It seems art director Mandy Keener is a child at heart. In light of our August Family Homes issue (now online), here’s what she has to say about decorating a kid’s room…her way.

I was fortunate to have parents that let me decorate my room as a youngster. I don’t think that hand-painted light switches or entire walls converted into collages were what they had in mind though. At one point, my closet even became an “office” for my book about saving the dolphins and whales. Things have changed since then. Kids have way cooler design elements these days.

Here are a few that I would have totally incorporated into my space:

1. Inspiration from this kid-cool book, Tiny Art Director by Bill Zeman. 2. Rainy day? No problem with this Hopscotch rug from CB2. 3. Love illustrations and it’s a whale (would have been great for my book), available at Binth.com. 4. Framed wallpaper from The Land of Nod; any creative kid and/or adult would savor this! 5. From serif to sans serif to script, notNeutral keeps the ABC’s font-tastic with these building blocks. 6. Numbers are cool too! Especially with this limited print from milkmoonkids.com. 7. I could totally rock out to my Alvin & the Chimpmunks records in this Buttercup Rocker by Blu Dot.

In case you missed it:

At Home’s (Colorful Kid’s) Room of the Week, designed by Tobi Fairley