Interiors trends are full of nostalgic details at the moment, so it tracks that the most sentimental of spaces have been circling in the front of our minds: our own childhood bedrooms.

Leaning into the wistful mood, we asked a few of our Ensemble friends and contributors to share a memory of their childhood bedrooms – to describe their vibe, back then. As always, the results were deeply varied but all deeply personal. Some of us got to exert full creative control, others had to collaborate with parents, or compromise with siblings who shared the space but perhaps not the vision.

Looking back also saw us reflect on the role bedrooms fulfil as canvases for our first expressions of creativity. The colours on the walls, the fabrics on our beds and the ephemera displayed around the rooms paint a complete picture of who we were, saw ourselves as, or were trying to be. They showcase our hobbies, family dynamics and in some cases display early signs of career ambitions. Reminisce with us below. 

Lizzie Langridge, Love James founder and curator

Coming in hot with my childhood bedroom: single wooden bed, with these lovely flower flannelette sheets, I can feel them just looking at them. The fact I would have asked my parents for a photo of me doing this is equal parts cute and hilarious.

I remember going with my mum to pick the wallpaper border for my room when it got a “makeover”. I had pink textured wallpaper with a 20cm decorative trim in the centre running around the room. It was a monochromatic pink print with dolls, teddy bears and a rocking horse on it. I distinctly remember wanting the purple hue trim with teddy bears, but my mum insisted on going for something more classic that wouldn’t date.

I also had a pink decorative canopy draped above my bed, very 80s Laura Ashley. We recently helped my parents clear out the garage and found Laura Ashley wallpaper and decorating books they must have brought over from England in the early 90s. 

Todd Selby, photographer and author of The Selby Comes Home, out now

My childhood bedroom was really the only space in my house that I got to decorate. It’s kind of obvious, but as a kid, it was all about more. So, you can imagine the wallpaper, so many stuffed animals, participation trophies, and little souvenirs from my trips. I mean, it’s pretty eclectic. 

Juliette Wanty, stylist, multidisciplinary designer and art director of Homestyle magazine

One of my earliest memories is of noticing the wallpaper in my first bedroom – the softest butter yellow base with white butterflies silhouetted across in a dancing repeat. 

Later, I remember my mum choosing the wall colour for our attic-to-upstairs conversion in the mid 90s, which included my new room. On seeing the spectrum of paint colours gloriously displayed at the shop – in every shade imaginable – I was enchanted. Instantly drawn to the purples, (which my parents wouldn't even pretend to entertain) I took a treasured swatch home. I marvelled at how lovely it looked. The way it deftly organised and impartially presented each option, from the faintest wash of lavender to unbounded, arresting fuchsia. 

While purple didn’t make it on a paint brush, I enjoyed living amid the warmth of the gentle yellow walls and sunflower curtains my mum chose. However harmonious the backdrop, it was not to last – as I progressed from childhood to tween, and then teenager the sweet, serene space was gradually butchered, by me. Numerous posters were aggressively blue-tacked onto any spare bit of angular attic wall available, all doing their bit to clash and offend the delicate scheme. The room started to look like a brainstorm, frenzied – the inner workings of a ballet dancing, rugby-mad, emo-adjacent small town kid intent on self expression. Interior chaos ensued – but all within the safe embrace of my childhood bedroom.

Also note: in the photo I supplied the walls have been repainted brighter, so the past version in my memory is much softer.  

Anjali Burnett, co-founder and designer of Twenty-seven Names

My teenage bedroom: I took my wall art seriously. Highlights include a Silverchair poster but with collaged Spice Girls heads, baby photos, printed emo lyrics (most likely Fiona Apple’s Never Is a Promise or K-Ci and JoJo’s All My Life) and glow in the dark stars.

Editor's note: Twenty-seven Names has a print right now that says 'If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room'

Zoe Walker Ahwa, Ensemble editor and co-founder

This room is painfully early 90s, and really shows my burgeoning personality and taste: several cat references, orderly books, decorative knick knacks and intense primary colours. The sleeping kitten and sunflower poster would have been one of several, and I bet there were glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the roof, too.

Dad painted the walls and used newspaper to create the speckle effect; I would have chosen the pool shade of blue, as my parents allowed us that freedom. I have no idea why the bookshelf was bright yellow, but that, with the bright pink duvet, is maybe where my anxiety-induced bad sleep habits began...

Before I moved into this room, it was my sister’s and the walls were painted the sickly pink of the lamp. We really loved colour and creative rooms in our Swanson house.

Kate Megaw, founder and designer of Penny Sage

When I was little my mum painted my room pink, my furniture purple and decorated the walls with farm animal wallpaper. I loved it so much and was so proud of it but later, when I went to high school, I was instantly embarrassed by it. I remember trying to cover it with posters from Girlfriend, Rip It Up and any other magazines I could get my hands on. I probably didn’t even know who half of the celebrities were – I basically missed out on pop culture at my country primary school. 

My room was always an absolute mess so I must have taken this photo after cleaning it. I can see my wretched high school uniform hanging with my No Fear backpack. It must have been taken just pre lining up my empty Impulse cans in my first year of high school in 1998.

Deanna Didovich, Ruby creative director‍

This photo is of me and my sister Marina in my childhood bedroom. Everything was yellow! My baba made me this ruffle gingham bedspread, which I'm sure definitely was the reason for my love of gingham today. My curtains were yellow also, and I remember when I got a bit older, desperately trying to convince my mum to let me get a decorative border around the wall-papered room which was all the rage in the 80s. My room was also a shrine to Barbies, which I was absolutely obsessed with growing up.

Tyson Beckett, Ensemble reporter

This photo of me, age 5ish, was taken in the freshly decorated bedroom that I shared with my baby brother. My parents built a small extension to our Martinborough villa shortly after he was born so he could have his own room but I insisted on moving into it as well. Quite telling in retrospect: the golden child getting special treatment and the stroppy oldest daughter finding a way to make it about herself anyway.

I was adamant I wanted “onange” walls and I think this tramp stamp-esque sun painting done by my aunt Odette was a way to placate that request while actually delivering the pale lemon and raspberry palette on the walls that my mother preferred. I’m standing in front of proof of my life’s sole sporting achievement - a level one swimming competency certificate.

Cam Yates, Sybs owner and operator

I shared a bedroom with one or two of my siblings in our Lower Hutt house for most of my childhood, but when I was 15 I got my own room for the first time. My dad painted the walls turquoise, my Mum painted a set of old drawers bright orange and had some incredible zodiac curtains made. I saved up money to buy two axolotls because I thought it would make me seem more interesting, one of which became known as Voldemort after he ate the other.

I also used pocket money to buy an enormous blue lava lamp, which my mother hated. I claimed the family boombox, playing mostly Hilary Duff, Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson. My room was littered with witchy paraphernalia, candles from the $2 shop, crystals, books on Wicca and I naturally had a totally healthy obsession with Practical Magic. Josh Hartnett was my first celeb crush, whose poster I tore out of Smash Hits and kept hidden under books on my desk for fear of outing myself.

I was becoming aware of my identity and this was so reflected in the things that I surrounded myself with and I can see how much of it lingers today, especially in how I create and brand Sybs. 

Bryer Oden, freelance writer and content creator 

I didn’t feel like I had autonomy over my bedroom until I went to boarding school and was given massive pinboards to work with. I pinned up anything and everything that spoke to me: postcards, photographs, polyvore edits. It was my own tangible version of Tumblr; my sprawling scrapbook.

We switched rooms every term so this felt like an ever-growing project. To me, it was like stepping into a giant collage. Making my room look as busy and chaotic as my brain is a tradition I have carried into all my rooms since, in the Halls of Residence and in my flat.