By Diana Smith,
If you have kids, the living room isn’t the most important area of your home. In terms of décor, it is the kids’ room that needs the most sprucing up –a fresh, creative feel will greatly benefit your kid. Keep in mind, however, that your child should definitely play a large part in the design process, unless we’re talking about newborns and 5-or-below-year-olds. The tips that follow will help you come up with an awesome modern kid’s bedroom.
Shared kids’ room for boys and girls
If your home is large enough, giving separate rooms to your son and daughter goes without saying. Unfortunately, not everyone is this lucky and creating a shared room is sometimes unavoidable.
This can easily turn out problematic, as boys and girls tend to age quite differently and you don’t want to overemphasize your kid’s bedroom as a predominantly boys’ or predominantly girls’ room.
It all starts with colors, the underlying palette for elements such as walls, rugs and furniture, in particular. If they are old enough, you need to make sure that color is a unanimous decision between the siblings.
The next part is furniture selection and your aim should be furniture with clean lines and without a particular theme, as a boyish or a girlish theme doesn’t play well with shared rooms.
Everything else is up to you – customize the design elements to match their personalities and discuss everything with your children, if they’re old enough. Most importantly, ask each of your kids whether they’re okay with their sibling’s choice – you don’t want excessive conflict with sibling rivalry.
Age difference
One of the biggest issues with kids’ bedrooms is the age difference – if one of the siblings happens to be more than 5 years older than the other one, you’re going to have to find a perfect compromise. This is especially true if you have a baby; paying attention to furniture layout is crucial here. If possible, place the beds in opposite wall corners and make the crib accessible to the door. The design objective here is giving each child a comfortable night’s sleep – they shouldn’t be waking one another.
Additionally, creating a play area that is enjoyable for both siblings, preferably simultaneously, is extremely helpful, especially for you, the parents, as having your kids playing with each other will take the edge off. A play area should contain floor mats, cushions and other neat ideas, which include getting a rocking horse or a teepee for kids (really cool for bonding, seeing how all kids love the idea of forts and tents).
Emphasize what your kid loves
Having a kid that’s found what they really love doing is a pillar of their future success. This takes really hearing your kid, rather than merely listening to them. Settling for the good-old “my son’s going to be a baseball player” or “my daughter is going to be a designer” is the worst thing that you can do (unless this is something that they truly find appealing). In truth, once your child has shown interest in something, you should think past his or her gender and your own preferences. Even if you are absolutely uncomfortable with an idea of your kid taking too much interest in music, you should emphasize their preferences. If your young one is a sports lover, go for a football-shaped toy box, for example. If the kid loves drawing, equip the room with drawing paraphernalia. Keep in mind, you’re using the room to shape your children towards their aspirations, definitely not to your expectations.
Even if you’re dealing with a small amount of space, you can do great things for your youngest. The key to designing your kids’ bedroom is compromise, whether it’s between the two of them or in terms of physical décor and your budget.
