The first thing you should know is that my daughter's name is Aurora. The second is that for years, her bedroom belonged to the unicorns.
Only one of those things was going to win in the long run.
✨ THE PROJECT SNAPSHOT The room: My daughter Aurora's bedroom The vibe: Celestial maximalism. Think a night sky, a garden, and a slumber party all at once. The scope: Hand-painted aurora mural across the walls and ceiling, a new layout, lighting overhaul, furniture refresh What I kept: The closet flower mural, the pink pom curtains, storage boxes, and plants Timeline: 2 weeks Hardest part: Finding the best technique to make the northern looks bright and blended at the same timeÂ
The Before: A Room She'd Outgrown
I designed her first room here when she was little, and honestly? It was adorable. It had a house-frame bed with white canopy sheers, a purple color-block accent wall, rainbow shag rugs, a fluffy rainbow desk chair, and a closet I'd converted into a desk nook with a hand-painted floral mural behind it.
It was sweet. It worked. And then she grew up. (Rude.)
The moment she decided she no longer wanted about 90% of her stuffed animals, I knew this bedroom was not working anymore. The room had quietly turned into a museum of her younger self, and she needed a space that fit who she's becoming.
The Brief (From My Toughest Client Yet)
When I asked Aurora what she wanted, she was very specific. She wanted the whole room to be a night sky, dark blue on all 4 walls (she told me that having something painted on only "ONE WALL WAS BORING!" and well you know I don't completely disagree with her) and the ceiling. Stars everywhere. Glow in the dark paint on the stars on the ceiling (whoops I still need to add that part...) A full moon on the ceiling. The northern lights on every wall, "all across the sky" with a big wave of the arm, she said. And a final touch, the smoke detector to be painted like a UFO.Â
And I thought: you do have literally the most paintable name on earth. So the northern lights it was.
🖤 DESIGNER NOTE: When I design kids' and teen rooms, the kid leads the vibe and I lead the plan. They pick the feeling, and I figure out how to make it work, last, and grow with them.
What Stayed (Because Good Design Doesn't Start From Scratch)
Here's the part I love most. This wasn't a gut-and-replace. Some of my favorite pieces from the old room got a second life:
- The closet flower mural stayed. Against a dark night-sky wall, it now reads like a doorway into a secret garden. It's the same painting in a completely different story.
- The pink pom curtains used to frame a desk. Now they're swagged open, tied back, and draped with trailing pothos, like a little stage.
- The geometric storage boxes and hanging plants came along for the ride too.
"Redesigning a room doesn't mean erasing it. The best spaces carry a little of their history forward."
🖤 DESIGNER NOTE: Before you buy a single thing, shop your own house. Pieces that look tired in one context can look brand-new in another. It's also the easiest way to stretch a budget.
Painting the Northern Lights
This is the big one. I painted the walls and the ceiling a deep navy, then layered ribbons of aurora light across them in teal, cobalt, violet, and green. I built the color up with vertical, streaky brushwork so each ribbon looks like it's shimmering and falling like a curtain of light. Then I added a splatter of stars across everything, plus dark green base boards with grass and pine silhouettes in the corner to keep us grounded on Earth.
🖤 DESIGNER NOTE: Scared of painting a ceiling dark? Don't be. A dark ceiling doesn't shrink a room. It blurs the corners and makes the space feel endless, especially with a mural wrapping up and over.
Lighting Is the Real Main Character
A dark room needs light in layers, and this one has personality to spare:
- A flower-shaped, color-changing crystal ceiling fixture that throws rainbows everywhereÂ
- Neon signs: a UFO, a finger heart with a flower, and a little headphone-wearing chick
- A glowing LED cloud
- A lava lamp (non-negotiable, apparently)
- LED strip lighting on the headboard shelf
At night, the neon picks up the teal and violet in the mural and the whole room feels like it's floating.
🖤 DESIGNER NOTE: Every room needs at least three light sources at different heights: overhead, task, and mood. In a dark-painted room, the mood lighting is where the magic lives.
A Layout That Grew Up Too
The canopy bed went away, and the bed moved under the window with a bookcase headboard. That gave her storage, a nightstand, and a display shelf in one piece. The closet desk became a dressing corner with a mirror and jewelry armoire. Homework and hangouts now happen in a plush pink teddy recliner with a slim table that slides right up to it.
For textiles, I went with marbled pink, purple, and blue bedding, a tufted pink lion rug, and a colorful rag rug. There's a lot of softness to balance all that dark paint.
Her Things, Her Way
My favorite detail is that the room finally looks like her. It has a gallery wall of art she loves (some of them were painted by yours truly and you can pick up the same pieces in my shop!), a boomerang, an evil eye, her plants, and her plushies (a few survived the cut 😅).
A kid's room shouldn't look like a catalog. It should look like the kid who lives in it.
Steal the Look ✨
- Go dark, top to bottom. Paint the walls and ceiling the same deep color for a cocoon effect.
- Paint shapes, not perfection. Organic, flowing mural shapes are more forgiving than crisp lines, and they feel more alive.
- Layer three or more light sources, including at least one purely for fun.
- Keep one thing from the old room. It gives the new space roots.
- Let them pick the soft stuff. Kids choose the bedding, rugs, and décor. You choose the paint and furniture. Everyone wins.
Closing Thoughts
This room is proof that spaces should evolve with the people in them. Aurora didn't need a totally new room. She needed one that caught up to her.
If you've got a kid's room, a teen room, or any wall that's begging for a little magic, I'd love to paint it. I'm currently booking mural projects in the St. Louis area for Winter 2026/2027.
👉 Book a consult here 👉 See the full before-and-after reveal on InstagramÂ
Stay magical, witchies 🖤🌌