Designing a kid’s bedroom can be both a fun and challenging task. Between the ages of six and eleven, kids go through what in the field of psychology is known as a “latency period”. This is the time between early childhood and adolescence, when kids, no longer restricted by the helplessness of infancy and not yet burdened with the stress that comes at the onset of their teenage years, are eagerly and freely discovering the world around them as well as their own potential. Creating a bedroom that stimulates their imagination and helps them grow and develop their interests can be an enriching experience, both for them and for you as a parent or caregiver.
A kid’s bedroom must serve two general purposes. The first is to provide enough space and safety for the kid to play. Grade-schoolers enjoy physical play as much as they enjoy sitting down and working on a jigsaw puzzle. So plenty of floor room and a minimum of breakable decorations are a good idea. Grade-schoolers also have homework, however, so a good desk and a comfortable chair are also a must.
Decorating
When decorating, get as much input from your child as you can. At this stage in their lives, kids usually have their own hobbies, talents and interests. Whether it is baseball, space, dinosaurs, or the latest urban fantasy series, cater the bedroom’s design to your kid’s interests. This will cultivate their growth. Also, if kids have a say in the design of their own bedroom, they will feel more attached to it and will likely take better care of it.
Now, catering to their interest does not mean painting the walls, say, in a tiger-stripe pattern for a child who likes tigers. Rather than going overboard, paint the walls a light hue and use posters and pieces of accent furniture to bring together the room’s theme. Clear, solid colors are usually the best way to go, as they can match a wide variety of themes, whereas deep or bright colors often clash. If your kid wants bright, vivid red or green for the room, you can accommodate them by using these colors in the lamps, desks, drawers, chairs and other pieces of accent furniture.
Simple and Functional
Another thing to keep in mind: don’t get so elaborate that you end up cluttering the room. Your kid will do the cluttering for you soon enough. Homework, toys, books and clothes will take up a lot of space, so keep the initial design simple. As was mentioned before, plenty of floor space and room to maneuver and play are the most important part of a kid’s bedroom, along with a suitable desk and study area.
A good approach is to come up with a color scheme involving two or three hues and to stick to this scheme when you go out to buy furniture. You can implement the scheme into youth bedroom furniture pieces you already have. For example if you can paint a piece one color and add doors and knobs which you can then paint another color. Use the lighter hues for background items, like the comforter, and brighter hues for accent items, like pillows. The advantage of having a two or three color scheme is that you can swap one accent color for another if it happens that your child’s tastes or interests change.
And remember that your child’s room design ideas might involve colors that clash dramatically. If this happens, try to look beyond conventional design ideas and see what happens when you try to get their ideas to work. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results and, ultimately, what matters is that they get a chance to express themselves.
