Interior designer Cindy Eyl doesn’t need an excuse to refresh spaces in her own home. Sometimes all she needs is her family’s buy-in. So, two years ago, when her daughter said she was ready to update her bedroom, Eyl pounced.
“As a designer, I love redoing things,” says the owner and principal of Jefferson Street Designs. And if the redo involves finding clever uses for quirky spaces? All the better. That’s partly what made her house in Arlington’s Bluemont neighborhood so appealing when she and her husband bought it 15 years ago.
The pitched wall that follows the roofline in her daughter Johanna’s top-floor bedroom is a prime example. Where others might have seen an awkward and unusable space with insufficient standing room, Eyl saw a built-in alcove for a bed when Johanna was 5. (Her son, Jack, has a similar nook in his room.)
Fast-forward to 2021, and Johanna wanted to update her room with new accents and a hanging chair. Watching a few house tours together on TikTok revealed the teen’s affinity for bright colors and bold prints. Eyl gathered samples accordingly. Johanna “was like a client,” she says. “I presented to her!”
The rattan chair by Artesia arrived without instructions, though it did include the rope from which the chair is suspended.
“I Googled a lot of knots,” says the Arlington mom, laughing. For pops of color, they added throw pillows, including a pink-and-blue print from Etsy whose pattern reminded them of fabrics seen on a family trip to Turkey.
The built-in bed is tucked beneath Johanna’s choice of wallpaper—a midnight blue-and-white chinoiserie showstopper by Thibaut, its effect almost like a starry sky.
An integrated bedside shelf, also wallpapered, houses chargers for devices. It’s topped with a pair of foo dog bookends that Johanna (now 17 and a high school senior) spray-painted hot pink.
The tasseled bedding is from Etsy by way of India. A nook-within-a-nook at the head of the bed frames a sconce topped with a pleated lampshade, also found on Etsy.
Mother and daughter agree the experience was a successful collaboration. “I love that she was a part of it,” Eyl says. “I love that she loves the space.”