In the Big Kid’s Room with Bill Horn & Scout Masterson

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

The Guncles—Scout Masterson and Bill Horn—recently announced that they’re ready for child number two. As they prepare for the adoption process, they upgraded their first sweetie to a chic pink and green big girl room.

Their inspiration for the room came from The Beverly Hills Hotel.

images courtesy of The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows

Is Simone’s new room available for us to check in? All kidding aside, please tell us how you decided to use The Beverly Hills Hotel for inspiration.

On weekends you’ll probably find us at The Beverly Hills Hotel—it’s our favorite spot in Los Angeles. We love having a family lunch poolside, at the Fountain Coffee Room or at the Polo Lounge (if we’re feeling super fancy). It was at one of our weekend Beverly Hills Hotel lunches that the idea came to us. We’d create her new bedroom using the same color palette: the pale pink of the hotel’s exterior and the green and white stripes of the majestic entrance with gold accents and banana leaf fabric that mimics the hotel’s famous wallpapered hallways.

This room goes above and beyond, and it is obviously very special to you. What did it take for you to commit to a serious design effort?

When Simone was born, we did the nursery in a rush. We had about five weeks between the time we officially “matched” with her birth mom and the time she was born, and because adoption costs can get expensive, we had to do the room on a very limited budget. So this time we knew we wanted to go BIG.

When did you know it was a good time to get started on this project?

Ever since Simone graduated into a big girl bed, we’ve discussed wanting to redo her room. It was important to us that she had a say in the design process, and she requested a light pink room. We wanted her to have a room fit for a princess—without the obvious princess things—so we created a room fit for a Beverly Hills princess, on a strict budget, of course!

Strict budget, you say? What secrets can you share for making a strict budget look luxurious?

The room’s banana leaf tree (hundreds of these trees adorn the lush grounds of the hotel) is planted in a gold planter we were using in a different room of the house. We’re all about re-purposing items we already have in our home—it’s the best place to shop!

One of our favorite family activities is going to flea markets and vintage shops. The side table was a $10 find at an antique flea market near our house. The dresser was also a flea market find—it was $80 at the Long Beach Flea Market.

We wanted to incorporate the hotel’s iconic banana leaf wallpaper, but it was WAY over our budget. As luck would have it, Calico Corners carries a similar print in fabric, so we used that as our look-for-less in the room. We found the chair on Craigslist for under $100 and had it recovered in the Calico Corners fabric—total score! We think a comfy chair is the key to a perfect nursery and kid’s room. Simone loves to cozy up with one of her dads at night and read a few books before bed. The Bow Petite pillow on her chair was a gift from designer Mari Robeson.

We found the wood bed at a flea market for $60 and painted it glossy white. The twin mattress is from Nook, and it was custom made for Simone in pale pink. We love Nook’s mattresses, and Simone has slept on one since birth. We couldn’t imagine doing the new room without one, so we begged them to make one in the pale pink that matched the room. The bed is draped with a simple white duvet cover. The duvet did not need to match everything else because we didn’t want it to be too busy—this isn’t Blanche Devereaux’s bedroom!

Items on the dresser include photos of Simone with her grandmothers, a photo of Simone and her BFF (Harper), a Jonathan Adler elephant piggy bank, an antique jewelry box and matching Jeanette shell pink milk glass vase and jewelry tray from the 50s.

The pink phone was a Santa Barbara thrift store find. It was seven dollars and isn’t plugged in. At night, we call the front desk and tell them to hold all calls while Simone sleeps. She eats it up!

Photo Credits: The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows (images from the hotel)
and Riley Jamison Photos (Simone’s room)

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.