Kid-Friendly Home

Kid-Friendly Home There are a number of homes where furniture -- or whole rooms -- are off-limits to the youngsters. But in Michelle and Dave Kohanzo's Barrington, Ill., home, it's just the opposite. Perhaps because Michelle is just one of those minds behind the children's design company The Land of Nod, where color and fun reign supreme. The kids (clockwise from top left: Everett, 6, Emily, 15, Henry, 8, and Connor, 12) are not just allowed to throw their toes over the side of an armchair, but in addition they have a say in what comes into the house and what doesn't.



Cozy Red Chair This old wingback chair has a fresh look when Michelle reupholstered it with a wool blanket and then patched it up with classic Boy Scouts badges. "We discuss every bit of space, so I am happy for the whole household to consider in," says Michelle. The result is a happy-go-lucky style where grown-up flavor and kid-inspired spunk live happily together.



Living Room Inspired by her childhood summers in a woodsy portion of Wisconsin, Michelle gave the living room a lodge-like texture with wool-covered armchairs and a classic oak coffee table. To balance the coziness, she had the lampshades and a wall covered with edgy black Orla Kiely wallpaper.



Poppy Pillows Play Zone A mashup of cushions from Etsy, Anthropologie and Crate & Barrel brighten up the couch. It is upholstered in black vinyl, so it is as easy to wash down as a countertop. The kids frequently sprawl out with puzzles and blocks in the living area. For speedy cleanup, toys have chucked in the yellow felt bin at the corner.



Stripey Chair Michelle reupholstered that this Crate & Barrel seat using a classic Swiss Army blanket, along with a striped pink blanket onto the arms.



Entryway An Etsy artist drew the silhouettes from photographs. Wrapping paper serves as matting. "You find these silhouettes of us as soon as you walk at the front doorway, '' says daughter Emily. "They are a Couple of Years old, so we've grown a lot! "



Kitchen Rather than replacing the original dark wood cabinetry, Michelle painted it Sweet 16 Pink from Benjamin Moore and gave the entire kitchen a Neapolitan color scheme (strawberry, vanilla, chocolate). "It's kind of absurd, but it is way more entertaining in here than it was," she says.



Pink Cabinets Paper Garland An ice cream shop motivated the kitchen layout. Michelle played with it up using a retro pink toaster, pastel metal pails and pink gingham curtains. "The children are mad about garlands, so we put them up in a bunch of areas," says Michelle. This one's from Etsy.



Dinnerware Screen The hutch's interior is coated with flowery wallpaper.



Dining Room The wood table and white seating are mixed in with a couple dressier pieces: an antique chandelier and a classic armoire filled with amber dishes out of Michelle's grandma. The graphic rug is from West Elm.



Bright Walls Michelle paints the dining area a different color every few decades, which is a major hit with all the kids. This time about: Rosemary Green by Benjamin Moore.



Boys' Bedroom "I loved the notion of my sons bonding by sharing a room," says Michelle. She turned into their upstairs living room into a bedroom for 3 boys. "I divide apart bunk beds and added a flea market bed in the center. The boys each needed to have the ability to claim a distance, so that I gave them different patterned sheets and pillows with their initials," says Michelle.



Map Wall Maps from older issues of National Geographic are adhered into the walls with wallpaper glue. "I like the holiday pictures on the walls the very best, particularly the one of me using a fish I caught," says Connor.



Make-Believe The boys have pretend cookouts from the yard. The camper tent and artificial campfire are from The Land of Nod.



Den "This is the coziest place in the home," says Michelle. The design started with a Crate & Barrel couch upholstered in a green botanical print. An Etsy seamstress made the clover-print Roman sunglasses from cloth Michelle found at spoonflower.com. The antique rug, from eBay, has been the ideal size but wrong colour -- a dull beige -- she dyed it blue.



Kiddie Accents Monsters and dolls in The Land of Nod and Etsy share lounge area with pillows from Crate & Barrel.



Vintage Poster Letter Sign Sophisticated but colorful and cartoony: what the Kohanzo clan wants in a piece of wall art. A metallic K for Kohanzo was a flea market find. The kids like it leaning on the floor instead of hanging up high.



Master Bedroom Though Michelle picked a "dreamy, muted palette" -- walls are painted soft blue (Morning Sky Blue by Benjamin Moore) -- that room is hardly ever composed. Every evening the family piles into the king-sized Anthropologie bed to talk and watch TV. The wall decal over the mattress says "I love you beyond measure" ($40, shannamurray.com).



Canopy Bed Twinkle Lights The kids love draping blankets over the surface of the mattress frame to turn it into a fort. "We hung small Christmas lights around the bed years ago, and the children were so entranced, we have kept them up," says Michelle.



Photo Collage A heart-shaped display shows off Hipstamatic photographs of their family members and sights from Michelle's work journeys.



Hot-Pink Table This vintage carved wood table was gloomy. Michelle spray-painted it her daughter's favorite color, pink (Gloss Mambo Pink from Krylon).