This 9-Year-Old’s House Bed Is So Cozy, Her Family Lugged It All the Way From New York to Chicago

Design blogger Kate Pearce’s daughter, Eva, might “struggle in the decisiveness department,” but there was one thing the 9-year-old knew when they moved from New York to Chicago last January: Her cabin bed was coming with them. “It’s impossible to build, so I was eager to get rid of it, but she insisted,” says Pearce. Eva has had the RH Baby & Child find, which features board-and-batten siding, a slatted roof, and windows with roll-up canvas curtains, since she was 2, so it’s understandable she didn’t want to leave it behind. “It gives her some consistency and familiarity,” Pearce concedes. Off it went in a moving truck, ready to be reassembled days later.

As far as finessing the rest of the details in her new bedroom, Eva leaned on Mom. “Her brain is bursting with creativity—she draws these fashion sketches that look like something you’d see on the Alexander Wang runway—but when it comes to interiors, she’s not particularly interested,” Pearce shares. Although, she jokes it did take them 3,000 hours to pick out the wallpaper, even after she narrowed it down to 10 or so options for Eva to choose from. Fortunately, the space didn’t need much more to make Eva feel at home: Its nooks and crannies naturally resulted in a cozy reading nook, and the three giant beveled-glass windows flood the area with light during play hours.  

Get in Frame

The Queen Anne–style house’s lack of crown molding shocked Pearce when they moved in. After all, the place was built in 1899 and had all the other telltale signs of a character-rich space (ornate doorways, thick baseboards). “It just bothered me,” she says. So she added the architectural detailing in all the rooms, including Eva’s, which turned out to have a bonus function. “It helps smooth the transition from the print on the walls to the ceiling,” Pearce points out. 

The molding also provided a guideline for the wallpaper installer and makes it less visible to the naked eye that the surfaces in Eva’s room are actually crooked. “It was not an easy job to do,” says Pearce of designating the project to a professional. Pearce’s husband added the ceiling medallion himself, calling attention to the primary focal point: the Stray Dog Designs chandelier. While he installed the fixture, Pearce took on the task of painting the trim work (and the old radiator) in Farrow & Ball’s Book Room Red to coordinate with the wallpaper.

Start Them Young

“I always had to bring Eva to estate sales with me and she hated it,” remembers Pearce, who used to buy and sell her vintage discoveries for a living. But like her mom, Eva came to appreciate the art of the hunt and looked forward to tagging along. Her daughter’s extensive collections of Russian nesting dolls and ceramic dogs, picked up on those trips, has only kept growing.

Add Fuel to the Imaginary Fire

Sticking to the subtle cabin theme, Pearce filled the original fireplace with plush log toys and eventually swapped out the Moroccan rug for a floral one from Loloi. On the mantel, a special memento serves as a reminder of their time on Long Island: a framed piece of paper with the name Eva on it. “When I was getting her room ready when I was pregnant with her, I found this under the base molding,” she recalls of the serendipitous discovery (Pearce had already picked out her daughter’s name at that point). “It’s come to every house with us.” That and one other well-loved item.