Room We Love: An 11-Year-Old's New Bedroom

Designer Traci Zeller’s twin boys began to outgrow their shared room, as kids do, when they turned 11. So Zeller turned to a spare bedroom (and her business’s storage space) for her son Henry’s new digs. With smart furniture and cool design details, Zeller transformed this blank slate into a room reflective of Henry’s personality, as well as his mother’s fashionable taste.  

PATTERN PLAY  
It’s hard not to notice the spirited ceiling. “These patterns aren’t frilly or froufrou; they can fit a boy or a girl,” Zeller says of the Lindsay Cowles wallpaper planted on what she calls “the neglected fifth wall.” She says it didn’t make sense to wallpaper the walls: “With an 11-year-old, there are still epic Nerf battles around the house.” Cowles—a Richmond-based abstract painter—also created the large, long cover for the bed’s front pillow.

SMART STUFF
Zeller turned to Universal’s collection of youth furniture for the majority of the pieces, such as the bedside table, desk, and dresser, to keep the room young but not juvenile. Not only is the furniture scaled for smaller rooms, Zeller says, but these items are also amped up with “smart” features ideal for teenagers-to-be. The bedside table has a flip-up charging station, for example, and it also has a hidden sensor in the reading area, where a light turns on with a touch.

GREEN AND BLUE
“Henry’s main request was that he loves the color green. He wants as much green as he can get,” Zeller says, alluding to the subtle green accents on the bed and around the room’s trim. “As much as Henry likes green, I didn’t want to do an all-green room,” she says. “Having another color is what lets the green pop.” Zeller added blue, which appears on the symmetrical table lamps, cut velvet bench, and throw pillows.