So often we feature and write about children's rooms (usually nurseries) carefully mapped out and executed by parents. But as these babies get older they invariably begin to put their own stamp on a room - sometimes by requesting (or demanding) changes and other times by rearranging things just so or by the addition of collections or toys they find meaningful.

Rita Konig, a columnist for the New York Times Style Magazine's Inside Out section, had this on her mind too in a recent piece about the room of a young girl named Eliza whose personal flavor can be seen throughout a room otherwise filled with some sophisticated furniture and decor. Konig, a decorator herself, was impressed by the meshing of quite ordinary kids' things (including, yes, a plastic dollhouse) with more grown-up pieces as well as kids' ability to make their rooms pleasing, happy spaces for themselves. "Maybe it is because they don’t agonize over the look they are aiming to achieve, and just get on with it. I think there is a lesson to be learned from them."

Read the full piece here.

Image: Rita Konig for The New York Times Style Magazine