KAREN WIGHT -- No Place Like Home

I think kids’ rooms are some of the most fun rooms to decorate. With a

kid’s room, you can go over the top without feeling garish or grotesque.

The magic is in the design details, and a child’s room has plenty of room

to let the imagination grow.

I’m not the only one that thinks kids are where the action is.

Children’s furniture and accessory sales have taken on adult proportions.

Look at the numbers: Products for juvenile furniture have ballooned from

$850 million in 1980 to more than $4.5 billion by 1999.

And national furniture stores have jumped on the bandwagon of

children’s specialties. Pottery Barn has a catalog devoted exclusively to

juvenile design. Exposures Home has devoted a large share of its catalog

space to target the lunch-box crowd.

Susie Hilfiger, wife of Tommy, recently took on a store for children

as her new project. Her upscale children’s furnishings are in demand:

‘Tommy’ bassinets may be on the way.

Children’s rooms are the perfect place to choose a theme and then play

it to the hilt. Do you want nautical? Go all the way: white headboard,

navy walls, nautical maps, signal flags, wooden ships, vintage life

preservers and plenty of red, white and blue.

Are you living with a flower girl? Give her a garden theme: a white

picket headboard, a potting bench ‘desk,’ butterflies floating overhead

and plenty of flowers for her to ‘blossom’ with.

Is your son living the Endless Summer? Anything Hawaiian is hot, hot,

hot right now. Get some Hawaiian-print bedding, install a ceiling fan

with grass-cloth blades, hang an old surfboard on a wall, and get a

surfboard rug or some sea grass for the floor. Let him doze in a ‘green

room’ of his own.

Sports are always a popular theme. Crazy for the Angels? Get some

pennants, posters, and other memorabilia to indulge the dream. (Maybe Joe

Bell could give us some pointers.)

I didn’t have a ‘theme’ when I was a kid, but I do remember my sixth

birthday very vividly. I had seen a lavender bedspread in the Sears

catalog, and I thought I might expire if I didn’t have the regal beauty

for my own. The bed skirt had three layers of purple flounces, each layer

a deeper hue. It even had matching curtains. I thought a lavender bedroom

was as close to heaven as I could get.

I was really on a purple roll when I was 5, soon-to-be 6. I even asked

for a lavender birthday cake. We created a fabulous version with Welch’s

grape juice. Life doesn’t get much better than that when you’re in first

grade.

My dream did come true, and on my sixth birthday my Mom and I put my

new bedspread and bed skirt on my bed. I didn’t get the curtains to

match, but the bed was, literally, a dream come true.

I have always tried to make my kids’ rooms both fun and functional.

Whenever we moved into a house, the kids’ bedrooms were always the first

priority.

We have been in our current home almost 12 years -- long enough for

the kids’ rooms to have seen at least two evolutions. Nurseries turn into

kids’ rooms. Kids’ rooms turn into teens’ rooms.

I am currently morphing my 15-year-old daughter’s room. The lavender

is leaving (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree) and being replaced

with an undersea grotto theme. The walls are light turquoise (which I

plan on glazing to give them a watery feel); the antique mermaid prints

are framed with grass-cloth and bamboo. I found a lamp that has campy

turquoise paillettes that are reminiscent of bubbles. I found a 1940s

Hawaiian-print tablecloth that I’m using for pillow shams. The fabric has

all the right colors and a few mermaids diving in the midst of the

islands.

To really push things over the top, she requested a lava lamp. She has

wanted a lava lamp for three years. I have stalled the purchase until

now. We are on our third version of color combinations to achieve our

desired effect (long story), but our aqua world is beginning to take

shape.

With some careful planning and a little imagination, it’s possible to

create a cozy cocoon for your children to crawl, dream and eventually

fly.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Saturdays.