Shelter Reveal – The Bedrooms

The Holidays always seem to make us feel all warm and fuzzy, and to keep that warm fuzzy feeling going, today it’s a big reveal of the shelter, and this time it’s all about the bedrooms.

There are 8 bedrooms total, and to suit the needs of the shelter and the residents each bedroom had to have 2 bunks in them to accommodate up to a family of four. The bunks and the dressers had generously already been donated, so our job was made slightly easier, as we didn’t need to start sourcing a ton of big pieces for these rooms. The bunks were made specifically for the shelter and each have a handy pull out drawer underneath so the families can store their belongings. The shelter encourages them not to hoard too many things (they’d be horrified if they came into our studio!) but to really use this facility as a clean slate to jumpstart them back on their feet.  So we really didn’t need to add much more in the way of storage.

The bedrooms really only serve as what they are – a functional place for the families to sleep in. During the day the rooms get locked up, while the kids are out at school, and the parents are either at work or looking for jobs, so they didn’t need to have areas to lounge or work in. With the shelter being sort of a halfway-house, their main focus is to get the families back on their feet and into apartments of their own.  With that being said, it didn’t deter us from wanting to make these spaces feel as cosy and homey as the rest of the shelter.

Because the kids would be sharing and sleeping in the same room as their parents, ​ we wanted to ensure that there was a good balance and that the rooms didn’t feel too child-like, or too adult. We started off by choosing a color palette that consisted of mainly blues, whites and coral tones, which also felt gender neutral and didn’t sway too feminine or too masculine.

We started off by painting the rooms in three different colors: 2 rooms in Moonlight White, 2 rooms in Soft Pumpkin and 4 rooms in Pilgrim Haze, all by Benjamin Moore. The Soft Pumpkin turned​ out ​to be ​a little more pumpkin ​colored ​than we’d anticipated, once we had it on the walls. But, the walls had originally been painted in a neutral beige, ​ which was very drab and depressing, so we really wanted to bring some life into the rooms. Unfortunately due to the quick turnaround and deadlines we didn’t have time to swatch colors on the walls, and just had to go with our instincts. Let that be a lesson friends . . . always, always swatch.  Fortunately, with the bunks having an orange tone to them, they blended in well, and we used more navy tones in those rooms so that helped to balance it out.

The lighting was all donated by our good friends at Lamps Plus and we spent time selecting different styles within the same palette of woods, whites and gold. Which meant we had lots of different options​ to play with. The books again were donated by Strand, and I cannot say enough good things about them.  They’ll personalize collections for you by the foot. So all you need to do is tell them how many feet you need, how much you want to spend, and they’ll tailor them to specific genres and even certain color schemes, which is music to a designer’s ears. They’ll pretty much do whatever you want when it comes to books, except maybe read them to you in bed at night.

Most of the curtain fabric was donated by Minted, and we had an awesome set of costume designers donate their time to help sew them together. We brought in some nice florals, graphic prints and water colors, all within the color palette.

We were super fortunate that Serena & Lily and Deny Designs offered to donate bedding to the shelter, and we knew this would be one of the main ways we could bring some personality into the rooms.

Although the rooms do have a window, they don’t get a lot of natural light because the windows actually look out onto an enclosed fire escape. But we wanted to still dress the windows properly, to make it feel more like a completed room. We were very pleased at how they turned out and it was so much fun to see the kids enjoy their new spaces.

Brian van der Brug from the LA Times snapped this pic after one family had moved into their new space. You’ll notice that they removed a few of the accessories we added while styling, and also added a pack and play, and a kid’s chair. It is so much fun knowing these kids and their families not only have a place to call home, but a space to really make their own.

We really couldn’t have pulled these rooms together without the help of some very generous donors.  Serena & Lily,  who have just opened an amazing store in LA, which is going to be a great help for us when we recommend products to our private clients.​ As well as a ton for the kid’s area, they also donated all the striped bedding shown here. Deny Design, which is a super fun company that offers lots of different designs that can be printed onto almost anything – pillows, trays, even desks, and where we got all the floral and patterned bedding from. Lamps Plus, who not only have a great range of lighting, but also have a great range of furniture, which you’ll see in the living room reveal – coming soon. And last but not least, Minted, who has an amazing selection of patterns that can be printed in different colorways, onto different weights of fabric. That way you can make your own pillows, curtains and even clothes.

1. Walnut Table Lamp | 2. Books Donated by Strand Books | 3. Oval Mirror | 4. English Garden Curtain | 5. Midnight Floral Curtains | 6. Painterly Splash Curtains | 7. Pink Flower Vase | 8. Task Lamp | 9. Hand Threaded Art by Happy Red Fish | 10. Dresser | 11. California Dreams by Alexandra Nazari | 12. Pink Duvet Cover | 13. Gold Table Lamp | 14. Metallic Diamond Pillow | 15. White Textured Pillow | 16. Floral Duvet Cover | 17. Thick Navy Strip Duvet Cover | 18. Pink Shams | 19. Navy Striped Duvet Cover | 20. Bunk beds originally custom built and donated by Beds Unlimited, but find a similar one here.

***Written by Ginny Macdonald, before photos by Jessica Isaac for EHD. After photos by David Tsay styled by Ginny Macdonald & Brady Tolbert.

A quick word about David Tsay. He volunteered to shoot this shelter without pay which we were obviously PSYCHED about. It’s a tricky place to shoot with a lot of overhead commercial-style lighting, and frankly, we needed someone really good to capture the space. Thank you once again,  David, for far exceeding our expectations. This was shot when I was in Spain, and it was the first project of mine EVER that I let my team style without me. They did SUCH a great job. Thanks, everyone.

See the beginning post here, the first update post here,  a last little nudge to our indiegogo campaign here, an art roundup of our favorite work from the artists that have donated here, a big thank you to those who donated here, the family room reveal here, and the playroom reveal here. And check out our feature in the Los Angeles Times!

For more Shelter Reveals: The Nursery | The Playroom | The Family Room