Rooms to love - LeeAnn Yare

For me, styling anything from a teeny tiny sideboard display, through to an entire room or home for that matter, is all about pulling everything together. It’s taking all the ingredients you have carefully collected and curated and making them work together, in a way that is functional but at the same time looks incredible. There is no expectation to have a home that looks like a magazine shoot 24/7, it takes me an entire three days and a lot of bribery to get my own home shoot-ready, but with a few clever tricks and some creativity you’ll be satisfying your inner stylist in no time. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to do what you love, there are absolutely no rules, don’t be pressured into following trends or creating a look you think others will like, it’s your home and it should make you happy. In Rooms to Love I share with you loads of tips and tricks that I hope you find useful, along with more than 220 pages of beautiful photographs from some of my favourite inspirational interiors. 
            LeeAnn Yare 

 

Kids’ rooms are not just for sleeping in; they should be a space where a child loves to hang out, so make it comfortable. Hard floors are uber practical when it comes to keeping them clean, but soften them up with a cosy rug and a bunch of cushions they can use to play on the floor, or rustle up an indoor tent or fort. Their rooms shouldn’t be overly precious, and should be easy to put back together after playtime. Stencils are a quick fix for a decorating statement, and wall decals are even easier and create instant wow. They come in a host of colours and designs, and the kids can even apply them to the walls themselves. 
 

I can’t stress enough that great storage is essential – especially when it comes to kids and keeping order. In our house the mountain of pint-size washing is never-ending. To give you and your child any chance of keeping things under control, you’ll need a well- organised plan. Dividing clothes in their wardrobe into school versus off duty is a great start, and then hang them in groups such as tees, sweaters and jackets. Do the same with drawers – large drawers can be divided into sections with a piece of cardboard cut to size, and you can add cute labels to the fronts so the kids know exactly where to find and store everything. Toys can also easily get out of control, so choose the best-looking ones to create cute displays and decorate the room, while closed storage such as boxes on rollers that hide under the bed are perfect for everything else that doesn’t make the cut. 

Mix, don’t match. My sons’ rooms have different palettes, and I took my cues from the colours they told me they loved. To quote Tyler: ‘Dad, there are no boys’ colours’ – so think outside the square; it’s not only blue that boys like. Tyler’s room is mostly green and blue with some orange and hot pink, while Dylan’s is more yellow and orange with turquoise and lime. But using colours that work together in both rooms means that all their bed linen goes into the same pile and they get to choose a new combo once a week. It’s a fun way to keep their rooms fresh, encourage them to make their beds, and it forces them into sharing their favourites with one another.

Treat their walls like a big mood board of daily inspiration using pattern and colour. A wall-sized world-map mural within a broader travel theme can have postcards and notes pinned onto it, and it’s a daily geography lesson. A graphic wallpaper or curtain fabric is another way to introduce pattern and colour, or perhaps a gallery wall of their own artful creations mixed with posters and prints. Avoiding too much of a theme or decorating around a fixed age means a few updates and your room will continue to grow with its owner, which always happens faster than you would like! 

Reproduced with permission from Rooms to Love by LeeAnn Yare and Larnie Nicolson.
Published by Penguin Group NZ. RRP $65.00. Copyright © text LeeAnn Yare, 2014.
Copyright © photographs Larnie Nicolson, 2014.