Megan Morton · I Love My Room + Giveaway!

Written

Lucy Feagins

Writer

Lucy Feagins

13th of June 2013

I Love My Room - a new book about Children's bedrooms by Megan Morton, with photographs by Jason Busch and Penny Shek, published by Thames & Hudson. Photo of the actual book by Eve Wilson!

I Love My Room by Megan Morton, with photographs by Jason Busch and Penny Shek, published by Thames & Hudson. Photos of the actual book by Eve Wilson!

Ok it's been at least four weeks so we're long overdue for a little post about the latest happenings in the world of everyone's favourite celebrity stylist – Megan Morton! :) When she's not taking the country by storm with The School's epic national roadshow, Megan always makes time for her first love – creating beautiful books. After the incredible success of Things I Love last year, this year Megan has followed up with a book very close to her heart - I Love My Room, which documents the most amazing kids bedrooms. Photographed by Jason Busch and designed by Penny Shek, the book is full of such fabulous ideas for kids big or small, and of course Megan's wonderful writing style brings it all to life in the most entertaining possible way! The book features Megan's own kids' rooms, Beci Orpin's boys, Megan Park's twins room-share, Rachel Castle's two kids and so many more, but in contrast to other books, it shares the voices of the kids who inhabit the space, which to Megan is really what it's all about! 'A lot of rooms are done for the decorative gold stars for the Mum (I know, I am guilty of this so many times over), but to hear the children's take on their most personal spaces is for me the gold' says Megan. It really would be a shame not to include a few words from the crazy genius herself to accompany this post...so here is our little chat with the amazing MM! (Make sure you read right to the end – too brilliant! ) –

Hey MM! Tell us about your new book I Love My Room - how did the idea come about?

A lot of the houses I know have inspiring children's rooms that are not necessarily magazine or book ready. As I have three kids of my own, I wanted to share those with people in a way that hopefully feels impartial and gives achievable ideas for all types of living. Family life is decoratively challenging and I want to encourage full expression in this area as much as I can! A lot of people put all the love and effort into the children's room and let the rest be. This book shows these spaces.

Child / parent collaborations can sometimes be hard to manage, what are your top three tips for styling a kid's room?

· Give them a voice, but a real one not a token one. · Don't ever accommodate a feature wall, unless it's the chartreuse green as seen on the last page of Oliver's room in I Love My Room. (pg. 201!) · Relax knowing that when I shoot my own children's homes it takes me about 10 days to clean it / prep it / get it ready!

What's the perfect kids' room palette?

Never do all white unless you're totally obsessed with immediate re-sale! Colours I like for kids rooms are probably the not the usual ones - like super soft grey, a feathery super light brown, navy, charcoal, lilac and how about a divine mustard, which is exceptionally profound with white, red and slices of charcoal/black. I encourage all the above as unisex options.

Biggest kids' room decorating mistake?

When the mother puts her own childhood room deficiencies onto the next generation. Guilty as charged! I regrettably did this with Laura Ashley prints done in very grand gestures! So much so our first born Millicent couldn't sleep in the room, I believe she thought she was born into a poppy field.

You are a creative force to be reckoned with! What's next on the MM inc. agenda?

I want a little hotel where staff all wear navy King Gee with Hermès orange tab belts and are Spanish. Inside it's pony rider blankies, a Rachel Castle harlequin in the entry, white geraniums growing on the Saarinen tulip table (no replicas thanks!), Marvis toothpaste (and other flavours to take home), French wide tooth combs whose teeth are strong and perfect post-shower, the latest Spanish Architectural Digests and other airfreighted goodness. Of course I Love My Room and my other books would be available to read in the hotel, as well as Apple TV. There will be a suggested movie list and earphones in custom Klein Blue Bang & Olufsens so you can read the styling notes on certain rooms in each of the top 12 interior-perv movies. Beds will be dressed in navy linen (or you can request white) with my new iPad friendly designed bed head, and vintage silk robes a la Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. There should be a hole in the wall cafe, and we will have wonderful sugar shaped as palm trees. Truthfully, I didn't know what to answer here as we have so much going on in our studio at the moment, but now I read this back to myself, I so want to stay at this place! Badly!

Oh Megan. You never disappoint! I Love My Room is $49.95 and hits all good bookshops Australia-wide on Monday. However, you can also pre-order direct through Megan's online store for a signed copy and divine gift wrapping. ALTERNATIVELY, Melbourne MM groupies will be pleased to know that Megan is kicking off her national book tour for I Love My Room in Melbourne, at sweet new Hawthorn store The Woodsfolk next Wednesday June 19th. Pop in to The Woodsfolk from 6.30pm to 8.30pm to pick up a signed copy and meet Megan! And lastly, if you're still with us... thanks to the good folks at Thames & Hudson, we have 10 copies of I Love My Room to give away to 10 lucky TDF readers! To be in the running, simply leave a comment on today’s post before 5.00pm Melbourne time next Wednesday 19th June 2013. (UPDATE: All winners have now been drawn and contacted) Please be patient if WordPress behaves a little slower than usual this morning, as you have a few more days to enter! A winner will be selected at random and contacted by email next Monday.