Names: Hadley & Kohen Scout
Ages: 4 years; 4 months
Location: Orlando, FL

We get frequent requests to see shared bedrooms and this one is is not only a visual knock out, but a room shared by siblings of different ages and genders. Emily rose to the challenge to create a room that would work function-wise and style-wise for her 4-year-old daughter and 4-month old son and we know you'll be excited to see it.

You may remember Emily from the terrific (and terrifically quick) tutorial for making silhouette portraits she shared with us (update: see all four of her children's silhouettes here). As a photographer she has a great eye for color and composition and she translated this into Hadley and Kohen's room with a bold, striped wall, a mix of sunny colors and prints and updating used furniture with paint for a clean, happy look that feels to us like a big breath of fresh air.

As busy as this mom of four is, Emily graciously shared some thoughts with us on making this room for Hadley and Kohen:

Inspiration: I found a picture online (can't remember where) of a living room, with big stripes like this. I knew immediately I wanted to do that in their room.

Favorite Element: The stripes! I love how they add so much to the room, without being totally overwhelming.

Biggest Challenge: The stripes! Trying to paint with my 4 little munchkins running around was quite the challenge, but I spent a few nap times completely devoted to getting those stripes on the wall!

What Friends Say: That it's the greatest room they've ever seen...no, just kidding. I think they like it though :)

Proudest DIY: Painting the furniture. My husband would say I'm a collector of furniture...that sits in our garage. So actually painting and getting the furniture into their room was a proud moment for me...and I'm sure my husband loves the extra space in the garage now :)

Biggest Indulgence: I really didn't buy much for this room. Fabric and paint and a few accessories from IKEA was about all! I did splurge and buy the non-toxic paint. That was well worth it, to not have to worry about the VOC's.

Paint Colors: Cool Jazz and Pure White.

Customized Embroidered Hoop: Rickrack Baby

You have four young children at home why did you choose Hadley and Kohen to be roommates? Well, we have a 4 bedroom home, and 4 children, so inevitably, somebody will be sharing. We chose to put Hadley with the newborn, because she is a heavy sleeper and tends to sleep longer in the morning. My other 2 boys (Caedmon, 5 and Milo, 3) tend to be early birds, so we stuck them together. At this point, Kohen is still in our room, in a pack-n-play, so Hadley is loving her room to herself. She is anxious for the day when she gets to share with Kohen though...she is definitely a little mom!

Were the age and gender difference a challenge for putting a shared room together for them? Not really...probably because Kohen really doesn't care what his room looks like at this point :)

Did Hadley give you any input on what she might like in her room? Thankfully she's still in that "anything Mom does is cool" stage, so she was just excited to have her room finally done! Every time I added something to the room she would say "oh Mom, this is just beautiful!" She's sweet.

The colors might not sound like they'd all work together on paper, yet they do. Any advice for combining colors and prints for a boy and a girl? I started with that yellow flower fabric and went from there. I would say that when you are putting a boy and a girl together in a room, that you really can't go wrong with blues, greens and yellows...and in my opinion, the more prints, the better!

Thanks Emily! If Hadley and Kohen wanted another roommate - we'd move into this gorgeous room anytime! Readers, you can find Emily at her personal blog, The Anderson Family Crew, and her photography site and blog, Campbell Photography.