Woo! Are you guys exciting for the condo tour to begin? I have to say, I am and I’m not. I think our condo looks much nicer in person. Turns out the window placement (only on one side of the building) makes photographing our space quite difficult. I don’t love the photos, but still, that’s not a reason to postpone the home photos any longer. And I have no intention of re-shooting. But let’s be honest, while I LOVE design, this really isn’t a design blog, so I think the home tour photos I took should suffice.

We’re going to start with Marlowe’s room. Mostly because these photos are my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE her room. But I photographed it twice and edited all the photos twice and the perfectionist in me is still dissatisfied. Also, as I speak, Marlowe is currently adding more hand made decor to her room (it’s SO adorable) so it’s already changed from a week ago when I took these photos to now. (It’s cuter now).

Marlowe’s room is certainly the most cluttered room in the house. All the little things, especially in her desk area, just make it seem messier than it needs to be at times. But I will say, she does a pretty great job at keeping it clean. Like, I didn’t *style* her room for photos– this is just what it is. She makes her bed every morning. And the days she doesn’t, well, she comes home from school to make it. I tell her that she doesn’t have to– seems silly with bedtime only being a few hours away. But she is adamant about a clean bed and a tidy space. It’s not at all surprising though– Alex and I are the same. We don’t enforce made beds or complete perfection, but we keep our own space clean and tidy and she follows. We all just function better when things are uncluttered. Honestly, I think we all do, we just don’t all know it yet 😉

You can read my post on keeping a clean and clutter-free home HERE. 

You’ll find some things are brought over from her old room— and some are new. I’ll try to link as many things as possible at the end of the post. We definitely wanted to make her room (and our condo in general) as green and clean as possible. So like, we knew we wanted bunk beds but so many had formaldehyde and other nasty chemicals in the coating– so we went with good ole’ Ikea since it was non-finished wood. Our floors are also super clean and formaldehyde-free and our paint is of course non-VOC and odor-free. Not everything is perfect, but we did our best to create a beautiful and non-toxic space with our limited move-in budget.

If I miss anything link, sources, or whatever and you have more questions– well, you know what to do. Comment below 😉

Directly when you step in.

A bunk bed. Why a bunk bed? Well, I think most kids dream of one– at least I did anyway. But I never had tall enough ceilings and my parents probably would have said no anyway. Marlowe wanted one, and it made sense– this way she could have sleepovers or if we ever need a guest space we could have an extra bed. It’s not a perfect guest set up– but it’s better than nothing.

The garland on her bed is super old– maybe 7 years old now?! Crazy. Her bedding is the same old bedding from our home– so maybe 4 or 5 years old? But it’s in great shape and adorable so why not. When we first moved into the apartment Marlowe was SO excited to always sleep on the top bunk. But one night she slept on the bottom bunk and realized that mattress was more comfortable. It’s only about an inch thicker than the top one– but she loves it. So the top space has mostly become her private reading space. And the bottom is for sleep.

The hallway

Directly to the left of Marlowe’s bed is a narrow hallway with three doors. The left door has her clothing storage. The right door is basically our storage closet. It has everything from her legos, to frames, to yoga mats, to board games, to our luggage, to whatever else. You know, odds and ends that need a home. And directly straight ahead is her bathroom/the common bathroom of the house.
I love the tiger rug in this space. We brought it back all the way from Nepal. I could have/should have bought ten million more. (But maybe not really, haha). The Lion knocker on the door is also from Nepal. I wanted one for so long but all the ones I found in the states were at least 150$ — was so happy to find one in our travels.

Her cozy top bunk space.

I made the pillows from vintage Mayan textiles that we bought on our last trip to Guatemala. Also on the bed, instead of a comforter is her six-year-old sleeping back, and loads of stuffed animals. She also always has notebooks and reading books up here. Her canopy was one of those whim purchases we made– I think I was trying to make the new condo idea sound even more fun– and I regretted it as soon as I bought it– knowing damn well she didn’t *need* it. But she loves it and that’s important.

I *might* also put a tiny shelf up here for her to place a glass or bowl or something if she needs it. But I don’t know. It’s in a mental debate right now. I’d like to also install a reading lamp on the top, bottom, or both bunks– but I’ve been too indecisive about lighting options– so she’s without for now.

A little creative work station

I think I want to update this desk soon. This one was from our old house and it’s maybe four years old. It works for now and it’s cute enough, but she’s growing so fast that she won’t last much longer in this one. I’m not in a rush to do this, but if I stumble upon one while thrifting or something, then it’s happening. We also painted this adorable rainbow on her wall. I love it so much. Again, much better in person, but you get the idea.

Her desk top.

A lamp. Little doodads from who knows where. An alpaca project, a bowl she made in pottery with more odds and ends inside, a wooden owl from Chichicastenango, a llama lamp, a printed photo with her friend Mika,  and a framed photo of jerry of course. This will always be the best photo of him.

All the books.

Just to the right of her desk, she has a wicker basket we brought back from Guatemala (i still think this was a ridiculous thing to bring back, but Alex was set on it) filled with stuffed animals and giant bookshelf with oh so many books.

Pop up books, reading books, novels, shells, crystals, bird whistles, all the things.

I could have easily parted with these fabric flowers and crystal glass terrarium thing. But it was really important for me to let her bring whatever she wanted from our old space– that we could make the room for it somewhere. She’s been through a lot of transitions. And while she’s totally great at them– she doesn’t have many attachments and is highly adaptable in all situations– I wanted to make this move as easy as we could. And man, it’s been easy. She loves her new space and our new condo so much. It’s really great.
Marlowe has some of the best books. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend clicking over to this book post. 

Her art wall.

A  tin bird from Mexico City, a fabric feather from Playa Del Carmen, A unicorn painting she made at a part, a coconut cat from Mexico City, A painting from my friend Alana, A tiger mask from Guatemala, a cat print from my mom, and a wooden flute from Colombia.

When we first moved in it was summer/fall and the light would never hit the windows so her rainbow maker crystals just hung there. But over the last month or so, with the sun heading into winter alignment, we’re getting a bright rainbow light party each afternoon. It’s perfect.

Really old stuffed animals and second-hand barbies for her fashion design model and all the things.

Lego collections.  A disney lego castle. An essential oil diffuser— she uses this at night for sweet scents and a bit of a night light. And a record player and stand with a slowly growing record collection. Please send Marlowe all the musicals.

I made her throw blanket by the way 🙂 She really had no use for it here in Florida, but she really wanted me to knit her a blanket– and so I did!


We LOVE Guatemalan rugs (if you couldn’t tell). We have three in our tiny condo alone. One kept in the closet for later– not minimalistic of us, but we couldn’t part with it) and two to sell. This one was custom made by my friend Jess. We had planned to put it in our living room but it looks SO perfect in Marlowe’s room. So here it is.

Looking in from the bathroom. Giant lego Hogwarts anyone? This one isn’t actually ours. It’s a friend’s. What’s the best way to not have more toys than you need? Borrow some.
A handmade quetzal from Bacalar. We love quetzals so much. Also, you can’t really tell because of the lighting but the window frames of the apartment are this light mint color. I was pretty happy to see that. Also, you cant tell in this photo but she has curtain rods up– but no curtains. At some point, I might make some, but the room doesn’t really need them.

And there you have it– Marlowe’s new space.

We had this idea of downsizing into this condo— but I think this room is actually bigger her than her previous room. And it’s definitely more than she needs while we’re here for the next few years. But we all love it very much. It’s very cozy. Also worth noting– when we moved in we asked Marlowe what color she would want her walls– she said white, haha. She’s like me in so many ways– except for this one for sure.

But I did convince her a rainbow detail would be wonderful. And she finally let me paint one wall a very, very light pink, haha.  I’d love to add some more splashes of paint on the wall, but it’s still beautiful as is. I’m going to take a photo of her new over the desk design tomorrow in the daylight and add it to this post 🙂

Again, the photos aren’t amazing, as it’s a very hard space to photograph, but her room pretty wonderful anyway. I’ll be uploading a video tour this month. I haven’t actually watched the video clips yet– but hopefully, the video will give you guys a better idea of the details.

Alright friends, I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into our space! Items linked below 🙂

Marlowe’s room sources:

Bed
Organic comforter
Organic pink sheets
Organic mattresses
Desk
Floors
Record stand
Pink Rug
Curtain rod
Bookshelf
Ceiling lamp
Bed canopy
Paint: pink wall
Rainbow paint colors: red, pink, yellow, blue, purple

And just for fun… here a before photo I stole from Alex’s phone:

Cheers friends!

10 Comments

  1. Is the natural elm color under vinyl flooring? Thanks!

    • Yes! We wanted the hardwood– but unfortunately vinyl just holds so much better in south florida. It’s WET here.

  2. I love the wood floor! Which color on the Cali Bamboo website did you get

  3. Her room is soooo lovely. She’s truly a special kid. ✨

  4. i can’t wait to see the whole place!! would you come decorate/design and paint a rainbow at my house 🙂 haha

  5. I see your floors are Cali Bamboo! We used CB in our last house & LOVED them. Yours are beautiful. Do you know what color/line they are? We are in a new house now & we need to get rid of this nasty carpet & id love to do CB again! Thanks.