In the Big Kid’s Room with Katy Mimari

This is our interview series in which we bring you the nurseries and kid rooms of successful designers, entrepreneurs and moms. Through this series, our featured guests will divulge some of their design secrets and share stories of how their nurseries came to be.

We always enjoy talking with our friend Katy Mimari, the CEO and designer behind Caden Lane and a Project Nursery contributor. Caden Lane’s exclusive prints and trendy styles have redefined the norm in nursery and kids room design. Katy is a self-proclaimed workaholic and confesses, “When you absolutely love every single thing about what you do, then it’s really not work at all! I’m obsessed with color and print design, and I love being ahead of trends. Finding balance between work and family is always hard, but the combination of the two is what defines me. I love the example I’m setting for my children.” Katy recently designed a glam big girl room for her daughter Ashlyn, and she’s sharing the details with us today.

Katy, you’ve created rooms for your oldest child, Cade and your youngest, Lila. After completing Ashlyn’s big girl room makeover, you must have your design process down to a T. Would you share that with us?

Surprisingly, there’s no rhyme or reason to it, but I always start with the color palette and style. Once I’ve established the colors and chosen the bedding, the rest of the room comes together really easily! I usually have the room envisioned within minutes, so I can lay it out pretty quickly. With Ashlyn’s room, I knew I wanted coral with gold accents. I love the gold polka dots on the main wall, and I felt like pops of coral in the furniture and play area would be a nice complement to the light mint-colored walls.

Ashlyn must love her new space! What involvement did she have in the process?

When I told my daughter I’d be redoing her room, she immediately requested a Monster High room to go with her latest obsession. Let’s not kid ourselves—that just wasn’t going to happen! This is where I give my best advice. When your kids ask for something specific in their rooms—be it a color, character or theme—they don’t necessarily mean everything in the room has to be designed around that request. Would she have loved a huge vinyl sticker of her favorite Monster High character? Of course. Would it have made me vomit every time I walked into the room? Absolutely. So we compromised. I have a perfect gold accent room, and she thinks her blanket and accent pillow make it the perfect Monster High room. It’s a win-win. So the next time your kiddo asks for a rainbow room, you can get away with a few colorful pillows and satisfy both of your design personalities.

The monogram is a wonderful personal touch. Did you make that?

I ordered this gorgeous 30” wood monogram and planned on spray painting it coral. It was supposed to go over the headboard on the main wall. As you can see in the pictures, that headboard peaks at the middle point, and the space between the top of the headboard and the ceiling just wasn’t going to work for this massive monogram. I ended up painting it gold, and I moved it to the side wall in her play nook. It fills the space perfectly.

Do you know of a fantastic nursery or big kid’s room designed by a successful designer or business owner? Please send a photo of the room to Adrienne@ProjectNursery.com for consideration.