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When we designed our daughter’s room, we wanted it to feel playful and full of fun, and designed in a way that could grow with her with minimal changes needed over time.

And the interesting part of this room was the bed. 

No, it’s not 4 bunk beds with stairs up the middle.

It’s a little different from that… 

The area where the bed is going, there is a roof below it. A roof inside the room. Yes, it was either build over the roof or reduce the room (and reducing was not going to happen). 

This was planned from the start. The roof of the breezeway is a low-pitch vaulted roof that it built into the bedroom and you would have no idea it was.

But this meant the bed would have to be built above the roof, raising it 18”. 

A platform bed, so to speak.

But not just any platform bed.

When I was little, 10 to be exact, I went on a sailing cruise through the Queen Charlotte’s with my family. We had whales hit the side of our boat, almost sat on a sea lion, tried to find the golden tree (before it was cut down) and my brother caught a gooey duck with just his finger.

All these magical adventures but one was also sleeping in a cave bed on the boat. I wanted a cave bed for my daughter and this gave me the perfect excuse — a cozy little hole in the wall, over the roofline below and tucked into the sloping roofline above, complete with its own light, book shelving and a corner nook for stuffed animals. It became the feature of the entire room, and we planned it so that when she grows out of the cave, we can transition it into a platform bed instead of starting from scratch.

Beyond the bed, we knew storage and play needed to come together seamlessly. We included shelving for books and toys, a closet organizer with room for bins and buckets, and a desk for when she’s ready to use it. For something extra fun, we played with the idea of adding a climbing wall and even a ladder to a nook above the closet, creating hidden corners to explore.

Design-wise, we leaned into her personality while keeping things flexible. The walls were done in a pink that felt fresh and modern — more of a melon tone than the typical “girly pink.” We added carpet, just like in the other bedrooms, to keep things warm and comfortable (I’ve always loved carpet and knew I wanted it in all the bedrooms).

We turned an Ikea desk drawer unit into a closet organizer with shelving above, double hanging rods on either side, and toy storage below. Since it’s a vaulted room, we sloped the closet short and added a platform above and ladder on the side. This is where she can climb up to and journal or read.

In the end, the standout feature was always the cave bed, but adding playful inexpensive features throughout were a lot of fun for us, but more importantly for her and her friends to enjoy and change with her as she ages.