How to Design Your Home So Your Kids Won't Outgrow Their Spaces

How to Give Timeless Character to a Brand-New Home

When a Tulsa family with four kids asked Mel Bean to design their new home, it hadn’t even been built yet. Mel orchestrated the decor and helped fine-tune the home’s floor plan to suit the needs of a growing family all from the home’s blueprints. The final result? A new build with a modern twist on art deco vibes and fun, bold spaces with plenty of function hidden in plain sight. This gorgeous living room, for starters, has a Samsung Frame TV that doubles as artwork when it’s not in use as a TV. The room also has “layers” of lighting, Mel says — the custom cabinets built into the fireplace wall have library-style fixtures to give the room a soft, warm glow in the evenings.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Grand Curved Staircase Brings Art Deco Vibes to this New Build House

The homeowners wanted elegant art deco vibes throughout the house, but with a modern touch. One of the challenges Mel faced when designing this home was figuring out what to do around this grand staircase in the entrance. It would be easy for this staircase to feel gaudy or dated, but by putting some simple paneling on the walls, Mel kept it feeling classy, fresh, and full of character.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Bold, Colorful Wallpaper Print Accentuates the Natural Ceiling Curve in this Powder Room

Mel wanted to “show the architecture” in the powder room hidden underneath the curved staircase. She played it up by using a colorful wallpaper print from Eskayel that accentuates the curve in the ceiling. She added a bit of an art deco touch to the bathroom with the crystal sconces on either side of the mirror.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Leather Barstools Add Warmth Against the Cool Marble Kitchen

To add some warmer tones to the open-concept kitchen and its cool marble countertops, Mel’s team sourced these leather stools from Hickory Chair. An antique runner with blue tones connects the space with the blue Hickory Chair seats in the living room. “I love finding art or vintage rugs that help everything connect when your eye carries through,” Mel says.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

An Open Concept Kitchen Puts Marble Features Front and Center

The focal point of the kitchen is a range hood that’s centered with a marble fireplace directly opposite in the living room. The island has a large galley sink and plays off the marble walls. A microwave, oven and steam oven are all fitted right into the cabinets.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Butler's Pantry Hides More Prep Space and Hidden Appliances

“There are a lot of hidden appliances in this house,” Mel says. Just off the main kitchen is a butler’s pantry, with its own refrigerator drawers, preparation space and dishwasher. It’s a great space for doing food prep, Mel says, so the homeowners can keep the main kitchen — fully visible from the living room — tidy and chaos-free while hosting.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Pendant Light and Marble Backsplash Add an Art Deco Touch to This Butler's Pantry

Even in the butler’s pantry, which is tucked away from the main kitchen, light streams in and no detail is spared. Glass-doored cabinets let glasses and dishes play a decorative as well as practical role, and even the appliances are beautiful. The decorative ceramic bowl for this classic KitchenAid mixer matches perfectly with the marble slab against the back wall. In this space, you can “make a mess without making a mess in the main kitchen,” Mel says, which is great for busy nights of entertaining.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Work from Home Command Center in the Kitchen Helps Parents Keep Tabs on the Kids

With two younger kids, the parents wanted to have a workspace out in the main living space of the home rather than being too tucked away. Mel says this serves as a “command center” for both parents. She chose a cowhide-covered chair to give the space more texture.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Crystal Chandelier and Simple Paneling Make This Dining Room Grand

The home’s formal dining room is opposite the sweeping grand staircase in the entryway. To create a jewel box effect and play off the black and white marble there, Mel’s team had the family’s existing dining table and chairs stained and reupholstered in black glazed linen. Adding paneling to the walls “elevates” the space a bit, she says, and polished nickel sconces with cut glass shades anchor it. “This chandelier is definitely our take on an art deco design that feels a little more modern,” Mel says. The drapes are from Restoration Hardware, and the cloud painting to the right is from local artist Lizzie DiSilvestro.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Mel Used Sconces as an Architectural Element in the Home Theater

A custom, windowless home theater is strategically positioned between the fireplace wall in the living room and the hallway to the laundry room, so you can have sound “cranking” in there without it echoing through the rest of the house, Mel says. The sconces against the green-black walls are from Visual Comfort. “We didn’t want to just cover the walls in art,” Mel says. “We wanted repetition of lighting in there that illuminates the space and gives it an architectural element.” The framed print on the back wall is actually wallpaper, from Porter Teleo.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Deep Green Walls and Plush, Custom Loveseats Make the Theater Ultra-Cozy

These cozy chairs are two-seater swivel seats, custom upholstered in emerald velvet by Lee Industries. The walls of the home theater are a shade of green so deep it’s nearly black, and in person the various shades of green in this room pop against one another, Mel says.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

The Game Room Hides TV Screens Disguised as Art

The home’s game room is hiding a lot of useful secrets. Some of the art, for example, isn’t actually art at all — there are several Samsung Frame TVs in this room, which display photos or artwork when they’re not in use as TV screens. This gives the kids a place to game on multiple screens at once while giving the adults a more serene place to hang out and put screens out of mind when they’re in here. The marble bar area is also its own kitchen, with an oven, dishwasher and mini fridges hidden behind the countertop. The blue felt of the pool table perfectly matches the island and was a standard color choice for this piece, but Mel says you can get your pool table refelted in a custom color if you’re redoing a room and want something other than the more common green.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Statement Light Fixture Emphasizes the Vaulted Ceiling in This Principal Bedroom

The principal bedroom feels grand thanks to a vaulted ceiling and classic yet ornate details, like a chandelier that draws attention to the height and custom bed linens monogrammed with the couple’s initials. Because the room is so large, it was important to get the proportions right when choosing furniture and décor, Mel says. The bed, from Hickory Chair, “has a beautiful, curved wood upholstered with deep blue velvet, and it feels like it could have been from the 1920s or '30s,” Mel says. “That’s the obvious focal point and anchor of this space.” She opted for larger nightstands and taller lamps to make the space feel bigger and airier — smaller nightstands would have made the space seem smaller, she says. A pair of plush blue swivel chairs by the window allows the parents to have a quiet space to sneak away from the kids to read or relax.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Marble Features Tie the Home Together

Marble is found all over the house, from floor tiles to countertops to accent walls, and the principal bathroom spares no detail. Floor-to-ceiling marble creates a cool but elegant vibe, and a crystal chandelier and light fixtures cast a soft glow about the space at night, ideal for relaxing in the marble-topped bath.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Single Marble Slab Can Inspire a Whole Space

Marble is used for the double vanities in the principal bathroom. Mel’s team looked specifically for slabs that would look great in a large format. “A slab can inspire an entire room,” she says, and in this bathroom they needed to make sure it would match with the intricate pattern on the floor. “The tile helped launch everything else,” she says. They chose a crystal chandelier to complete the look.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Marble Counters and Tile Give This Principal Bathroom Cool, Calming Vibes

The principal bedroom’s ensuite bathroom opens into a massive walk-in closet, which has its own separate entrance from the hallway. When closed, the closet’s doors into the bathroom make a full-length mirror with plenty of natural light streaming in through the bathroom windows.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

This Walk-In Closet Has Lots of Ornate Yet Practical Storage

The massive closet in the principal bedroom has a custom glass cabinet to display the homeowner’s wedding dress. Mel designed storage spaces in the closet to keep hats and shoes protected from dust and designed a bold, natural stone island with plenty of organization — on one side are drawers for storage and jewelry, and on the other there are hidden laundry bins. Glass sconces by the vanity to the left help cancel out shadows, Mel says.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Shiny Accent Tiles Elevate This Bathroom's Marble Wall

Mel says this bathroom is one of her favorite spaces in the whole house. The vanity is painted in Hale Navy and the backsplash is a rectangular marble tile with blue triangular pieces that catch the light. The sconces are from Urban Electric, and the hardware comes from Modern Matter. The faucet is from upscale plumbing company Waterworks.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Midcentury Modern Teenage Girl's Desk With Pink Chair Adds Grownup Chic

Mel designed this room for the family’s teenage daughter, who shared some of her own design inspiration for the space. The family has four kids of various ages from children to teens, and Mel says designing timeless rooms kids can age in is one of her passions. She says she’s a firm believer that you can design child-appropriate spaces that give them plenty of room to grow and change without outgrowing the style.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Elegant Fixtures Balance Out Bold, Colorful Wallpaper

This is the family's teenage daughter’s ensuite bathroom. She picked out this specific wallpaper and Mel’s team selected the tile and green malachite mirror, from Made Goods, to match and make the space feel more classic.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Muted Tones Keep this Teenage Girl's Bedroom Elegant and Timeless

The shell inlay nightstand in the daughter’s bedroom is from Made Goods, the same company where Mel sourced the malachite-edged mirror in her bathroom. Green throw pillows tie the bedroom together with the green notes in the ensuite bathroom.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Marble Accent Lamps in This Bedroom Nod to the Rest of the House

Throughout the house, Mel brought in furniture and decor that nods to previous centuries, like this grand four-poster bed and marble bedside lamps. Repeating elements like this help create a consistent design feel throughout the home even as each space is unique. “It’s really important to think of a home cohesively,” Mel says. “While each of these places is unique, the repetition of some elements makes it feel like it all belongs in the same home. To me, successful design requires that.”

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Smart Tile Placement Makes This Backsplash Look Almost Like Wallpaper

The marble tile wall in this teenage boy’s bedroom “reads almost like a wallpaper,” Mel says, and it’s the main focal point of the space. The stained vanity and dark, hexagonal tile floor match the darker hues of the bedroom.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Dark, Solid Colors Make This Child's Bedroom Stand the Test of Time

It doesn’t look like a typical child’s bedroom, and that’s the point — Mel designed this high school-age boy’s room to be classic so it could later be updated into a guest bedroom with minimal effort. Darker tones in the linens and furniture nod to the darker hues in this bedroom’s bathroom.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Teenager's Work Station Incorporates a Guitar and Recording Equipment

Even though each bedroom is outfitted as if it could be for anyone, of any age, they all have customized corners and decor personalized to what each kid needs at his or her stage of life. For this teenage boy, a computer work station has space to store and display the boy’s guitar, plus the tools necessary to get creative and record.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Bathroom Feels Masculine With its Dark Wooden Vanity

This boy’s bathroom has darker tones to make it feel more masculine, Mel says, and the ageless design will grow with him as he gets older. Since this bathroom is on the second floor of the house, Mel went with café-style curtains to offer just enough privacy while still letting in plenty of natural light and blue skies.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Customize Kids' Bathrooms With Features You Can Easily Change as They Grow Up

Each bedroom in the house has its own bathroom. Mel worked to keep them all feeling classic so the kids wouldn’t outgrow the style. This light-filled bathroom is for a younger boy. Mel says she sometimes uses more playful hardware, like drawer pulls, in children’s bathrooms, which is easy to remove and replace with something more sophisticated as the child grows.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

This Stone Tile Shower Naturally Slopes Toward the Drain so it Doesn't Flood the Bathroom

The shower floor in this bathroom slopes toward a linear drain under the showerhead, so it doesn’t flood the bathroom when it’s in use. “We used the idea of the traditional basket weave marble tile, but it’s scaled up,” Mel says. You’re usually more likely to see basket-weave style tiles in a much smaller format, she says, but because this is a large bathroom, larger floor tiles help the space feel more proportional.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Clear Acrylic Shelves Make Artwork Out of Book Covers

This corner of one of the children’s bedrooms uses clear acrylic shelves to display favorite books and make them look like they’re floating. “It’s an easy place to grab a book to read in bed,” Mel says.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Spacious Laundry Room Is Fully Outfitted for This Large Family's Needs

Space isn't at such a premium in cities like Tulsa, where Mel says it's much easier to build a house with a large footprint. So, to make quicker work out of six people’s laundry, the family capitalized on spaciousness to install two washers and dryers. The marble countertops have a waterfall edge to make them easier to clean.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Even the Laundry Room Has Fancy Features That Coordinate With the Rest of the Home

A laundry chute from the second floor directs dirty clothes into a cabinet here in the spacious laundry room, with plenty of real estate for folding, hang-drying delicates and sorting clothes into organized bins before washing. The houndstooth floor pattern is made out of marble tiles.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Colorful Painting From a Local Artist Completes This Bright Hallway

If you’re planning to make serious decor changes to your house, Mel suggests having a clear vision for what you want before you buy anything — otherwise you could end up with pieces that are too big, or the wrong color or material or just a bad fit for your space. “One of the things I say to people is, please don’t spend a dime until you work out your vision,” she says. “Don’t fall in love with one piece and buy it with no idea where you’re going overall. There are so many things I love that aren’t appropriate for my home.” This colorful painting by local Tulsa artist Sara Matson Westover fits perfectly in this bright, L-shaped hallway.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

A Smart Mudroom Conceals Extra Food Storage

The home’s mudroom has its own sink and an integrated fridge with two freezer drawers, all the way to the right here. Mel’s team kept the colors dark, but natural light streams into the space through a two-story wall of windows just beyond.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

During the Pandemic, Good Design Takes a Lot More Patience

The mudroom has plenty of storage space, with drawers to tuck away shoes and locker-like spaces hiding inside these tall, tidy cabinets.

Mel's parting advice for anyone embarking on a design project right now? Be patient — pandemic delays have changed the way designers work and reveal their projects, but you'll ultimately be more satisfied if you hold your judgment till you've seen the finished space instead of picking apart the pieces as they arrive in stages.

"It's the dream to do a full install and reveal it all at once," she says. It can be hard to visualize what a space will look like once it's finished if you're only seeing it in pieces instead of as a full room. She encourages people to wait until a space is completely ready before pushing for changes. "If you want to change too many things, other elements might not work anymore."

From: Mel Bean Interiors

This Super-Custom Home Has Purpose-Built Spaces for Everyone in the Family

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Shop This Look

How to Give Timeless Character to a Brand-New Home

A Grand Curved Staircase Brings Art Deco Vibes to this New Build House

Bold, Colorful Wallpaper Print Accentuates the Natural Ceiling Curve in this Powder Room

Leather Barstools Add Warmth Against the Cool Marble Kitchen

An Open Concept Kitchen Puts Marble Features Front and Center

A Butler's Pantry Hides More Prep Space and Hidden Appliances

A Pendant Light and Marble Backsplash Add an Art Deco Touch to This Butler's Pantry

A Work from Home Command Center in the Kitchen Helps Parents Keep Tabs on the Kids

A Crystal Chandelier and Simple Paneling Make This Dining Room Grand

Mel Used Sconces as an Architectural Element in the Home Theater

Deep Green Walls and Plush, Custom Loveseats Make the Theater Ultra-Cozy

The Game Room Hides TV Screens Disguised as Art

A Statement Light Fixture Emphasizes the Vaulted Ceiling in This Principal Bedroom

Marble Features Tie the Home Together

A Single Marble Slab Can Inspire a Whole Space

Marble Counters and Tile Give This Principal Bathroom Cool, Calming Vibes

This Walk-In Closet Has Lots of Ornate Yet Practical Storage

Shiny Accent Tiles Elevate This Bathroom's Marble Wall

A Midcentury Modern Teenage Girl's Desk With Pink Chair Adds Grownup Chic

Elegant Fixtures Balance Out Bold, Colorful Wallpaper

Muted Tones Keep this Teenage Girl's Bedroom Elegant and Timeless

Marble Accent Lamps in This Bedroom Nod to the Rest of the House

Smart Tile Placement Makes This Backsplash Look Almost Like Wallpaper

Dark, Solid Colors Make This Child's Bedroom Stand the Test of Time

A Teenager's Work Station Incorporates a Guitar and Recording Equipment

A Bathroom Feels Masculine With its Dark Wooden Vanity

Customize Kids' Bathrooms With Features You Can Easily Change as They Grow Up

This Stone Tile Shower Naturally Slopes Toward the Drain so it Doesn't Flood the Bathroom

Clear Acrylic Shelves Make Artwork Out of Book Covers

A Spacious Laundry Room Is Fully Outfitted for This Large Family's Needs

Even the Laundry Room Has Fancy Features That Coordinate With the Rest of the Home

A Colorful Painting From a Local Artist Completes This Bright Hallway

A Smart Mudroom Conceals Extra Food Storage

During the Pandemic, Good Design Takes a Lot More Patience

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