Kim Ludy, owner of the vintage shop Trampoline, has pitch-perfect taste. But her 6-year-old son loves sports posters and superheroes. So when it came to decorating his bedroom, she decided to loosen the reins. “I started out with a vision,” she says, “but in the end, I listened to him, instead of copying some magazine picture.” The result is a playful bedroom featuring a giant map and folk-art pillows--then topped off with a trapdoor! “I’m really thrilled with it,” says Kim, “and happily, he is, too.” Let’s take a look....

You live in in Framington, Massachusetts. What's it like to raise a child there? We like the mix of city versus country: We have local farms and hiking trails, but also cultural diversity--we love getting Brazilian food downtown. We’re only fifteen miles west of Boston, so we can buzz into the city for the day.

How did you begin decorating your son’s bedroom? We have three bedrooms, and we originally fixed up the third bedroom for him, since it’s much bigger. But for a little boy, it was just too big. He was scared at night--too many nooks and cubbies--and he was ending up in our bed. After a while, we said, that’s it! Back to the original bedroom, which had been his small, cozy nursery.

Where did you find the wooden bed? IKEA--it’s supersturdy, simple and stylish. We got a double so it can grow with him. It’s the most comfortable bed in the house! And I love the knotty pine with the blue walls--it reminds me of a camp cabin.

And the bedding? The quilt was a yard-sale find; a few pillows are from IKEA, and one was a vintage folk dish towel that I sewed up. I’m into folk-inspired textiles; I was a textile major in college.

Are those glow-in-the-dark stars behind his bed? Nowadays there are even more! Even for a parent, when the lights are turned off during storytime, it feels magical. It really is like sleeping under the stars.

How did you decide on the wall color? (It’s fabulous, by the way.) My son had wanted bright purple--he loves exciting, saturated colors--but I nixed that and offered him lavender. At first, he agreed, but then came home from school and said, "You know what, Mommy? It needs to look like a boy's room." (It’s funny how even at such a young age, they already have notions of colors and gender.) So I gave him my color wheel, honed in on the blues and gave him five choices. He picked the polished slate. I’m a color-phobe when it comes to living with dark colors on the walls, but now I love it.

The fire truck is a 1970s vintage; the wooden reindeer is vintage Danish. The teepee art is vintage from Etsy, and the lamp was bought on eBay.

What a great map. It adds a sense of adventure. When our son was 3, one of his favorite games at bedtime was for us to call out a country and have him find it on the map. His dad would lift him to reach the highest parts. I'd love to bring back that game. The chair is an Eames look-alike, which I picked up at the flea market for a song. It most likely won't stay in the room, though--he's been asking for a beanbag … one that looks like a baseball.

You have a talent for finding flea-market treasures. No wonder you have a vintage shop. Almost everything here was bought secondhand, including the dresser. It’s perfect for a little boy--it even has space for hanging clothes.

Oh, my goodness! A trapdoor! The room has a small walk-in closet, so we added a surprise trapdoor. You push through and go into a four-foot play area in our slanted-ceiling attic. Funnily enough, the trapdoor is actually a dog door, and my husband added a peep-hole. Knock, knock, knock, no girls allowed. Our son really flipped when it was done.

How did your son react when he saw the finished room? He nixed a couple of things I had in the room (nope, out with it!), and now he's really loving it. He has also put up science posters and sports memorabilia.

Chalkboard paint; similar paint available at Hudson Paint.

So, moving forward, you're giving him creative freedom? At 6, he already has a real aesthetic, which can go against my grain as a design freak. Sometimes I secretly want to rip down his posters, but, really, it's his stuff, and I'd be offended if someone came into my dining room and tore stuff down.

What a great parental design philosophy. Kids have so much clutter, but I'm not going to tell him to live without his favorite superhero figures because they don't fit a trend. He has this one room, where he sleeps and plays and lives. Plus, his taste will change--it changes every six months. So, I might just have to take a deep breath and put my hands over my eyes when I walk by the door!

P.S. See more photos of Kim's house, and visit her Etsy shop Trampoline. And browse through all our Cookie house tours...