We transformed this childhood bedroom into a young professional's retreat

Designer Victoria Tonelli stopped by to share this sophisticated makeover with us.

CBC Life · Posted: May 01, 2017 4:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 1, 2017

We have some serious design inspo for you! Designer Victoria Tonelli joined us to share makeover she did of her sister's bedroom. Lindsay, her sister, moved back home recently with her parents to save money for her future. The only problem is that she moved into a slightly updated version of her childhood room, so she desperately needed her sister's help. Here's how Victoria transformed the bedroom.

Before:

The room isn't terrible – there could be lots of potential for a little girl's room or a tween bedroom. But the biggest takeaway is that it no longer reflects where Lindsay's at today. It is too juvenile to be the bedroom of a sophisticated young woman.

Lindsay gave us two very specific wants from the space 1) the incorporation of floral and 2) a vanity/ work space.

Victoria started with an inspiration board. Overall she wanted this room to look like Lindsay's own boutique hotel. Something that was feminine and sophisticated but still had a playful edginess.

This is a great tip for anyone who is redesigning a space: Do your research and decide on the direction you want the room to go. Start by choosing specific pieces that you'd like to incorporate and then combine them into an inspiration board. Seeing all the elements in one single document makes it easy to see what works and what doesn't.

After:

There was a big transformation that went on in this space. Here are a few of the changes:

New closet doors
New furniture, but also some updated old pieces
Fresh coat of paint
New chandelier
Bold statement on the back wall

The room feels very feminine and sophisticated but has a fun edginess that pushes the design further. Here's how Victoria transformed some of the decor elements.

Wallpaper

Lindsay asked for floral to be incorporated into her room, but the thing with floral is that it can either read very juvenile or very granny. To avoid this, Victoria got a large format design that modernized the idea of a floral pattern. The wallpaper serves as art in itself and because it was installed seamlessly by Perfect Painters, it looks like a beautiful wall-to-wall mural that adds a huge amount of drama to the space.

Window treatments

The other bold pattern added to the room was through black and white grid pattern drapes. She installed a thick brass rod to bring in some glam.

Here's a tip for hanging draperies on a small window: Notice that the window looks twice the size that it did before. Simply raise the rod as close as possible to the ceiling and widen the rod to at least 10 inches past the window casing (when possible). Then hang wider panels than the window and this gives the illusion of a much bigger window!

Vanity station

Lindsay's main request was a vanity or work station in her room – which is a tough ask in this smaller bedroom. So, Victoria created this reading nook. The table hangs vertically when not in use and was painted the same color as the wall to blend in as much as possible. The table also pops up when in use to provide Lindsay with a work station to put on her makeup or do some work.

Furniture

Victoria used a low profile bed instead of a higher one in order to not break up the already small bedroom. This lower option makes the room feel more unified. She also used side tables from ELTE with lucite sides to make the tables feel light and airy and to cover the least amount of wallpaper as possible.

Bedding

Bedding and adding the appropriate pillows can make a huge difference to the look of a bedroom.

Bring in height and volume to any bed with beautiful bedding such as these styles from The Bay from their Gluckstein Home line. Victoria decided to keep the duvet cover and sheets in a neutral champagne gold color and added in a pop of pattern with the Kelly Wearstler throw pillows.

Dresser

Victoria used Latitude's remnants program to find the perfect piece of marble to wrap around this unit. The stone is typically 3/4 less than what you'd normally pay for a full slab.

Chandelier

The chrome chandelier was swapped out for a beautiful brass and crystal hanging chandelier. The brass warms up the space and the crystal adds some beautiful bling to the bedroom.

Paint colour

The paint colour is from Benjamin Moore and Victoria went for a matte finish on the walls and a high gloss for the trim. Her goal was to coordinate the background of the magnolia wallpaper to the wall colour, so she picked a wall color that is two shades lighter than the background. Although the wallpapered wall is an accent wall, it relates well to the rest of the room and therefore makes the space feel more cohesive.

So, how exactly did she mix so many patterns successfully?

Brass was the common denominator throughout the space. Although there was a lot going on, there needed to be one design element that was repeated to make the space feel cohesive. A solid rug was also used to ground the space as opposed to a pattern which might have been overkill and distracted from the already beautiful pattern in the space.

Last but not least, Victoria maximized comfort with a brand new mattress from Sleep Envie. This Hunter mattress is plush and has a cooling gel layer that adds extra contouring and comfort. When you sit on the edge you won't sink because it has foam encasements around the perimeter reinforcing the edges for extra sleeping surface and stability. Not only does the room feel like a boutique hotel, it feels like one too!

Resource guide:

Kelly Wearstler

The Bay

Latitude Countertops