In this post I’m sharing how we transformed the nursery into a tween boho girls room for Pen!

With three kids who are all the same sex it can be tempting to have them all share one bedroom. We actually have a room in our home that is big enough to house three separate beds for the girls. But, the way we’ve always had it set up was to give one room to the baby and have the older two share. I had so much fun decorating the girls nursery back in the day. And since we just kept having girls we haven’t had to change much to the room. But I love boho style and was dying to transform the existing nursery into the perfect little boho girls room for my oldest.

 

The original nursery

Pen’s nursery was the easiest room I’ve ever decorated. And this was at a time when Pinterest was exploding and baby websites like Project Nursery were sending me daily blog posts. It was easy to design because at the time we were living in a suburb of LA called Los Feliz. In Los Feliz there was the cutest clothing boutique. When I walked in I was mesmerized by the metallic glam wallpaper, crystal chandelier, soft blue walls, hot pink accents and the modern rug. Yep. 10 years a go I was very into glam. 😉 I took what I saw in that store and set out to duplicate the look for our first baby’s nursery.

Its better to pair up roommates with the same sleeping habits than by age or gender.

When we moved into our next home I duplicated the exact same look for Violet Mae & Everly Elle. (I was raised in the south so I love middle names what can I say?!) 🙂 Once Everly moved into the nursery the older two shared the big room. Well, here’s the thing about siblings sharing a room. Even though they might be the same gender it doesn’t always make sense. Violet Mae is a NIGHT OWL. As in, she will even describe herself as nocturnal. Ha! And Pen loves to go to sleep on time, wake up early and keep a clean room. All things Miss Violet struggles with.

So once Everly was out of the crib I moved her out and moved Pen in. And here we are almost three (can that be right?!) years later, and I am finally finished with transforming her little girl nursery into a tween boho girls room!  F I N A L L Y! cue hands up emoji

Pen’s tween boho girls room reveal.

A lot of things I kept the same, but I did add new art and some fun DIY. Here are the pics!

Hot tip: When planning kid rooms think ahead. Pick a wall color that can follow them into tween-dom.

The first change I made to this room was to get rid of the baby furniture, obviously. 😉 Penelope really wanted to keep the color of the walls so that made things a whole lot easier (even though my vision for this space had super neutral walls and tons of green plants!) I love turquoise and I especially love how just skewing the saturation a bit can dramatically change the feel of the color. I do consider turquoise a gender neutral color- in fact, I consider turquoise a neutral. Its my humble opinion that it goes with pretty much anything- making it rank pretty high as one of my favorite colors.

Hot tip #2- when picking out art for your nursery find art with a mix of YOUR favorite colors. You’ll find yourself tying in the colors of the art into the rest of the room, and you want to make sure they’re all colors that are easy to work with.

The large painting in the center of the wall is actually a modern art piece of a mother holding her new baby. It was given to me from my mother in law, and its been in our nurseries since the beginning. I love this piece because the colors are all so versatile and could be suitable for a boy or girls room. When transforming this space into a tween boho girls room I decided to group other fun art around it.

Pen has a deep love and affection for tigers so I found these prints from Urban Outfitters. I love buying art from Urban because they offer a great selection of frames. I also think framing your own kids art really helps to personalize their space. 

Tip #3: Hide the clutter with beautiful storage that ties into the room’s aesthetic.

Storage can come in many different forms, but nothing screams boho more than rattan or natural materials. (For some of my favorite storage and baskets check out my post HERE!) The baskets in the pic above are from World Market. I use them to corral all of Pen’s little treasures. Kids and tweens alike have a knack for collecting everything from toys to precious “finds” so its super helpful if their storage is both beautiful and functional. With baskets like this I don’t mind that they’re on display. It actually adds to the look of the room.

Tip #4: Create a special place for them to display their treasures and give them a cozy spot to hang out and read a book. Also a boho girls room needs… PLANTS!

Pen’s room is actually pretty small, but we still managed to carve out a special spot for her to display her favorite things. These are wall ledges from Ikea and we’ve used them to display books in this room ever since it was a nursery. Now it displays artwork, current reads, and keepsakes. We replaced the over stuffed nursing chair with a soft furry bean bag from Pottery Barn making this a super cozy nook. The ceiling is super high in this corner and I wanted to accentuate it with a hanging plant. Lots of boho rooms have hanging plants, and the spider plant is a super easy one to take care of. I water this beauty about once every week to ten days. And she likes the indirect light she gets in this corner. I found the metal hanger at my local hardware store– it was originally black, I just spray painted it gold in about two minutes flat. Voila! Have I ever mentioned how much I love spray paint?

Which leads me to my next point…

My greatest DIY hack will always be spray paint. Its pure magic.

This metal canopy bed is actually a dupe of one I originally saw at Anthropologie. There’s also a similar one at Pottery Barn Teen. But I found this one for a fraction of the price from Overstock. Its original color was a dark poo brown so we decided to spray paint it this pretty “iphone rose gold.” ha! 🙂

Tip #5: Every boho girls room needs macrame, and this light delivers in a major way.

I got this light on major major sale at Anthropologie. Hot tip! Sign up to be an anthro member. You get a 15% birthday coupon that they allow you to combine with other sales! And you don’t have to use it in your birthday month either. One of their biggest home decor sales is in early January. You’re welcome. 😉 Originally there was a crystal shabby chic princess type of chandelier here. My style has changed a lot since then, and I think this giant light fits this room perfectly with its high ceilings. And it ties in the boho theme.

 

I’m obsessed with this indoor/outdoor pink kilim rug from World Market. I originally bought it for my deck (more about my deck transformation in this post HERE). But I loved it so much that I put it in Pen’s room. It’s currently unavailable, but you can find a similar look HERE.

Tip #6: The corner is a small space savior.

Every tween needs a place to study or work. And now that our girls are distance learning at home this was especially important. Pen’s room is pretty small, and she didn’t want to sacrifice on having a double bed; so we had to maximize this corner as much as possible.

 

 

SOURCES:

– Rug (similar here)
– bed
– wall sconce (similar here)
– crescent moon light sculpture
– horse photo
– tiger moon photo
– black white tiger print
– cool to be kind print
– smart is cool print
– desk lamp
– chandelier (I couldn’t find this on the Anthro website anymore but I did find it here)
– comforter
– penelope fox pillow
– bean bag
– desk (gift from a friend)
– wall ledges
hot pink bench, mirror, dresser, dollhouse are all vintage

 

Thanks for checking out Pen’s tween boho big girls room! For fun DIY follow along on Instagram and for more of my favs and what I find inspiring check out my Pinterest page!

XO,