The story of the Sisters Collective is so near and dear to my heart! It is a space where my own girls get to create, explore, and giggle. It is a place they get to call their own, a place where they rest their heads, and a place to grow their hearts & who they are. I want to open the doors on the story of how the Sisters Collective, a girls' bedroom, came to life: from the initial thought & concept, through the design process, and ending with the sweet reveal.
The Beginning
"In the beginning, God created..." ok, maybe not that far back to the beginning! I would like to take you to the beginning of the room that is now the Sisters Collective. When we originally designed our home, we finished off the above the garage space to be a playroom for our little girl and future littles. (At this time we were pregnant with our first!) Over the years, we put shelves filled with toys and open spaces for imagination; we created a room for all the crazy play of, now, 4 littles could have. It was a place that could get crazy messy and then we could simply shut the door. It worked for us, but I knew it could be a place of so much more - a place that could inspire our kids and take their imaginations to new heights!
So my husband and I poured some wine and started brainstorming & whiteboarding all the new things this playroom could hold. This was actually a really fun date night! We were excited to create this
new playroom for our kids. Then COVID and life happened, and our family dynamic and goals changed, evolved, and transformed. And because our family dynamic and goals changed, our use of the space in our home also needed to go through transformation. This old playroom needed to become a bedroom in order to free up a space for me to have a home office, and the playroom needed to move to the basement; meaning all the amazing whiteboarding was put on hold, while new design concepts came to the forefront.
The lesson of this beginning that I want to share with you is, start first with the goals of your family and then ask, "How can our home support our goals the best?" Our goals went from needing a space for our kids to grow their hearts and imaginations to, yes, still needing that (I mean we have 4 littles!), AND a place for me to have a space of my own to dream, create, and steward Lykke Haven Design. My place could no longer be in our master bedroom - talk about unromantic and distracting! So, with the adjustment of goals comes an adjustment of how you use your space to support your goals. The playroom moved to the basement with all the same dreams for it and more planned for the future, the room above the garage became a bedroom for our two oldest, and one of the bedrooms is in process of becoming my creative space. This was the beginning of transforming the room above the garage from an uninspired place to, what is now known as, The Sisters Collective.
The Adventure
Excitement is always high as an adventure begins, and this was no different. The girls were beyond excited to learn that they were getting a new place of their own! And I was beyond excited to design the bedroom of their dreams! I started by being curious; asking them a lot of questions to really understand how they wanted to use this new space, what feelings they wanted while in the space, and what things they love. When you ask kids questions, they open up and love being included in the design process. You are able to not only create a space that is unique to who they are, but one that they also love!
Next, I digested all this information and created an Intention Statement for the room. This is our first milestone on our adventure because it really helps you to focus on the intention of the space; on the activities and feelings that you intentionally want in the room. It guides you as a north star through the rest of the design process. And it is because of this Intention Statement, that I am able to gather images that breathe life into the words. The images transform the activities and feelings to living, breathing images in the imagination that inspire the actual design elements of the space. It is all connected - the Intention Statement guides the Mood Board, and the Mood Board guides the Design.
Our next milestone on this adventure? It is now time to develop the floor plan. I wanted to create a room that was both of theirs and also each one of theirs separately. That they had a place to call mine, and a place to call ours. I was inspired by the spine of the book being an arch and the loft image in the Mood Board. From this inspiration, the room was split in two by walls; with an our space, or hangout, in the front and a my space in the back where each of the girls got their own built in loft. From there, I designed what the loft and hangout spaces would be both functionally and visually. It was a custom loft design that fit the goals of our family and how the girls needed to use the space. Some of the features were very unique that I prototyped before the final design to ensure that they would work out as expected. For example, the ladder is hidden underneath the loft space instead of creating visual clutter in front. I also taped out the walls on the floor to confirm the flow of the space and took fort building materials (I kid you not!) to build out the couch and chairs in the hangout space. It is crucial to verify and confirm the flow of the space so that you don't make a purchase that doesn't even end up fitting in the room!
Now onto our next feat - color palette. Sometimes, color is the hardest part of a design! I had an idea of the palette based off of the mood board, but it needed to be honed in to exactly what would work best for the bedroom design. The easy part of the color palette was that I knew I wanted white walls; to have it be a room of open white space for their creativity and imaginations to soar! I used the same color we already had on our ceilings (YAY! easier to paint!). When it came to the accent color that I wanted for the lofts, this is where it came to be a feat to overcome! Try asking your 10 and 7 year old their opinion about what the color should be and see if they agree...Through many rounds we finally narrowed it down to two colors, Benjamin Moore's Monet and Sanctuary. I told you I was intentional with room design, didn't I? I will admit sometimes I care a little too much about a paint colors name - I'm working on it ;) However, something still didn't seem right with either color individually, so I put on my problem solving engineering hat and mixed the colors in different increments. Our final color that we honestly all LOVED was called Monet's Sanctuary and was a 75/25 mix of the colors. Now, I do not recommend this side trail we went on. Yes, we ended up with a beautiful view, but there were steep cliffs we could have fallen off of on our way. My advice, select a color that has a paint chip already available to you!
We have finally reached our mountain top of this adventure, the final selections for the furniture, art, and accessories. This is where it becomes so fun as you see your Mood Board come to life for real! Most of their room was custom furniture built into the lofts: bookcase, bed, dresser, desk, storage space. This made it pretty to finish off the design by selecting a couch, two chairs, a coffee table. Where it became fun, inspiring, and creative was in the art and accessories. This is where the Intention Statement comes back in again, what do they want to do and how do they want to feel in this space? My girls love to be creative so we made "The Gallery" for their art to be displayed and a quote from their favorite singer JJ Heller. Then there were accessories for each of them to hone in their craft, an easel for my oldest and storage for her sketching and painting supplies and a guitar stand for my second with her storage filled with a karaoke machine and ukulele. The art for this space was to intrigue and inspire. We created our own acrylic pour art piece and a very unique structural art piece that became the additional space for books that they needed - there are so many books in our home! For accessories in their own loft spaces, I made sure there was a Lego board for them to continue their creativity, and I took them each out to gather unique accessories that spoke to them. There was a cohesiveness and uniqueness with the accessories in their lofts to remind them that, yes, they are each their own unique flower, but the are from the same garden - a garden that bonds them as loving and amazing sisters to each other.
Whew, we made it through the winding adventure of the design process! Thank you so much for sticking with me! Are you ready for the next part of our story?
The Happily Ever After...
Well, almost the "happily ever after..." The longest part of the process is honestly still yet to come on our adventure: the implementation of the design. Implementation will typically take a few months with renovations involved. Even though our renovations were minor, there were a lot of built-ins, intricate painting, and some DIY, so it took 3+ months. We hired Cory from Great Lakes Builders for the remodel and loft built-ins. He was amazing at pulling my vision together and knocked this project out quickly! Once he wrapped up, we did some DIY to finish off the space, which took us longer than expected, but isn't that always the story!? Hey, I give us grace, we have 4 littles at home!
Once the implementation was completed, I got to have so much fun with accessorizing and putting together the final touches. The final breath to bring this room to life. I brought in surprises for each girl, like an Anne of Green Gables pillow for my second and a Narnia pillow for my oldest that matched their favorite series to read along with getting them the complete series for them to have always. No more needing to get it from the library over and over! It was so amazing to have this connection with my girls, to pull in items they loved, and pray over their spaces where they would grow their hearts and who they are. It was a very intentional & meaningful moment on our adventure.
Finally, the "happily ever after"; we revealed The Sisters Collective to our girls! After it being locked away for a few months, they were now able to unlock the door to "THE BEST ROOM EVER!"
Thank you for taking this adventure with me through the story of The Sisters Collective. I hope that it has inspired you to look at your own kids' rooms differently. Also, I would truly appreciate it if you shared this story with other mamas - this is too good not to! (I may be biased :) )
Don't miss my next blogs as I continue the story and dive a little deeper into The Sisters Collective and into how you can create your own Kids Collective:
Vol. 1 {Sisters Collective: The Story}
Vol. 3 {The Fun Stuff}
Vol. 4 {Why Kids' Rooms Matter}
Vol. 5 {Design Your Own Kid's Room: Start Here}
Can't wait to continue our story and our adventure together! Until next time...
- Becky
Lykke Haven Design is a full service, purpose-driven interior design firm serving families in West Michigan. We work with beautiful families from Ada, to Grand Rapids, to Holland (and the occasional out of state). Our mission is to create Intentional Interiors curated with a Meaningful Mission that Cultivate Connection. We do this through a process driven by Human-Centered Design. We would love to discuss your next project and how we can help.
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