Maaike Beijer lives with her property adviser boyfriend, Peter and their two boys Fenner (7) and Flint (10). A natural creative, Maaike is a make-up artist for commercial clients and magazines, but also loves creating magic by giving her own home a facelift. Maaike sums up the duo’s teamwork beautifully with this take on their DIY partnership; ‘Peter can make what I dream’.
Join us as we take a peek into their eldest son’s attic bedroom and discover an eclectic space filled with an experimental colour palette, pattern clash aplenty and a mix of old and new.
Here we get a first glimpse of the magic created by Maaike and Peter. This project was a real family affair with input from Flint himself and even Maaike’s father-in-law. We can already see that the design ethos is bold, but clever use of natural wood and neutral tones create a platform for more adventurous geometrics, prints and patterns.
The floor was the first element of the room to be installed. It started life downstairs but was rendered redundant when the garage was converted to a living room. The additional space required replacement flooring, so Maaike put it to good use in Flint’s sloped-ceilinged room. It made the perfect blank canvas to add a cacophony of colour and detail.
Next came the bed with its wonderful back story and no doubt all the potential to become a treasured family heirloom. Flint and his father built the bed together, signing off its completion with their names and the date. It’s a wonderful touch that will serve as a poignant reminder as Flint grows up. It also adds a touch of originality and uniqueness to the space. The striped red bedding from IKEA and a vintage Harlequin print blanket add more layers of curiosity, while a signature Deer pillow by @nobodinoz takes a snooze with a duo of checked counterparts.
The scalloped canopy was made by Maaike’s father-in-law and inspired by her wish to create a cosy cocoon around the bed. Flint had previously had a fabric canopy but had outgrown it, so Maaike sketched out the idea for the enclosure and Peter’s father brought it to fruition. We love the way it frames the sleeping area and how the sunlight from the Velux window hits the golden hues and illuminates that section.
The ingenious Lego wall was born out of a desire to contain toys in one area of the house. It’s a common parenting problem – the fine balance between nurturing curiosity and inventive play, yet keeping a sense of order in other rooms in the home. The solution? Mount Lego plates onto board and create vertical discovery stations where creations can stay in place until the next burst of inspiration arrives.
The most expensive addition to Flint’s room is the glossy red-tiled desk. The inspiration came from a similar pink-tiled desk in the family living room. Maaike had a desire to create a bigger version in a bid to create a focal point to fill the big wall. Peter first constructed a wooden frame and then a professional tiler was commissioned to bring the dream to life. Flint even had a hand in the design choosing his favourite colour red. A pop of yellow from Kiko’s wooden imitation retro telephone joins another vintage find in the striped red lamp from @jouevintage
Maaike describes Flint’s room as a combination of self-made and vintage. You can see that there is real heart and soul in its concoction, and that so many of the pieces in it have lived or have a story to tell.
Take this recycled shelf, for example. Maaaike discovered it outside a vintage store she happened to be strolling past. It was weathered and painted green, but she could see potential in it. It was initially intended for the kitchen, but she changed her mind and could instantly see its home was meant to be on the big empty wall above that signature red desk. At first she painted it orange and later opted for a dark red for a tonal match to the tiles. In her own words, ‘it worked out amazing!’.
Vintage is nowhere more prominent than the sloped window wall thanks to a retro wallpaper from @swiet.nl. The complex yellow check adds a splash of energising sunshine from the sixties that vibes well with that golden scalloped bed surround. It’s a busy background, yet the homemade market stall manages to find a place against it to settle and trade its wares. This is another project Maaike conjured up in her mind and that her father in law crafted to order.
Here we see a close-up of those vibrant prints that inspired the market stall idea. They’re by an Australian artist, Kylie of @troppotroop and Maaike selected them to give food truck festival feels. She smashed it in our opinion. There’s Rusty and Bruce serving up tacos, Enzo spinning the pizza dough, Carmel and Lenny squeezing fresh lemonade and not forgetting Harriet with her shakes and sundaes. Mirroring the food festival vibe with mini trucks is a stroke of design genius.
Wallpaper is responsible for much of the character created in Maaike’s renovation projects. There are three different prints in Flint’s room and four in her other son’s room. Here we get a glimpse of the first wallpaper that welcomes the visitor from the attic stairs. It’s a vibrant apple and pear tree print in a soft palette of blue, sandy brown with juicy red and golden fruit (Apelviken by Midbec from @saartjeprum). The vintage table nest and wall hooks in deep mahogany positively pop against it while the upcycled wardrobe slots in more discreetly.
The wooden circus shelf is a specialty from handmade store @upwarsaw. Used here as a freestanding ornamental touch, it provides a cosy home for a flock of waddling ducks in the form of a retro sugar pot and milk jug from @les.folies.du.grenier. Where else would one put their crayons!?
We hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of Flint’s room with all of its wallpaper whimsy and cherished vintage finds. We’ll leave you with a few sage words from its designer, Maaike:
‘The best way to get a kids room perfect is to let it grow with the child and to watch them play and live in the room. It’s impossible to create a room like this in one day. Little by little you add the detail and then it becomes what you had dreamed’.
And finally, ‘I think wallpaper quickly adds a vibe to a space. When you doubt if it’s still too boring somewhere, the answer is very often wallpaper!’
Have you also decorated a nursery or kid’s room recently? We would love to see it! Add the tag @kidsinteriors_com on your Instagram post to get it noticed and #kidsinteriors_com for an extra chance of it being considered for a repost.
