What do you do with a room when your child is growing? Well, you don’t have to buy a new one. Here are three different approaches to adapting their existing room. Which is the right one for you?
By: Tidhar Staff
We start designing a child’s room before the baby is born. In our head we picture the newborn baby, we’re curious about what they might look like, which of us they might resemble; we also deliberate over the design of their room and wonder how to shape the space that’s supposed to serve as a safe, comfortable, embracing environment for them in the first years of their life.
In truth, when designing a baby’s room, we do as we see fit: we pick out the furniture that suits our tastes, and choose the color palette and materials ourselves. But as the years go by and our little children grow up, their needs change and they develop their own tastes and opinions, and start devoting themselves to hobbies. The room we saw in our mind’s eye before they were born now becomes a room that requires an update and upgrade.
Unlike other rooms in your home with designs that can remain relevant for years, a child’s room needs to be updated fairly often as the child grows. In most cases we’ll prefer to avoid replacing all the furniture and accessories in the room, since it’s a hefty expense and usually unnecessary. Here are three different approaches to matching the existing room to the children as they grow and evolve, from which you can choose the best way for you and for them.
Tips for Designing Your Teenager’s Room
- Re-accessorize
Generally in home design, and particularly in designing a child’s room, it’s recommended that you pick out basic furniture (bed, closet, storage containers) in a neutral hue and clean style, so they can accompany the child for a long time. If that’s what you’ve done, the furniture can serve as a sort of constant anchor, with the rest of the decor changing around it. The soft pastel accessories typically found in babies’ rooms can be replaced with elements of a slightly more mature style, with motifs expressing your children’s character. Incorporate wood and metal accessories, illustrations, and typography which better reflect your growing child; replace the wall paints and light fixtures. Your child can take part in the process even at a fairly young age, and you should consult with them about colors and motifs. Narrow down the selection to a handful of options and suggest that they choose, thus creating a sense of independence in them as well as a connection to the new space.
- Upgrade What Already Exists
You’d be surprised to see just how much influence the color of the closet’s front, or a change to how the dresser is used, has on the room’s look and feel. If you’ve bought high-quality furniture, it’s probably still in good condition and doesn’t need to be replaced, but it’s possible that their colors no longer fit the new design, that the handles are too immature, or that you and your child just want to make the furniture feel fresh and new. In that case, you can upgrade existing furniture by repainting, covering up wallpaper, replacing wooden fronts with glass, replacing handles, or any number of other options depending on the style you wish to create and the functional changes you and your child require.
This is also an opportunity to reexamine the items in the room and the house—perhaps an existing piece of furniture can be repurposed and serve a different function.
- Specific additions
Do your children need more storage space for schoolbooks? Are they asking for a specific crafts or costume corner? Are they graduating to first grade and need a desk? Maybe they’ve reached an age when friends stay over for sleepovers, and the bed needs to be replaced? In some cases, the design style and color of the room still suit the child, but require some specific change. The common mistake in such cases is to add the new item on top of the existing one, in a way that clutters a room that wasn’t very big to begin with. In most cases, such a change, minor as it may be, requires reorganization and adjustment of existing objects. To do this you must ask yourselves (and your child): is there anything in the room we can do without? Maybe they aren’t using the desk; maybe the reading corner you designed when they were little no longer fits them; maybe this is a good opportunity to sort through toys and move some into storage. In any event, it’s recommended that you carefully measure the room and plan where the addition is supposed to go in advance, and only then purchase the required furniture or fitting.
Disclaimer: Everything stated in this post is strictly a recommendation. Culpability for use of any products purchased as a result of this recommendation lies solely with the purchasing party.
