Tips for Creating Children’s Rooms
Imagine . . . A little princes passes through a grand entrance into a room where beautiful, enchanting shades of pinks, greens, and yellows welcome her, ensuring she dreams of magical journeys and fairy tales.
The room’s amenities create a personal and cozy space for this little princess: a fantasy carriage crib placed under a large oak tree with woodland animals watching over her, a cozy glider in which to snuggle and rock on late nights, and a beautifully upholstered floor to play on.
In designing a nursery for your little princess or prince, there are five key components to consider: theme, focus, storage, growth, and safety.
Theme – Knowing the sex of the baby can influence the theme of the room. However, the theme of a nursery can also be neutral to accommodate either not knowing the baby’s gender until birth or as a special nursery for all of the babies in a family over the years before the transition to their “big kid” room.
The theme for this room is primarily “girl” and secondarily “princess.” The main foundation of the room’s design is classic and traditionally feminine. The fantasy carriage crib is the singular element that introduces the princess theme and can be removed as she grows up and wants to add different elements. The entrance to the room, typically an overlooked element in any room, is a beautiful Dutch door with a mini-entrance just for her. This added detail adds to the theme and the overall design.
Focus - Every room should have a main focus that brings the room together, whether it’s a mural, a piece of furniture, or another design element.
The focus of this room is the Carriage Crib. It is centered against the wall under a large mural of a tree with kind woodland animals around it. Upon entering the room your eyes are immediately drawn to the scale and detail of this element, with the added touch of the soft fabric creating an illusion of a canopy. Every other element in the room adds to this focal point either directly–the woodland creatures holding the fabric of the canopy–or indirectly–by adding interesting color or texture around the crib.
Storage - Every infant will accumulate so many things that it is absolutely imperative to consider additional storage for every day items as well as keepsakes or retired things.
This room has closet organizers for every day items. The storage unit along the window wall is a playful set of letter blocks that open individually or as a group for large cubicle storage spaces. The unit was originally designed as a window seat and later developed into a highly useful and playful storage solution. This piece can be updated by simply removing the letters and replacing them with mirrors, colors, or other images.
Growth – Some rooms are intended to stay nurseries for many years. Others will have to transition into toddler rooms, ‘tweenie rooms and beyond. Taking this transition into account when designing the room can save both time and money in the future without lessening the nursery feel. Later, consider changes to minor elements in a room for quick updates, including toys, pictures, bedding and fabrics.
As this little princess grows up, the crib portion of the carriage can be removed and a toddler mattress inserted, quickly converting the nursery into a toddler room.
Safety – A child’s room can never be too safe. There are standard precautions to take including securing all power outlets, keeping exposed shelving out of reach of little hands, and keeping any medicinal items in a secured location.
An additional design and safety element in this nursery is the floor. The wall-to-wall carpet has been removed and replaced with thickly padded upholstered squares. The squares provide additional color and pattern in fabrics that coordinate with the window seat and valance. The effect is visually inviting and provides a comfortably padded floor for hours of playtime. It will also help keep the princess safe as she learns to walk.
Whether you have an image of the nursery you want to create or you have yet to decide, starting with these five components will help you to create the room of your dreams for your little dreamer.
After two years, it was time to make the bed a little larger. So we took out the circular crib and dropped in a rectangular toddler mattress. This should give the child another year in the bed.
