The other day my friend Katy shared a moodboard with the theme “If I was 12 & had your black AMEX…” I thought it was such an adorable concept, and it brought back such fun memories of my own youthful dream designs. In fact, I remembered that as 12 or 13 year old, I once painstakingly sketched out the coolest dream preteen room design ever… And despite all the years that have passed and all the various moves and packing and upacking, I managed to locate that sketch.
Are you ready for this?
I just can’t contain my excitement.
Prepare for extreme awesome from the mind of adolescent Brynne.
If you are viewing this on a mobile device, you might seriously want to switch to desktop or zoom in so you don’t miss anything 😉
Let’s start with the floor plan. The room you see is a U-shaped loft/balcony with railings (draped with curtains on the bed-side of the loft for privacy) open to the downstairs. What is downstairs, you ask? Nothing but an awesome wood-floored roller skating rink. Please note that the dolphin tank is two-stories tall, so it can be viewed as an aquarium from the downstairs skating rink, and entered as a swimming pool from the upstairs loft – via diving board, or awesome yellow swirly slide.
Inside the dolphin tank you have a pet dolphin, a pet starfish, and a pet sea turtle. This dream preteen version of Brynne was quite the exotic pet lover, apparently, because she also had a pet parrot and a pet monkey.
Next, notice the stylish color scheme: lime green, radiant orchid, and some burgundy for good measure. Look how ahead of the times I was! I’m a radiant orchid hipster, yo! I was into radiant orchid before it was cool! (Don’t ask me what I was thinking with the burgundy, though.) I do still think purple and lime green would be a cute combo in a preteen’s bedroom. And that curvy upholstered headboard and couch are pretty sweet – let’s pretend they are velvet for maximum good taste.
Of course teen Brynne had to have Belle-from-Beauty-and-the-Beast style bookshelves and a huge rolltop desk for creative story writing. Add in a library ladder and some leather club chairs, and I would still totally take that office corner!
I was so enjoying this little blast from the past that I decided to whip up a mood board based on my dream preteen room design!
1. A fun-shaped purple headboard. This one is available on Wayfair, or DIY your own funky shape!
2. Mariam Curtains in dark lilac from Ikea.
3. Dottie duvet cover in mint from Pottery Barn Teen.
4. Lime Rickey Ovo Table Lamp from Lamps Plus. Or look for a similar shape at the thrift store and paint it yourself!
5. Cute Monkey Ragdoll Sewing Pattern from DIY Fluffies on Etsy. Maybe some preteens are too old for stuffed animals, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them! This one is soooo adorable!
6. Be Wild and Free Dolphin Print from Be Wild and Free on Etsy. Are you noticing a theme? We’ve got the monkey, we’ve got the dolphin…
7. Parrot with Flowers Illustration Art from Inkblok on Etsy. And now we have the lovely parrot!
8. Rainbow Zig Zag Rug from Urban Outfitters. Such fun colors!
9. Hemnes Bookcases from Ikea. Fill with colorful books!
P.S. The soft orchid color in the background is Zephyr by Behr. I think it would make a lovely wall color.
P.P.S. No affiliate or otherwise influenced links here! Just picked some fun things that caught my eye!
So what do you think? Maybe preteen Brynne was on to something after all! All I can say is, I would still kill to have an aquarium with a pet dolphin in my home… I mean – seriously, how awesome would that be?
Haha, love this! I shared the pet monkey dreams with you. That has always been on my mind 😉
The rainbow zigzag room is so cool.
Thank you Julia! When I was little I heard stories about how my grandfather had a pet monkey when he was in the Navy, so I really did want one!! I heard it was kind of a jerk though 😉
Oh my goodness, I cannot believe you found your sketch! Two story aquarium sounds an awful like a "tanked" build. I'd totally be your bff playing light as a feather stiff as a board ha!
I too posted about my teen room- although my room was a dream come true and probably where my black and white obsession came from… my apologies for the mix topics, it was my very first post mmmk? http://www.blackandwhiteobsession.com/2011/02/theres-always-beginning-to-every-story.html
I know!!! Super early one morning I was lying in bed trying to remember what ever happened to it when I vaguely recalled having a stack of old papers in the bottom of my fabric storage box (weirder and weirder) so I got up and found the box in the garage (things are *still* in weird places from moving) and sure enough, there was the sketch!
Haha, I love seeing your teen room! Maybe one day I'll whip up a mockup of what mine looked like… Nowhere near as stylin' as my dream sketch, unfortunately 😉
oh my gosh how fun!!!!! and that is so awesome that you dreamed up a room like that when you were 12- LOVE that!
I can't believe I found it, but I'm so glad I did! I can still perfectly visualize the ideas I had in my head at the time, and I still think it's a pretty awesome room 😉 Then again, I was the kid whose idea of fun free time was sketching up floor plans on a 3D home design software…
I remember this! That's so funny. Still love the aquarium idea, especially with the addition of the swirly yellow slide. Can't beat that!
Oh yes, I'm sure I talked your ear off about it 😉 Fun times!
Brynne, I am DYING. Love this so much. Glad you thought to include the monkey bed.
And the monkey water bowl! It's the little details that add up to good design, right? 😉 I was a… unique… kid.
My favorite part is definitely the slide and the dolphins. Who wants a shower or a soaking tub when you can swim with dolphins….I mean, duh!
Right??? Dolphins are absolutely the best! I should save all the money from future bathroom reno's for a dolphin tank instead!
This is awesome, Brynne! I'd be happy to live in that room even now!! ~Lisa @ Practically Perfect Home
Thanks Lisa! Me too!
This. Is. Amazing! (Please read that in the tone of "This is Sparta!" from the movie 300.) I love your pre-teen room! So awesome that you kept (and found!) that sketch after all these years 🙂
Haha, love it! Thank you Caitlin! I cannot believe I found it – it just kept getting put into the "important papers" box year after year, I guess 😉
So rad! I love everything. As an adult, I just imagine what all that would cost. And smell like. But what an amazing imagination you had! And your organization is killing me. You actually found that paper from that many years ago?! That is amazing. Your new rendition of it is awesome! I love the colors!
Jenni
Oh yes, I know – and how impossible it would be to sleep in an environment containing a monkey, a parrot, AND a dolphin! 😉
Fun fact: I am actually severely UN-organized, but I've always kept one box of drawings/important papers (all that sentimental stuff like old birthday cards, letters, etc.) and I just happened to remember that this sketch was in there!
This is just. too. ADORABLE. I love this. I used to also plan out my dream room! I totally wanted a waterslide that escaped out of my window into a giant pool.
Okay, STILL – that would be awesome! 🙂
This is so cute! I love how detailed it is as well – do you have space in your home to add the cave for the dolphins? Clearly you were well ahead of trend with the purple 🙂
I'm thinking we could turn the entire back yard into an aquarium… I'm sure the neighbors would love it and it would instantly add value to our property 😉
This is amazing! I remember hoarding IKEA and PB Teen catalogs as a teen and cutting out the pictures to make my perfect dream bedroom. I had a thing for double level rooms too. 🙂 Though I got nowhere near as creative (and awesome) as this!
As a side note – I still hoard IKEA catalogs. I have some going back as far as 2004. They're scattered but I still have them!
I used to do that with all sorts of catalogs and make paper dolls and their homes 😉 I can't hoard Ikea catalogs – it makes me too sad when they discontinue something awesome!
Um, tween you and tween me would have been total besties from the looks of it! Who am I kidding, I would still totally love a dolphin tank in my room 🙂 Such a fun idea for a post.
Thanks Amy! Me too! Who ever really grows out of their dolphin loving stage, am I right? 😉
Wow, this is awesome what a fun blast from the past! I like the drawing of the bed with the monkey on it, and then the drawing of the monkey's bed nearby, haha.
At a very young age I must have grasped the universal truth that no matter what kind of bed/throne you provide for your pet, they always want to sleep in yours 😉