The Ninja Room Reveal

It’s been a week or so since I revealed the Ninja Room on Facebook & Instagram. I’ve had some time to reflect on this incredibly cool, incredibly challenging project.

There were so many elements to this room! And the thing about designing a space is that the design is in the details. The little things make a BIG difference. If you change out 1 piece of decor, it could throw off the whole design. With so many elements to consider – there were a few times I had to sit back, look at everything from a totally different perspective and give it another go.

So let’s break down this space by starting with the biggest element in this room – THE ROCK WALL! Because it was the largest project, we tackled it first. We tossed around several ideas for this rock wall. One of them included a mountain themed rock wall with a giant mural. (Anyone interested in that concept? I’d still love to do it!) But the perfect design for this family included a simple and completely natural aesthetic – natural toned wood, and climbing holds that looked (and felt!) like real rocks.

We tucked the rock wall in the corner of the room to maximize the variety of angles in the space. We wanted some slanted spaces for fun climbing, but with the young age of the boys, we also needed something kinda easy too. The wall at the back of the room was straight up & down and would probably be the section of the rock climbing wall they’d climb the most. 

By itself, the rock wall is pretty cool but adding some other pieces in close proximity to it, turns a rock climbing wall into an obstacle course. Again, we tossed around a few ideas – like a cargo climbing net or an industrial pipe ladder. We landed on a knotted climbing rope and gymnastics rings. The kiddos can climb up the rock wall, turn around & grab the climbing rope, or vice versa.

Before beginning this project, I wouldn’t have thought that finding neutral play equipment would be an issue…but its definitely an issue… a BIG issue. Here I was thinking “Oh a neutral colored climbing rope? That’s so easy. I mean, it’s a rope. Isn’t its natural color brown or white? Also I bet it’s gonna be super cheaper.”

WRONG.
SO. INCREDIBLY. WRONG.

Every piece of play equipment made in the US comes in several shades of blue, yellow, green & red. I promise you. There’s no way around it. We looked high & low. For weeks on end. And you know what we found?

The pieces we finally found were made in Europe and shipped over to the US. So if you’re looking to start a new business venture in a niche market without any domestic competitors, neutral play equipment may be your best bet!

Now let’s take a look at the opposite corner of the room. Here we find another European piece… a neutral pod swing! Again, every single pod swing we found in the US was bright blue, green or fuchsia. This side of the room is wiiiide open to allow for playing with toys and hanging out in the pod swing with a book. 

As far as aesthetics goes… We kept everything gray, black and white with pops of navy blue, turquoise, hunter green, emerald, mint and mustard. The colors are spread through the room with throw pillows in the rolling cart & on the couch, in the tassel garland hanging in the window and the décor on the floating shelves.

This tassel garland was the inspiration for the room’s color palette. I wish I could get a better photo of it, because IT. IS. GORGEOUS. We customized the tassel by asking the Etsy seller to add Navy Blue to it. Below is the original tassel garland I found. We asked her to add Navy Blue next to the Hunter Green.

The sign above the window adds a pop of black which balances out all the light tones and ties in the other pops of black. 

Speaking of pops of black, let’s take a look at the shelving we added above the kitchenette. I love the black metal shelving brackets we choose for these shelves.

This space was completely blank before we added in these shelves. I LOVE taking weird little nooks like this & making them beautiful focal points.

This client LOVES plants. She has them all over the house. So we knew real plants would need to be incorporated in the décor. I also really, really wanted to hang some baskets. When styling shelves, you have to utilize a few different tricks – mixing up textures, balancing colors & scale. Everything has to be evenly balanced but still varied enough to be interesting.

Beautiful prints in frames make inexpensive and easy décor. We used the same frames for the prints as we did for the framed photos by the window. 

I’m so proud of how this space turned out! (And so grateful for being able to work with such amazing clients!) This Ninja Room’s got a modern, clean aesthetic with a little bit of boho and a whole lotta fun! 🙂