the closet door for stickers and the shades for a pin collection. Giving Teens an easy way to customize their rooms is a good way to approach the decoration. You provide the bones. Let them add the muscle and skin.
Do you have a good teen decorating tip, or a fond decorating memory/nightmare from your own teen years? Why not share it with all of us?
What’s Coming Up Next Week
Stay tuned next week. I’ll be writing a post for Design Tip Tuesday, discussing new color trends, news from the Cologne Design Show, and a special focus on Teen Bedrooms. Here’s a sneak peek of one of the bedrooms I’ll be featuring.
See you on Monday!
Not Neutral - Okay!
Design Public has a new line of rugs from Not Neutral. These are allegedly for kids, but I could see them used else where. They’re made of wool and have a nice pile to them; they’re not flat if you know what I mean.
The 4′x 5′ retails for $240 and the 5′ x 8′ goes for $480. Check ‘em out. I think they’re cute.