This post has been a labor of love… I wanted the girls shared bedroom to be perfect (every last detail) before I photographed it and put together this post for you. I’ve made sure all the links are available too for every piece in the room. I hope you love this room as much as I do! It was a real passion project, and it came together so much better than I could’ve imagined, and much more affordable than I thought it would.
Enjoy…
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GIRLS SHARED BEDROOM
We decided to go ahead with a girls shared bedroom, rather than a nursery and separate rooms for a few very good reasons. Firstly, although we have three bedrooms, our master is upstairs as is one other room, with the third being downstairs. We wanted to keep close to their rooms, rather than having one of us on a different floor, for many reasons. Second, we like to keep the “third” room downstairs as a dedicated playroom (and also spare room for when we have guests). This gives the girls a room to have fun in and keeps their bedroom as a place they associate with sleep, rather than play! And lastly, I shared my room with my sisters growing up and honestly couldn’t imagine my daughters doing it any other way!
The theme for the girls shared bedroom started with some rough concepts of things I knew I wanted to have in there, including butterflies, bows and bunnies. Obviously, we wanted it to feel ethereal and dreamy and thought having a nice mix of pastel colors. Lots of pink, with hints of green and blue, to balance the pink without it being too overpowering. This would make for a lovely serene room, while still feeling feminine and classic. As our ideas evolved, we managed to name the theme of Everley & Ayla’s room as “Butterfly Garden” – incorporating lots of flowers, garden animals like bunnies, birds and, of course, butterflies.
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Everley’s bed is from Amazon, I knew it was the bed for her as soon as I saw it. The price on this fluctuates (as most Amazon items do), but we managed to score it for $170 – so keep your eyes peeled and note the price, as it is often restocked online. We bought this again when we found out we were having a girl, as we wanted to have both the girls in matching beds down the road, so it’s waiting for her in storage for when the time comes for her to upgrade (so far Ayla is doing so well in her toddler bed, so it might be soon)!
Ayla’s toddler bed, which used to be her (and Everley’s) crib, was also a steal for under $200 and we purchased the toddler rail separately. I love that this crib has been able to see through both our girls and any other babes (if any) in the future. It’s been a great piece!
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The wall decals are probably my favorite thing in this entire room, as I feel like we managed to do a wallpaper look for A LOT less! We bought 8 packs of decals and managed to have one full pack leftover. These are peel and stick decals and are removable and reusable without damage to walls. We purchased them off Amazon and they were so affordable and turned out great! Would also look amazing if you painted the walls and then applied, to give it more color. But I actually loved the subtlety this gave the walls. It was exactly the look I was hoping for! All up I think we spent less than $100!
When we planned to do the girls shared bedroom we wanted to make sure it was practical as well as cute. So we decided to do a little “homework” desk for when Everley was at school and needing a space to complete her work. We saw this ADORABLE little scalloped desk on Amazon and I knew it was the one we needed. We substituted some of the drawer knobs for little gold bows from Crate & Barrel. The desk is the perfect size for children, not too big, bulky and just the right amount of shelving for a child too.
I had originally seen a similar bow-backed chair at Pottery Barn, but for almost three times the price. One day I was looking online at Hobby Lobby and noticed that there was a VERY similar one for little over $60 with a coupon (I also found it at a great price on Amazon too). So I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job at finding really cute bedroom furniture that have fit nicely within our budget.
We hung some pretty gold butterfly hooks on the wall to display cute things in the room. What we hang on them can vary, but we have Everley’s little ballet shoes she likes to dress up in and a tutu from her GiGi hanging up at the moment and I think it looks so lovely to display little meaningful things around the room.
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We wanted to create a comfortable reading nook, as we spend a nice chunk of time at night reading books to the girls before bed. When we had just had Ayla we also needed a functional chair to feed her in, so we ended up purchasing this on from Amazon. It seems it’s currently out of stock, but might possibly restock, but there are some great reviewed ones to search through for under $300. This is one great for us, as we can sit each girl on our knees and read them stories, or cuddle them through the night if they wake upset and need comforting. A small side table is great too, as we can put their sleep clock and extra books on there when we need a place to have them waiting while reading others. We draped a nice pink throw blanket over the back, which sometimes comes in handy through the night when snuggling too. This one was less than $30 and really soft and lovely!
Having a lamp close by to our reading nook, was a must. Target has so many cute options, but we stuck with this nice gold one we had from when Everley was a newborn… still available too and at a great price, under $40! I also found this adorable wooden wall flag from a lovely seller on Etsy, the exact listing is no longer available, but there are so many cute designs to choose from! Again, this flag is from Everley’s newborn days, and I loved the quote so much, we just had to include it in the girls shared bedroom too!
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The bedside drawers were an easy DIY project. We used the IKEA Rast 3-drawer chests (for under $40 each) and painted them white, and changed out the hardware to be little white flower knobs from Lowes ($3 each). A very easy, affordable way to get a much more custom look for the girl’s bedside tables.
I wanted to incorporate a little more color than pink, so when I was searching for a lamp, I opted for a blue marble patterned lamp with shade. I found this one on Amazon and it cost less than $30. And before Pier 1 closed its stores, we found these pretty bird figurines and knew they’d be the perfect pieces to finish off the tabletops of the drawers. The mirror is one piece we started with before we had completely decided upon the room’s theme. I fell in love with it and needed to have it. If it didn’t work in the girls’ room, we would have used it elsewhere in our home. Such a great piece and for only $40! We also arranged some special bunnies of the girl’s displayed nicely as a focal point of the room too, and I love how it all works together.
Above each of the girl’s beds, we have their names custom cut from wood. We did this for Everley before she was born, and the same with Ayla once we had decided upon her name. I contemplated painting them, but for now, I like the raw wood look. The lovely lady from Etsy was so accommodating, ensuring they were cut at the same font size and we made a few custom tweaks to her existing listing (even with years apart in orders, they ended up matching perfectly)!
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The bookcase was one of those purchases that became a must once we had Ayla, as the little shelves we used to have on the walls just weren’t going to hold all the book we owned for the girls. We desperately needed an upgrade, something large and able to display all titles with the ease of reading them and picking them out (especially by the girls themselves).
We ended up finding this AMAZING bookcase from Walmart – the cheapest I’d seen one like it anywhere! It cost us $120! Very sturdy and great size. The only thing I wish I had done, was chosen one with sides, so it was easier to keep the books upright in the shelves. But we have such beautiful butterfly bookends, that it doesn’t bother me too much anymore. We also used some gold butterfly napkin rings as little decor pieces throughout the room, on the girls’ desk and also in the bookcase too.
We went ahead and bought all three of these pastel unicorns and displayed them on the bookcase as well (gotta love a good “shelfie”) and I also put my toy train from when I was a child up the top as the master feature. It’s so special for me to see that in my own girls’ room… something my beautiful mother put aside for me to give them one day. So precious.
I would list out our favorite books, but there are so many, I think I might save that for another post in itself, I’ve included just a few for today.
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We really tried to include some special items, sentimental to us as a family or items that were gifts to the kids upon their arrivals or birthdays. We love this gorgeous bunny rocker, which we purchase at 80% off when Hallmark Baby closed down – making this one of my best bargain-finds for the room, only spending $30 or so on it. There are a lot of other options out there now, but at the time the closest I could find was a Pottery Barn one that was just out of our price range.
Ayla’s first birthday she received this adorable pink rattan baby doll bassinet, it’s such a great piece and is used almost everyday! I made a little mattress and blankets and pillows for her dolls, so she could lay them down for “sleeps” in her room. This was probably a higher price point that I’d normally spend, but it was her birthday and such a lovely addition to her room as well and a little more unique than other doll cribs I’d seen. Sometimes, splurges are worth it!
The pink bow curtains were a great choice to give the windows some special treatment, but without having hazardous curtains Ayla could reach and pull over her head while in her crib. I love how cute and sweet they are. I just pinned the bows up so they sat perfectly, with safety pins, and they turned out great! We also have a lovely bunny watercolor print on the wall above the desk, by an Australian artist, Little Rae Prints. So whimsical and perfectly pretty for a little girls shared bedroom.
Some other special elements in the room are the girl’s Slumberkins. Affectionately known as Slothy and Slumby. They each got one upon Ayla’s birth as a sister’s symbol and their sleep toys. They’ve become like part of the family and the girls cannot sleep without them. So they are very well-loved and special in our home, and especially in the girls’ room.
NOTE: Our site may contain affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking a link I recommended, I may make a commission off that purchase through that site.
I thought I’d include the inspirational image for their room. Once I found and sourced everything, I put it together in Photoshop to get an idea of how it would look, so I could visualize it, not just in my mind. I kept tweaking things here and there until I was happy, then went ahead and purchased everything I could when we could afford to. Initially, we’d planned to paint the walls this pretty light blue color before adding the decals, but decided to see how it looked without going to the extra effort and were pleasantly surprised at how much we loved it!
This was our initial mood board…
Thank you to so many of you for prompting me to finish the girls shared bedroom post. It took me a while, and an afternoon with the right light to photograph it nicely, along with the motivation to clean it up perfectly and get out of my own way to take the photos. But it had been too long since I was behind the camera, and it was refreshing playing with settings and finding cute angles to shoot the details of their room. I think it made me love it even more!
Everley & Ayla adore spending time each day in their Butterfly Garden room and, I have to say, it’s certainly my favorite space in our home. It blew me away that it came together as well as it did. I hope you find inspiration for your girls shared bedroom here and if you do, please let me know by leaving a comment below!
Callie
How far apart are they in age and did you always have them sharing a room? I am contemplating a shared room for the same reasons you did, but wondering about the adjustment between your first and the new baby!
This space is so perfect and dreamy, by the way!
Everley & MeBlogger
Hey! Everley is currently 4 years old and Ayla is almost 2 (so just over 2 years between them). Everley wouldn’t have it any other way and LOVES sharing with her little sister. Surprisingly, they don’t get up to mischief… yet! We sleep trained Ayla first before shifting her into the room and when we were confident they were both sleeping through the night, we moved her in. Ayla is now in a big girl bed too and they’re both doing really well with it. And THANK YOU so much for your kind words. It was a space I poured my heart into, and ended up very special! We’ve since moved back to Australia and I kept a lot of the items from the room to help with the transition (plus I loved it so much, I didn’t want to do anything too different anyway). All the best transitioning with your kiddies! xxx
Mariam
So pretty! Do you mind linking the wall decals again. The link won’t seem to work. Thank you!