Decorating
children’s room is different from decorating an adult's bedroom.While adults
extend their activities to several rooms in the house, normally; children will
try to confine their activities into their single room.To a child, his room is
not only the center for indoor games, but also for other activities such as
reading, listening to music, displaying prized possessions.
The most
important aspect to be kept in mind while furnishing a child's room is that the
room should facilitate your child's personality development and while so
furnishing the children room, we have to take into consideration the age of the
children and their areas of interest.The decor of children room should be
flexible enough to accommodate the changing tastes and needs of the children.
Location:
Plan to have
the child's room just adjacent to the parents' room, preferably with a
connecting door in between. Just knowing that he/she can just walk in and be
with his/her parents can be a big comfort for both. Here are some specific
areas which can be considered while designing the children room to make it mulch-functional.
Play Area:
Play areas
for younger children may include an arts & crafts center.Most children
love to exhibit their talent by way of drawing and by coloring them. Therefore, providing a comfortable space for
working on drawings, arts and crafts would be an encouraging factor for the
children.Similarly, you may hang a
chalkboard which can be used for drawing pictures and for teaching purposes.
Reading Area:
Provide a quiet and comfortable space that will entice the children to inculcate the
habit of reading. If you have the space for a comfy chair, perfect.If not, an
over-stuffed floor pillow or two would suffice.Needless to say, that the
children room should have good ventilation and lighting.
Comforts for friends:
This becomes
more important as children get older and older. They would like to spend time
in their room with friends. Depending on their age, a small entertainment unit which
includes a computer,CD Player, carom
board, chess board, fiction books etc.
is a must.
Display Area:
Children are
very proud of their artwork and would like to exhibit their talent. Therefore,
the children room should have provision for displaying collectibles, trophies,
and other artifices.Earmarking a prominent place in the children room to
display your children's favorite photographs, collectibles, trophies, and other
artifices would be a moral boost up for them.Displaying the photographs of
your children taken at different periods and memorable stages in chronological
order will add familiarity and warmth in the room.Pictures of family and
friends could add to the decor of the room.
Storage Solutions:
You can line one face of the wall with wooden
paneling which come with imported adjustable molds where storage spaces like
cabinets and open shelves can be moved up and about to suit the child's height
as he grows up. Shelving is a quick and easy way to store items. Built-in
shelving is more decorative, but there are plenty of free-standing shelving
options large decorative wicker baskets for toys, books, socks, etc. Plastic
(see-through) storage containers would work well.Closets should contain plenty
of shelving and racks for clothing and shoes. Make sure that children's
clothing are within their reach.
Painting:
Use glow-in-the-dark paints to create images of the night sky with bright stars and
perhaps the planets whizzing around or go in for cartoons, or any other subject
your child is keyed up with.This can ease
in a child to sleep alone in his room at night.
Lighting:
When
decorating children's rooms you should include both task lighting and soothing
lighting.If they do homework in their room, good lighting is essential.A
reading lamp is a must for the reading area and the bedside table. For quieter
times, install a dimmer switch or three-way lamp to provide soft lighting.A
nightlight is also important for children who are not quite comfortable with
the darkness and also for safety reasons.LED lights (which now come in three colors)
that glow permanently are a must beside the switchboard to help the child
locate the switches easily in the dark.
Take care to include a bright study lamp in addition to the general
lighting in the room. Place the
switch-board at a height of three feet from the ground.
Fabrics:
It will be
easier to decorate the room if you limit the color choices and keep your
fabrics simple.This will also allow you to make changes easily as the child
grows and with that they change their tastes too. When they get bored, purchase
new decorative pillows and linen.Let your children help you pick them out.
They'll be happy and you'll avoid having to redo the entire room.
Avoid long
(to the ground) draperies, especially in young children's rooms. Shades,
blinds, valances, cornice boxes and shorter curtains would be better choices. Use
a lining on curtains for privacy and light control. Especially for those early
risers who automatically wake up with the sun. Fabric should be versatile and
simple. Patterns should be repeated in other items in the room such as
decorative pillows, matching lamps, and artwork.
Wall Coverings:
Use a wall
covering (paint or wallpaper) to add splashes of color, texture, and excitement
to your child's bedroom walls.Paint a cherub border with a soft cloud ceiling
or wallpaper an African Safari theme on a wall.Allow your children to join in.They'll love helping and will have a sense of pride and accomplishment when the
project is done.If your child has sticky fingers, make sure the walls are
washable.If paint is your wall covering of choice, go with a semi-gloss or
gloss finish. Bright shades of orange, yellow and blue look great on the walls
here.
Flooring:
Opt for
ceramic or handmade tiles that are sturdy and stain resistant. Colorful rugs for the floor (and even on the
walls) make for a good option as kids keep changing their tastes very often,
and you can just roll up a themed area rug and put down a new one.Use non-skid pads under decorative area
rungs.
Furniture:
Don't cramp
the space with too much furniture.Leave
out an open space in the room, spread out a mat or a rug there, where the child
can stretch his limbs, turn a cartwheel or sit with his friends and play group
games. Make sure that the furniture you choose for decorating children's room is durable.This is a child's room and it must withstand years of wear and
tear. Beds, a study station and storage spaces make for all the furniture you
will need here, but be sure to have the last two of the above mentioned
utilities done in mega scale.The study
station should be at least six feet long, so as to allow a parent to sit beside
the child and help him in his studies.
Take care to position the bunk bed well away from the fan and the
electric points. As for material, you
can opt for rubber wood, easy to maintain laminates, or veneer and paint on top
of it in places.
Be sure to
include cupboards or chests of drawers with large spaces for the child to dump
the endless list of items he is likely to accumulate sports kits, old toys,
hobby collections.If you are going in
for a bunk bed, you can incorporate storage spaces underneath the steps leading
up to the upper bunk bed too.Incorporate
hang on hooks, and sliding boxes under the bed which will be out of sight but
easy to access, where the child can store his inevitable collection of stuff.
Accessories:
To make
optimum use of space, affix pin up boards or colorful mat boards to display
your child's artwork on cupboard walls, hanging pouches with different
partitions to stuff in, easy to reach ledges where the child can keep his favorite
toys and other stuff lying about.If you
have enough space, you can even incorporate a rustic cabin, a canopy bed, or
perhaps a swing.
General:
You can also
personalize your child's room with a theme that reverberates around the entire
space.The theme may hinge on a favorite
animal, game. For instance, use handles
with animal designs/stuffing’s, rugs with jungle scenes, laminates with real
wood designs,walls painted with a sun rise on the horizon, pillows with
animal-print fabrics, stuffed animals in corners, etc.Finally, safety should
be the lens that you see through while selecting items for a child's room.Be sure there are no hard edges on the
furniture, the electrical cords are out of reach, the floor is skid proof.
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