Thinking about redesigning your child’s bedroom?
I have four children, and we’re lucky enough (thanks to a brief spell of affluence a few years back, with a judicious re-mortgage to allow for a house extension) that they all have their own bedrooms.
Nurseries and babies bedrooms are easy aren’t they? How do you make them look? Well, exactly the way YOU want them to look. What do you put in there? Well, the things that YOU need; somewhere to feed them, change them, place their teeny tiny little clothes, arrange their oh-so-pretty hand picked toys… Their needs are actually YOUR needs. Simples.
But then they get older. And have the cheek to develop tastes and opinions, for goodness sake. Your lovely calming neutral palette just doesn’t wash with a car mad 9yr old who wants his mates not to laugh then they come over, does it? And that cheery lime green wall with dinosaurs on that was such a brilliant stroke of genius for No.3 son simply gets frowned at now the 6yr old Pink One has moved in to that room.
So it’s time to sort them out, I guess. We did the teen’s room a couple of years ago, and had the sense to think forwards as we designed – it’s as relevant to him now at 14 as it was when he was 12, and hopefully we’ll not have to do much to it to keep it equally non-embarassing for the next few years.
But the younger ones need a room makeover… so we’ve been hunting for some inspiration; there are loads of useful suggestions from people like professionals in interior design in London, and most of these involve a degree of common sense as well as some more innovative pointers.
- Ideas
It’s a given that children don’t keep things beautiful and pristine. Thinking ahead and making sure all fabrics and walls are washable makes keeping the room spruce and good looking for far longer a much simpler proposition. And no – if they draw on the wall with crayon you can’t simply wipe it off. Or paint over it. *mutters*
- Beds
This is what the room is all about – make it a feature. Children’s bed designs can be really exciting – we’ve seen cars and boats and fairy bowers (personally I’ve ALWAYS wanted a swan bed like the one Joan Cusack has in Toys…). Once you have your bed (or just the bedding if you’re keeping it to a budget), you have your theme for the whole room.
- Walls
After ensuring that the paint or wallpaper covering your walls is washable then you’ll find that you have an Aladdin’s cave of colours and designs to choose from. From Lego prints to murals the choice of wall coverings is huge, many popular illustrations from children’s books have been transferred to wallpaper so your child could even be sharing their room with the imagination of Quentin Blake, for example. You could always involve your child in the design of a mural and even encourage them to help with the painting. Try not to dwarf the room with fussy design, instead make use of natural light and perhaps keep the mural or wallpaper to one wall only.
- Storage
The interior design profession has finally addressed the perennial problem of ‘stuff’ and there really are a plethora of functional and well-designed storage solutions for the most untidy of children. Sturdy trunks are always useful and look good as well, but there are also other options. Many beds come with drawer space that is an integral part of the whole and this option really makes tidying up quite easy. In theory a messy bedroom could become a thing of the past. Though I’m not sure anyone has informed my own small people of this fact.
