How Cute Is This Toddler’s Bedroom in Brookline?

Photo by Jared Kuzia / Styling by Alisa Goldberg/Style Productions

Throughout 2020, Beyond the Common principal Lianne Leventhal found herself flooded with projects for children’s bedrooms. At the same time, the Brookline-based pro was watching her own son transition from infancy to toddlerhood. Inspired by her recent designs, Leventhal decided to reimagine her four-year-old’s space, too. Her vision? “I wanted it to have a laid-back, relaxed feel with an added layer of sophistication,” the interior designer says.

Leventhal also gave considerable thought to the 225-square-foot room’s floor plan, which featured an empty alcove that previously held her son’s changing table. “I [chose] to make a cute little study nook there,” Leventhal explains. “Even though it’s for a toddler, I wanted it to be a room he could grow with.” Working alongside builders at Sagamore Select, Leventhal dropped the alcove’s ceiling and added raised cubbies—accessed by a rolling ladder—at the recess’s opening. Then, to help distinguish the nook from the rest of the room, the designer outfitted the desk area with a Rebecca Atwood wallcovering—a departure from the Phillip Jeffries paper that clads the other walls.

Photo by Jared Kuzia / Styling by Alisa Goldberg/Style Productions

When it came to accessorizing the bedroom, Leventhal, who like her husband is an avid art collector, filled the revamped space with framed works the couple had amassed over the years. A large Ellen Gronemeyer oil painting of a boy and a cat, for instance, hangs between the daybed and the windows. “I thought it was such a fun, whimsical piece for a child’s room,” the designer says.

While the finished area teems with distinct touches—from the starry Schumacher wallcovering that adorns the ceiling to the custom Liven Up Design daybed where her son now sleeps—it’s another element of the project that Leventhal says makes it feel especially unique. “When I’m doing a project for a client, I never get to see the day-to-day usage of the space,” she says. “It’ll be really remarkable to watch him grow and see how the [room] evolves.”

Contractor
Sagamore Select

Interior Designer
Beyond the Common

Ladder
Putnam Rolling Ladder Co.

Painter
A&E Painting