Designing a Kids Room Interior That Grows With the Child !

A kids room is the room in the house that changes the most, and it is the room most often designed for the age the child is now. The result is a room that is perfect for a year and wrong for the next five. The trick is to design for the child the room will hold at ten and at sixteen, not just the one who sleeps there now. The bones of the room stay; the surface of the room changes.

The mistake is to build the personality into the fixed parts. The wall color, the built-in bed, and the themed curtains are the parts that are expensive to change. The bed, the rug, and the art are the parts that are cheap to change. Spend on the first kind and the second kind runs the room.

The bones that do not change

The floor, the lighting, and the storage are the parts of a kids room that should outlast the child’s phases. A hard floor that cleans with a mop beats a carpet that holds the stains of a decade. A lighting plan with a dimmer, a task light, and a night light covers the room from toddler to teen without a rewiring.

The storage is the part that fails first. Kids accumulate, and the storage that worked at four does not work at fourteen. Build the storage to the wall, build it to the ceiling, and build it adjustable. A shelf that moves is a shelf that lasts. A closet rod that drops is a closet rod that fits the child at five and at fifteen.

The air in the room

A kids room is a small room with a lot of plastic, a lot of fabric, and a door that closes. The air in it is the air the child breathes for a third of the day. The indoor air quality introduction from the EPA is the place to start, because the sources are the same ones that fill a kids room: the new furniture, the new carpet, the paint, and the cleaning products.

Ventilation is the fix that costs nothing and gets forgotten. A room with the door closed and the vent blocked is a room that builds up whatever the materials off-gas. Run the vent, open the door when the child is not sleeping, and air the room out after any new material goes in. The cheapest clean air is the air that moves.

The bed that grows

The bed is the largest object in the room and the one that defines the layout. A toddler bed is a bed you buy twice. A twin bed is a bed you buy once. Start with the twin, skip the toddler bed, and add a rail for the years the child rolls. The money you save buys the mattress that matters.

A loft bed buys floor space in a small room, but it buys it at the cost of the ceiling. A child who sits up in a loft hits the ceiling. A child who falls out of a loft hits the floor. Save the loft for the child old enough to read the height and the risk, and bolt it to the wall before the child climbs it.

The desk and the chair

The desk is the part of the room that turns it from a bedroom into a room with a purpose. A desk that fits a laptop and a book is a desk that works from first grade to finals. A desk that fits only a toy is a desk you replace. Buy the desk for the work the child will do, not the work the child does now.

The chair is the part that protects the back. A chair that adjusts in height is a chair that fits the child at eight and at eighteen. A chair that does not adjust is a chair that fits for a year and then fights the spine. A kids room resource like Peltiers Collision makes the point that the chair is not the place to save, and the spec sheets back it up.

The wall that changes

The wall is the part of the room that turns the phase into the room. The color is the cheapest change in the room and the one that does the most work. A neutral wall with a colored accent wall lets the child change the room without repainting the whole of it. A mural is a mural for the year the child loves it and a mural for the years the child does not.

The art is the part that should be the child’s. Frame the work the child makes, and rotate it. The room that holds the child’s own art is a room the child owns, not a room the child is displayed in. A gallery rail at the child’s eye level is a rail that lasts until the child is taller than it.

The floor that takes the wear

The floor in a kids room takes more wear than any floor in the house. The spill, the toy, the wheel, and the dance all happen on it. A hard floor with a washable rug is the combination that works. The hard floor cleans the spill. The rug softens the fall and the sound, and it washes or replaces when it cannot wash.

Avoid the wall-to-wall carpet in a kids room unless the child is past the spill years. The carpet holds the dust, the allergens, and the stain, and it does not let them go. A rug that lifts and washes is a rug that keeps the room clean without keeping the dirt.

Safety that does not show

The safety in a kids room is the part that does not show in the photograph and does the work that keeps the room a room. Anchor the dresser to the wall. Cover the outlets. Cord the blinds or replace them. The window blind cord is the part of the room that the safety standards changed for a reason, and the reason is the number of children it caught.

The door is the part that pinches. A door that closes on a finger is a door that breaks the finger. A door stop or a pinch guard is a dollar that saves a hand. The window is the part that falls. A window lock is the part that keeps the child in and the fall out.

The room that lasts

A kids room designed for the child who will use it at sixteen is a room that does not need to be redesigned at ten. The bones stay. The surface changes. The room that grows with the child is the room that costs less over the years, and the room the child remembers as theirs, not as the room their parents made for the child they used to be.