Before and After: A Bedroom Redo That’ll Make You Want to Be a Kid Again

Blank slate homes can certainly be a gift, but sometimes it takes a while to get there. At the start, they can feel overwhelmingly… blah. When Whitney Zeller and her husband saw the home they’d be moving their family of four into, it wasn’t exactly breathtaking. “The first time I saw the children’s rooms in what would be my house, well, let’s say I wasn’t in love,” says Whitney. “The rooms were small, with beige ceilings, beige walls, beige closets, and beige carpet. It was beige, beige, beige everywhere!” Before they even purchased the home, both she and her husband agreed: The whole thing would be getting a makeover.

Lucky for Whitney’s kids, their bedrooms were first on the list. “As soon as we move into a new home I always like to start on decorating on designing the kids’ rooms first,” Whitney says. “I want to make sure the kids feel right at home in their new space and decorating their rooms and making it something special for them always seems to do the trick.”

In her son’s bedroom, she started with a coat of white paint all around (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White) to brighten things up; but even then, says Whitney, the carpet looked drab and dingy. “The carpet was filthy, even after we had it professionally cleaned,” she says. So out it went, in favor of new hardwood floors.

Also out? The old boring light fixture, now replaced with a pretty brass one with a clear glass shade, from West Elm. An accent wall behind the bed—painted blue-gray (Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman’s Gray)—is a perfect backdrop for imagination-inspiring constellation decals. And how fun is the teepee-inspired bed, from Etsy?

The airplanes were made by Whitney using cardstock, and pinned to the wall for a whimsical display. Inside the closet, they installed fox-printed wallpaper and a custom organizational setup. “I wish my closet looked half as good as that one,” Whitney says.

A KALLAX unit from IKEA makes room for books and toys. The new vintage-looking rug from Well Woven is a huge upgrade from the old dirty-looking beige. The floating shelves and pictures frames are from Target, and for the gallery display, Whitney bought prints off Etsy and purchased frames from Walmart. The project was a six-month-long endeavor, but Whitney—and her son!—are in love with the results.

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