Scandinavian playfulness - Charlotte Wahlberg's best tips for harmonious kids rooms

Charlotte Wahlberg, known as @scandinaviangrey on Instagram, is an interior designer who inspires us. We wish her Ikea hacked children's kitchen was available in full-size, and we love how she makes colors pop against a base of Scandinavian earthy tones.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your family

I live in Ingarö with my husband and three sons who are 11, 8 and 2 years old. We bought our house when our oldest son was 8 months old and have lived there ever since. There have been a lot of renovations both outdoors and indoors - both to put our own stamp and get it the way we want it, but also because I love change and testing new expressions.

When I was on parental leave with our middle son, I created my account Scandinaviangrey on Instagram to inspire others but also to be part of the community to share thoughts and ideas with like-minded people. This led to various interior design advertising assignments and to me receiving several questions from private individuals. For a period I therefore also worked as an interior designer and stylist, but now it's more of a hobby again as I missed the corporate world.

How did your interest in interior design begin?

I've probably always been interested in color and shape. My grandmother and grandfather loved beautiful things, my father is an art and book collector and often took us to auctions. It probably came naturally.

I remember that my IKEA desk with a white worktop, yellow cabinet and pink drawers no longer met the standards when in the 90s we moved more and more towards the "bright and fresh" trend. Instead of getting a new one, Dad showed me how to sand and repaint the cabinet and drawers white. It was tiring but I was satisfied. For a 10-year present, a coffee table and two white wicker chairs were at the top of the wish list

What are your favorite kids interior brands?

Children's furniture should above all be practical and durable, but the aesthetic and sometimes playful aspects are also important. I think IKEA makes really good things at a good price, but sometimes they need to be painted and transformed to make them a little more personal. I also like Ferm Living, Sebra, NG Baby, Numero 74, but H&M also has many nice and playful details for the children's room.

We are curious about the children's spaces in your house

Kids room 8-year-old

Our 8-year-old lives in a rather narrow and small room that has a built-in chimney in the middle of the room. It makes the room quite dark and difficult to furnish. We therefore quite quickly replaced a bunk bed with a free-standing bed so as not to obscure the natural light coming in through the window. We arranged for drawer storage under the bed, built a cozy headboard in teddy fabric to be able to place the bed some distance from windows and elements.

Walls, mouldings, door, built-in wardrobe and a self-built desk with storage have been painted in a creamy beige shade (Curious Mind from Jotun) which gives warmth and a magical feeling in the evening sun. It creates a calm, harmonious impression when all surfaces have the same shade, which is extra nice in a small room. We have wallpapered the ceiling in a magical, dreamy wallpaper with animal motifs from Belarte studio (Animal Garden Yellow). It gives the room a playful and cozy impression. We have built Skrivord with IKEA's Trofast storage furniture as a basis. In order to get a good desk height, we have built a section of open compartments and then attach a glue board as a desk top. The boxes have been given playful motifs from Piffa. A used plate shelf in a light blue shade can act as a wall shelf and a sawed-off stick on a string acts as a pole for dress-up clothes. 

Kids room 11-year-old

Our 11 year old's room hasn't changed much at all in years. It's getting time to upgrade it with more space for socializing and less storage.

The walls are painted in a gloomy grey-green shade that gives the room a sense of calm. Painted shelf, wardrobe, wall shelves and elements also create harmony. Desk is built with the help of IKEA Ivar cabinets and adhesive joint board that is attached to the wardrobe. Desks and cupboards have been whitewashed to break away from the green walls. To maximize the available open space, a cozy corner has been created by the picture frames with the help of low beanbag armchairs from Jotex and a small table with storage from IKEA.

Nursery corner 2-year-old

Our 2-year-old has not been given a room of his own yet due to lack of space. We have plans to put a window in our wardrobe, but that will have to be later. Right now it works very well to have a cot with a bed canopy (both from NG Baby) in the parents' bedroom. What we have learned with three children is that the children usually want to be where we are. Therefore, the play kitchen and most of the other toys are located downstairs.

Play kitchen

The play kitchen comes from IKEA and has been remodeled twice. For our two-year-old Bo, it had to be dirty yellow with oak handles from Pretty Pegs. The disc has been stained white using OSMO. Above the stove hang two knob moldings in pine painted in two different shades of dirty pink. As extra storage, an old wooden sugar box stands next to the stove, which has been given a small drapery sewn from a kitchen towel.

Game corner

The older children have also been allowed to take over our upper hall and use it as a play corner. There is also one of my most popular IKEA hacks – The white-glazed Ivarskåpen with slats. My beautiful still life have been exchanged for a large TV and game consoles. As storage, there is an old pine bench I bought at a flea market, which is painted in the same dirty yellow shade as the play kitchen. To make it extra cosy, there is a large shaggy carpet on the floor. The sofa comes from my first self-owned apartment and the table is an old ellos table that has been painted beige.

Even the older children prefer to be there, but when friends come over, it's nice to have a separate area. Then it's perfect that they can go upstairs and hang out. Then we have fantastic basements that still largely look like when we bought the house 11 years ago. There is a good surface for both football, table tennis or floorball.

Children grow quickly and their needs change. How has your eight-year-old's room changed over the years? And what are your tips for creating a room that can grow with the child

Our 8-year-old's room is probably the one that has changed the most over the years. From wallpaper background walls, to light gray walls and new warm beige walls. From bed on the floor to bunk bed and now bed on legs. My advice is to choose a fairly neutral wall color that can last for several years. Feel free to choose a color with a muted color, i.e. which contains quite a lot of black. Jotun are experts and have many nice muted color shades to choose from. In addition to the bed, it is usually good to have some type of storage and/or desk. The older the children get, the bigger I feel the need for a bigger surface, above all to hang out on. String has smart storage with systems that can change over time. Another tip is to buy used IKEA furniture and paint/customize it based on personality and age.

Your kids rooms harmonize in color and style with the rest of the house without losing playfulness for the sake of it - how did you achieve that?

I love color, playing with color and testing myself. Children's rooms are quite grateful for taking the turns a little and trying new things. I personally feel good in harmonious color scales and would like to have a common thread in my home to make it calm and restful. By adding a matching wallpaper on the ceiling or adding small details, it is still possible to create playfulness. One way is to, for example, paint the desk chair in a tacky color that breaks off and becomes a statement in the room.

Storage! A constant challenge for parents of young children. Do you have any tips on how to balance design and functionality.

Storage is really essential in a home and above all in kids rooms. A tip is to mix with both open and closed storage. Having nice favorite items on open shelves and collecting items in nice baskets and boxes. Another tip that I love is drawer storage under the bed. It holds a lot and can be hidden with a bed cover if desired. In order for it to be calmer and more harmonious in an otherwise rather messy and messy room, I usually paint shelves in the same shade as the wall.

In what way can the children be involved in the interior design?

After all, it is the children who are going to live and sleep in their room, so of course they should be involved. One tip is for them to tell us what their favorite colors are and for an adult to then come up with suggestions for three slightly muted shades of their favorite color that they can choose from. After all, it is quite a big difference to see a shade of color on a sample piece compared to painting an entire room, so please avoid very colorful and loud colors that can be difficult to live in.

Another tip is to pick up the children's interests in detail. Do they like animals, dinosaurs, football, dance etc. can it be picked up in posters and maybe space to exercise their interest? A small mirror with a pole or a small stage for the dancer, a small basketball hoop for the ball lover or playful bedside lamps and posters on dinosaurs?

Many people want to do well but at the same time keep costs down during the toddler years. Which investments might still be worth making? And do you have any budget tips for the kids room?

Which of your kids' decor projects/hacks are you most proud of?

What are your biggest sources of inspiration for decorating kids rooms?

Pinterest is a real goldmine for inspiration for children's rooms. Someone who is great at transforming children's rooms into playful and cozy places is Cecilia Rosvall, who runs the Instagram account Designbycilla.

What is your next project in the kids room?

The next project will probably be to adapt our 11-year-old's room to a bit more of a teenage feeling and to conjure up a room for our 2-year-old.

Charlotte's website: scandinaviangrey.se

Follow Tove on Instagram: @scandinaviangrey