The Playful & Practical Meet in Kids’ Rooms
When interior designer Carol Spong of Solana Beach designs rooms for kids, she treats them almost as if they were adult clients, even if youngsters do make some wild choices. She starts by letting children pick their own colors.
“Even 2-year-olds, I present them with brightly colored construction paper and ask them to choose,” Spong says. “I do it several times, to see if their choices are consistent.”
Kids know what they like. Their rooms work best when they become safe havens where they feel free to express themselves.
Both Spong and Del Mar interior designer Lynn Crosby Harland suggest that kids’ rooms fall into two categories: preschoolers and for school-age. The younger set has different requirements, including storage for diapers and accessories.
But don’t carried away with special baby furniture, Harland warns.
“If someone wants a nursery, that’s great, but will the furniture work for more than a year or two? You don’t want to buy furniture that you’ll have to replace when they outgrow it or their needs change.”
For one family, Harland selected an armoire with a shelf that can be used for diapering now, and for a television or stereo later.
Berta Harris, associate professor of child development at San Diego City College and director of the child development center there, favors simple rooms for toddlers and preschoolers.
“They don’t need much special equipment,” she says. “They need room to play, and they love to sit on the floor.”
While giving kids comfort and freedom, protect your sanity. Materials in a child’s room must be tough, especially floors. Carpeting is a good choice; it’s affordable and durable and feels good under bare toes. Spong recommends dense, low-pile carpeting.
For his 3-year-old son Kendrick’s room, San Diego architect Kotaro Nakamura shops carpet warehouses. He asks for carpeting cut slightly smaller than the size of the floor, stitched along the edges, to use like a throw rug.
“In summer, you can easily take it out,” he explains. “You can hang it outside in the sunlight to air out.”
Harland sometimes mixes flooring materials. She’ll use vinyl flooring in one corner, beneath a chair and desk where messy work or play might take place. She’ll carpet the rest of the floor, using a curved or wiggly border between the two surfaces for visual excitement.
Spong will try almost anything in terms of wall color, but has her limits too: “I’d have a hard time doing an all-black room,” she said.
Harris recommends muted colors that can serve as a neutral background for bright toys, colorful bedspreads, pictures, books and other visually busy items.
Good lighting is essential, especially when kids start reading, writing and doing homework.
A single ceiling fixture is standard. But Harland rings kids’ rooms with high wall sconces. They look great, provide gentle, consistent light and are reasonably safe from destruction.
It’s also good to lay out a child’s room so work spaces get the best natural light.
Akey consideration in children’s rooms is how to manage the truckloads of toys they accumulate.
Nakamura’s son has a closet stacked with sturdy, square cardboard storage boxes, with openings facing into his room so he can see what’s inside. Stackable plastic crates, available from discount chain stores, are another option.
Deep toy chests are a no-no.
“Toys get thrown in, and, when kids want them, they have to go through everything,” Harris says. “They throw toys on the floor, find what they want and leave a big mess.
“Store half the toys in the garage and place the rest out on open shelves, so they can see a puzzle, a truck or a box where Legos go.
“In traditional closets, shelves are up high where kids can’t reach them. It’s nice if children can get their own clothes or put their own shoes away. They like to hang things up.”
Simple tricks can liven up a standard tract-house bedroom.
Young children are thrilled by cubbyholes where they can hide--boxes in corners, secret places in closets.
“Preschoolers love carrying things around in little boxes or baskets, which can help teach them the cognitive skill of sorting,” Harris says. Such containers can be used to store small items on closet shelves.
Nakamura’s wife, Kathryn, sewed a stuffed fabric wall applique of a cat dozing on a tree trunk and tacked it to a wall.
Harland cut colorful fabric into huge triangles, sewed them together like a parachute and suspended the thing from the ceiling like a hot-air balloon.
By the time kids are 5, they are ready for furniture that will last until they leave home. Harland recommends simple chairs, desks, tables and beds in white laminate or natural woods that won’t ever look dated.
Once a child has outgrown a crib, which usually happens around age 2, a bed is essential. By the time kids can walk, most are ready to sleep in regular beds, safer than cribs a toddler might fall from while trying to climb down.
One piece of furniture that is fun to buy in kiddy sizes is a chair. Most furniture stores have some in a variety of styles and materials ranging from bright plastics to wicker and painted woods.
If you’re fortunate, you may see an opportunity to buy a piece that your child will love and will be worth hanging onto and passing to the next generation.
