Mission Kid-possible

SHARE

Decorating a room for a child is difficult, but don’t think that fun for the kids has to compromise a stylish interior. The only question is, do you decorate for now or the future?

My advice would be to think of both, but how do you design for both? You want to decorate your child’s room but don’t want to do the same old primary colours or stripes for boys and pink for girls (unless they specifically ask, beg or plead for it!). In rather the same way as you would decorate for adult rooms, I would recommend going for a fairly neutral background and then adding interest in themed accessories or accent walls to give the desired look to the room. Of course unless your child would really love a particular theme to their room. Brightly coloured elements very easily become a fun feature, or you could even call it a design statement (for the parents with an eye for design).

“I would recommend going for a fairly neutral background and then adding interest in themed accessories or accent coloured walls.”




There are some innovative new products on the market. How about ‘write-on, wipe-off’ magnetic surfaces from Smartersurfaces? (above), a brilliantly versatile paint which should, hopefully, limit writing on the walls to their rooms and not in the beautiful family living room. It even allows you to pin, with magnets, those budding artistic endeavours to the wall without recourse to bluetac because the paint is magnetic as well.



A fun but different way of lighting a room, these stylish ceiling lights that look like balloons from John Moncrieff (above) through Not on the High Street, will brighten up even the greyest day of the winter months. I love the childish aspect and they can be bought in different colours and sizes. Used in a group they are a funky and easy way to make something boring much more interesting. What you do in the rest of the room won’t really matter with lights like these.

“One aspect of any room be it child, teenager or adult is storage!”



If you are looking for fabrics that aren’t too twee and suit your more sophisticated child have a look at Kids Fabrics – I particularly like the Padstow style – memories of summers gone! Make them into blackout blinds for the window with a cushion or two for the bed. If you have a budding astronaut in your house how about this duvet cover from Cox and Cox? (above), Paint the walls dark, add the stars and moon and an instant spaceman room will appear.

If you want to achieve that whole themed room effect, BedtimeBedz do some fun, funky and different beds. Is your son mad about buses?– have a look at their London Transports Routemaster special or even a bespoke creation from Dream Craft Furniture for girls.

Plan as much storage space as you can. As Lego pieces progress to model armies to teenage hobbies, drawers, shelves and cupboards are an

essential aspect of any room. As always IKEA is a great place to start, but if you feel the need for something more original, there are many companies that will make bespoke and clever storage solutions for your room or many high street shops have interesting ways of putting that mess to bed.

Your child’s bedroom, limited only by your imagination. Work the magic together.