Room of the Day: Color Palette Gives Teen’s Bedroom Staying Power
Gray-purple and berry shades will keep their appeal as the New York teenager grows up
Brenna Malmberg
June 26, 2017
This girl attends high school now, but before long, she’ll be in college. So when it came to designing her room, Mom, the teen and the designer all had the same thought: “Let’s make this room last.” The designer, Claire Paquin, knew they first needed to pick the perfect color palette for the room to have staying power.
Photos by Regan Wood Photography
Bedroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A teenage girl
Location: Rye, New York
Size: 295 square feet (27.4 square meters), including an en suite bathroom
Designer: Claire Paquin of Clean Design
The mom and daughter wanted the dominant color in the room to fall in the purple and berry range. Paquin took that suggestion and found Hazy Lilac by Benjamin Moore for the walls, which gives the room an air of sophistication. “This is a rich, deep gray-purple,” Paquin says. “A fresher, brighter color would have changed the entire mood of the room, making it feel more tween-y.”
With purple on the walls, Paquin opted to fill the room with neutral furnishings, such as the nightstands, queen-size bed frame, rug, desk and tall dresser tucked back into the nook along the slanted roofline.
Bedding, rug and dresser: PBTeen
Bedroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A teenage girl
Location: Rye, New York
Size: 295 square feet (27.4 square meters), including an en suite bathroom
Designer: Claire Paquin of Clean Design
The mom and daughter wanted the dominant color in the room to fall in the purple and berry range. Paquin took that suggestion and found Hazy Lilac by Benjamin Moore for the walls, which gives the room an air of sophistication. “This is a rich, deep gray-purple,” Paquin says. “A fresher, brighter color would have changed the entire mood of the room, making it feel more tween-y.”
With purple on the walls, Paquin opted to fill the room with neutral furnishings, such as the nightstands, queen-size bed frame, rug, desk and tall dresser tucked back into the nook along the slanted roofline.
Bedding, rug and dresser: PBTeen
The pillows continue the berry color scheme on the bed. Paquin used multiple fabrics for the pillows to bring in the different hues. “The fabric selections also gave us a chance to go sophisticated, but then also pull in a few youthful elements, such as the ones in front with the copper sequins.”
The homeowner found the purple lamp base, which blends perfectly into the color palette. A matching lamp also sits across from the bed on the teen’s desk.
Bedroom design tip: Add a nightstand to each side of the bed anytime you have room to do so, Paquin says. It gives the room symmetry and comes in handy if you have overnight guests. When grandparents visit her own home, Paquin says, her girls bunk together in one bedroom and Grandma and Grandpa sleep in the other daughter’s bedroom. Both guests get their own nightstand.
Nightstands: West Elm; pillows: custom with fabrics from Romo Fabrics and Casadeco
The homeowner found the purple lamp base, which blends perfectly into the color palette. A matching lamp also sits across from the bed on the teen’s desk.
Bedroom design tip: Add a nightstand to each side of the bed anytime you have room to do so, Paquin says. It gives the room symmetry and comes in handy if you have overnight guests. When grandparents visit her own home, Paquin says, her girls bunk together in one bedroom and Grandma and Grandpa sleep in the other daughter’s bedroom. Both guests get their own nightstand.
Nightstands: West Elm; pillows: custom with fabrics from Romo Fabrics and Casadeco
A simple desk with clean lines easily accommodates the teen’s schoolwork needs.
“The kids these days don’t have as many books as they used to,” the designer says. “They just have a laptop. They don’t need storage for binders and loose-leaf pages.”
At the window above the desk, and the other small window in the room, Paquin added tie-dyed Roman shades that echo one of the pillow fabrics on the bed.
Wall art: Crate & Barrel; desk and chair: PBTeen
“The kids these days don’t have as many books as they used to,” the designer says. “They just have a laptop. They don’t need storage for binders and loose-leaf pages.”
At the window above the desk, and the other small window in the room, Paquin added tie-dyed Roman shades that echo one of the pillow fabrics on the bed.
Wall art: Crate & Barrel; desk and chair: PBTeen
The door in the back corner of the room leads to a 68-square-foot en suite bathroom. The room starts with a large-scale herringbone tile on the floor, which continues all the way up the vanity wall. Because the space isn’t huge, continuing the tile up the wall was feasible within the budget. “I thought it would also be so cool to have those walls just pointing up,” Paquin says.
The tile wall also serves as a backsplash to the floating vanity.
Vanity height tip: People used to place vanities at 30 to 34 inches, the designer says. This one is mounted at 36 inches. She likes how the additional height leaves more space underneath, giving the room a lighter and airier feel.
Floor and wall tile: ash gray herringbone marble, Quality Tile; vanity: custom; vanity light: YLighting; vanity hardware: Berenson; towel bar: Valsan Bathrooms; mirror: GlasSolutions; wall art: Crate & Barrel
The tile wall also serves as a backsplash to the floating vanity.
Vanity height tip: People used to place vanities at 30 to 34 inches, the designer says. This one is mounted at 36 inches. She likes how the additional height leaves more space underneath, giving the room a lighter and airier feel.
Floor and wall tile: ash gray herringbone marble, Quality Tile; vanity: custom; vanity light: YLighting; vanity hardware: Berenson; towel bar: Valsan Bathrooms; mirror: GlasSolutions; wall art: Crate & Barrel
The room is wider than the bathtub, so Paquin came up with a solution: a tub ledge and shelves above. “These floating shelves were not easy,” she says. The shelves had to be anchored into the walls before any Sheetrock or tile could be applied to the back wall. “They are quite heavy and are only attached in the corner,” she says. “We had to get it right so that everything else in the space would work.”
Shower glass: GlasSolutions
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The bathroom wall tile is really clever! Love that color in the room as well.