It's cuter than I even hoped
Are you ready to see Milo’s toddler room? I’m so ready to share it! For the first time in my life I worked with an interior designer who specializes in kids rooms, and I think I’m hooked.
Dig around on this blog and you’ll find exactly zero nursery room or kids room reveals on here… It took 3 years for me to finally get a room beautifully decorated for my little boy, but the end result is so, so sweet.
Back when Milo was born we lived in our old house, which was a 3-bedroom. All three rooms were occupied, and Milo slept in our room for the first 6 months of his life anyway…so we just never did a nursery for him.
When it was time to move Milo into his own room, Nate got in his crazy 2020 car accident and was in/out of surgery. Milo’s first nursery was just a few pieces of furniture. It was clean and simple, but not really a cute nursery…I simply didn’t have the energy to put into anything like that, so I never decorated a nursery for him. (I have no guilt about this. Babies don’t care if their rooms have a theme…it’s really all for the mama! And I didn’t have the desire for it at that time of life. It came later.)
And then, of course, we moved houses! Milo was in a temporary downstairs bedroom (Nate was in a wheelchair and couldn’t use stairs so we put Milo in an extra room downstairs.)
And then finally (ha, I promise this story ends soon!) we had baby #2, got him sleep trained and out of the snoo, put new floors in the upstairs of our house, and both of the boys moved into their “forever rooms” which are jack-and-jill style and connected with a bathroom.
So at that point I really, really wanted to get some adorable rooms decorated for my two boys!
^ This was Milo’s room before I decorated it. I mean…clearly in need of some love. My desire was to design a beautiful room with pieces that would last for a long time so that I could kind of “set it and forget it.”
The goal was to have a room that fits Milo now, as a 3-yr-old, but also a room that won’t need an entire makeover when he’s 13.
^ Before… A big blank space ready for some character!
Design isn’t my strongest suit. (I mean, I hired a stylist here in Austin last month to help shop for clothes with me…some people have the eye for that kind of stuff, and I don’t!) Since becoming a mom, I’ve realized the power of outsourcing. I absolutely love finding people who are working in their zone of genius who can do the things I’m really bad at.
So I decided to also take the leap and work with an Austin interior designer for Milo’s bedroom.
^ One more BEFORE picture.
Btw, if you want to know who I worked with, her name is Cathryn and her business is called Cathryn Lindsey Design. She specializes in nurseries and kids bedrooms, and although she’s here in Austin, she works virtually with clients all over the country! I was immediately drawn to her natural, calming aesthetic on her instagram page.
While I wish I could take credit for this adorable room, it all goes to the designer.
It was my first time using an interior designer, and I’m hooked! The end result is 100X better than anything I could have done.
Cathryn sent me a questionnaire (what’s working in the room, what’s not, styles I love, stores I like to shop at, etc). I filled it out, emailed it back to her, and also sent her a couple Pinterest images that I liked. (Finding Pinterest images of kids rooms is easy for me…turning them into real life is where I get stuck.)
She sent a discovery board with some color options, a general design scheme, and some furniture and accent pieces she was leaning toward. Once I gave her the green light, she created an entire design for Milo’s room, including a floor plan, furniture for me to buy (plus alternates, in case something sold out), and literally every single little accessory, from the big things like overhead lights and sconces, to the tiny items like sheets and curtain rods and picture frames.
Milo's Toddler Room
Here were the big goals for the room:
01 Make it cozy for Milo. This is his home, his safe space, the place in the world where he can feel secure and loved and comfortable. I kept this the priority, because I didn’t want to get so carried away with decorating a room that I love that it wouldn’t be a fun room for a 3-year-old. So this was the first goal.
Also, Milo loves structure and order, so I wanted to keep it fairly simple and orderly for him, but also cozy.
02 A room that he could grow into. It seems like that’s always the goal with kids rooms (after all, who wants to decorate now and then re-decorate every 3 years? Actually…I joke. There are probably plenty of people who love home decor and would love to do that. But not I!)
This was harder to do than I thought, so I just told Cathryn it’s a thing I wanted and she took the reins. She accomplished it beautifully! She made it a really beautiful, sophisticated bedroom while also adding some very sweet toddler pieces (the little reading chair, the cozy tent in the corner, the lion rug, the toddler-height bookshelf and bins where he can keep all of his stuff.)
03 I didn’t want to change the paint color. We just got new carpet upstairs and painted both boys rooms a calm, serene blue. I reallyreallyreally didn’t want to paint the walls again, so I asked Cathryn if she could create a design around the wall color I already had.
^ This is the mood board the she sent me. I bought the items she suggested. You’ll notice a few of them are different than what’s on this board, and that’s because she sent alternates. For instance, the sconces in the mood board were going to ship from a different country, so I selected one of the alternates she recommended from West Elm in case I needed to return/exchange anything.
Ok, here are a bunch of pictures of Milo’s room:
^ I snapped this picture of Cathryn putting the last few finishing touches on the room before I photographed it to share with you. If you live locally, she offers an in-person session to style the room (where to hang stuff on the walls, how to make the bed, etc.) which was such a fun cherry on top. Having her at my house in-person took the room from an 8.5 to a solid 10.
I’m so in love with sweet little Milo’s room. I’m actually going to work with Cathryn again on Dayton’s nursery, and I’ll share that as soon as it’s finished!
PS: our beautiful fireplace renovation, and a simple living room gallery wall.
So cute!!! Lucky Milo!!! Can you tell me where you got that overhead rattan light? I’m looking for something similar for my daughter’s room.
Very very adorable. I love the colors. How is doing in such a big bed? He doesn’t fall off the side?
Ha ha I’m a grown adult and I would GLADLY take this bedroom! It’s beautiful! Mind sharing where your designer found that storage unit? I absolutely love it.
Love this so much! My daughter is into Lions- can you share where the rug is from? So cute!