How to Make A Small Bedroom Feel Bigger

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any of our home interiors on the site but I’m excited to share my daughter Dakota’s Big Girl room with you guys today! If you’ve been a GWS reader for awhile you might remember her nursery we shared a few years back – designed by Emily Henderson!! The nursery was downstairs next to our bedroom but we had always planned to move her upstairs next to her older sister when she was ready.

One of the biggest factors with her new room was the size. This is a very small room– it’s also half the size of her sister’s room! So in designing this room we wanted to try and make sure it felt as large as possible. Another important factor in designing the room was making sure we were using eco-friendly furniture. I’m excited to share that we partnered with Pottery Barn Kids for all the furniture and accessories in the room. Pottery Barn Kids has lots of furniture that is GREENGUARD Gold Certified, which means it’s built to contribute to cleaner air for a healthy home. If you’ve ever ordered some furniture that came with a funky smell – those smells are TOXIC – and definitely something we didn’t want to have in our home.

The Before Photo

Curious to see a before photo? I know I always love a good before and after! Below is what we started with. It was a guest room/extra playroom/storage room…never really designed….nothing to get too excited about here…

So now you see what we were working with..ha! OK, let’s get to the room! The room is for my sweet girl, Dakota. She was SO EXCITED for her big girl room and since we put this all together during Covid, she hasn’t been able to share this room with any of her friends, so she was super excited to share the room for photos today!

How to Save Space for a Small Room

One easy way to save space is with storage under the bed! Pottery Barn Kids had the perfect bed for this – the Belden Captain’s Bed! This was the first piece we decided on for the room. It has three drawers underneath the bed – two are for clothes/toys and one is an extra bed! Yep, it pulls out and is a trundle bed. We thought this would be perfect for sleepovers :)We knew one of the best ways to get extra space in this room was with a bed that had storage underneath – plus what kid doesn’t love sleeping up a bit higher?! She LOVES climbing up the ladder.

Another thing that was important to us? Making sure the room used eco-friendly furniture pieces. Both the bed and the dresser in this room are Greenguard Gold Certified, meaning these products meet the rigorous chemical standards and bring low chemical emissions and cleaner air into your home.

We used the Beautyrest Luxury Comfort Mattress for the bed – which uses CertiPUR-US® foam that meets strict environmental, health and safety codes. For the trundle since it’s smaller space there, you’ll want to use a Trundle Mattress – this mattress also uses CertiPUR-US® foam. If we need more space later, we can remove the mattress and use the drawer for more storage.

The Bedding

My daughter LOVES fairies, so we choose this gorgeous Celeste Fairy Quilt and paired with their Organic Retro Heart Sheet set (in lavender). The quilt is so super soft and the details on the fairies make it really special.

We also wanted to add a tall dresser since we realized there was space in the one corner. The Catalina Drawer Chest was the perfect fit. It comes in a few colors but we kept with white for a nice bright feel – this is an easy way to make a small room feel bigger. White furniture makes a room brighter and feel so much bigger!

Between the bed and dresser is a perfect spot for her dolls and their bed as well as a space for hooks for tutus – Dakota loves wearing tutus! So this allows her to easily grab them.

A Space to Read…

My daughter loves looking at books and reading stories to herself, so we wanted to have a comfy space where she could do that. The St. Jude Peanut Bear Cozy Sherpa Anywhere Chair® was perfect for this spot. It is SO SOFT and just so cute in the space. Plus, Pottery Barn Kids donates 25% of the purchase price of the chair to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® helping support research and treatment for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Such an amazing organization.

To hold the books, we have a Silver Rope Cloud basket (unfortunately no longer available but the Silver Rope Butterfly Shaped Storage is very similar!) and we added the Collins Side Table for a place to hold her night light and other little toys + books.

Make a Big Impact with a Wall Mural

Since the room is so small we thought one way to make a big statement would be to use wallpaper. After some research we found these super rad wall murals from Minted. This Cactus Fantasy Garden Mural was a winner for both mom + daughter! It took my husband and I about 4 hours to hang this one – and only one small fight! HA! Totally worth it though and it really makes the room so special….

Details that Tie the Room Together

The room is carpeted but it’s a very neutral color, so laying a fun rug on top is an easy way to bring in more color and tie different elements together. My daughter LOVES pink (I mean who doesn’t?!) so we chose this Concentric Rainbow Rug in Pink Multi for her floor. The rug comes in a few sizes, we have the 5×8′ size here. This rug is SUPER soft and perfect for her to play on.

Let’s talk lighting! The Dahlia Chandelier looks perfect in this space and brings a bit of boho elegance to the space. Love the wooden beads here and I played off them with the wooden tassel on the wall (more on that below!)

Curtains. We had that shade already on the window, so they aren’t needed BUT theses Evelyn Linen Blackout Curtains (in Blush) really help make the room feel so much more cozy. I’m always a fan of curtains in bedrooms.

Easy DIY ideas

I always love adding some personal DIY touches to my daughter’s rooms – it makes them even more special and the girls love that I made something special for them – plus I actually had some time these past few months at home. Both of these projects below are VERY easy to do – the hardest part was finding the right colors since I had to buy everything online and sometimes the colors on screen were different than what was sent…

Wooden Beads + Yarn Tassel Garland

I made a bunch of tassels in 3 different colors (Dakota’s three fave colors!). Yarn tassels are super easy to make (here is a DIY) and a fun project to do while watching tv 🙂 My older daughter (who is 7) loved helping make these with me.

After I had all the tassels, a strung a bunch of wooden beads in a few different sizes on some string. I love how wooden beads bring warmth to a room plus they echo the beads in the chandelier. The garland was hung using Command hooks – I love these to hang things since you don’t have to drill a hole in the wall and they don’t leave a mark once you want to take them down!

Rainbow Ombre Closet Doors

Ever since I saw these closest doors in here I’ve been trying to think what we could do to make them a bit more fun and custom. I’ve had this idea for awhile and finally made it happen – and happy to say it turned out better than I hoped!! Those are the best DIYs, right!?

The doors are made of washi tape! Originally I was thinking pink ombre colors but those colors and the thicker size were impossible to find. After lots of searching, I decided a pastel rainbow theme would work better and since Dakota’s favorite thing to draw is rainbows, she loved this idea! I used colors from this washi tape pack and this washi tape pack. The whole process took about an hour to do on the wall. Easy and makes such a fun statement! This is also great if you are renting since the tape doesn’t leave a mark!

I hope you guys liked seeing a closer look at my daughter’s room! We loved partnering with Pottery Barn Kids. I can’t say enough good things about the quality of the furniture in the room – so very happy with it all!

Sisters hanging in the room together – makes my heart melt!