Relax-N-Rave: Planning your Kids-Room

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Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Planning your Kids-Room

The apple of your eye deserves the best you can give, right? You are planning to do up ‘The Kids-room’ but you are stumped when you think what can the room of a toddler possibly have beyond his bed, clothes closet, picture books and toys!

Let me take you through some pointers to consider while doing up this li’l room of joy!

Image credit: Mr Rajeshwar Mande

The foremost points to consider would be:

1. The age of the child: If you belong to the set that believes in overhauling their home interiors every second year, this doesn’t really matter much. However, if you plan to continue with the same décor for as long as possible (typically, most people fall in this slot), then you would do well to consider the room’s décor theme, storage and study requirements to adapt themselves as the child grows older.

For instance, you did up the kids’ room when your child was a chubby toddler with a cartoon theme replete with a Cars-themed bunk-bed, tiny chairs and a tiny cupboard for his tiny li’l clothes. Five years down the line you have no choice but to undertake the weary and expensive task of redoing everything to accommodate the needs of the growing child.

2. The function of the room: This point is closely related to the age of the child. Will the room be only for reading and playing? Is there a possibility that the room may eventually have two inhabitants? Consider having space for a desk even if they are still doodling on the walls. And if it’s the li’l princess’s room won’t she require more storage for her dresses and of course a dresser!

If you aren't sure whether you can plan for all the furniture you will need in the future:

JUST LEAVE THE SPACE EMPTY RATHER THAN

FILLING IT UP WITH MEANINGLESS STUFF!

3. The safety and ease of accessibility of various things in the room: Make it a compulsory point in your checklist to have child-safe furniture with well-rounded, smooth corners, child-proof electrical sockets, heights of storage closets, beds, desks to suit your child’s height while being flexible to alterations eventually.

4. The style you want for the room: The room’s style is one of the most versatile things you can experiment and play with, more readily than redoing the furniture aspect of it. The style/décor can be changed by accordingly changing the room’s wall colors/wall-papers, upholstery and furnishings. So it makes sense to have your basic furniture done in neutral tones that can then be accentuated with accessories to accommodate whatever theme you want for the room.

Once you are done with understanding your needs for this special room you start planning.

Working out a floor plan and a furniture layout:

Even if you are not a professional you can make your own rough floor plan using appropriate scaling on a simple graph paper or maybe just a simple square-lined one - consider a simple scale of a 1cm square = 1ft. Take down measurements of the room including projections and niches if any, openings to washrooms, windows, window sill height etc. and transfer them to your graph sheet.

Now once this is done, mark out the positions of the various pieces of furniture with their measurements. See what positions offer the best flow of movement. Also remember to consider space for opening drawers and cupboard doors.

You could also check the Internet for some easy design softwares to help you with the planning as well as furniture placement along with a 3D visual preview.

Make a plan that will be open to changes in the future, for instance a second child, reading space, extra storage, extra-sleeping space, sitting area, privacy partitions in case you have a boy and a girl sharing the same room, etc.

Consider all the electrical points you would need and add a few more, better more than less I always say - for the future printer, mobile-charging point etc. Plan all items like the ducting work for a split AC unit, even though right now your baby is not using the room, he/she will in the near future!

Plan your theme if you want one like a nautical, sporty or boy-cartoony theme for the boy and a princess, fairyland or girl-cartoony theme for the girl OR you could just skip the theme and work with colors and fabrics! For some theme bedrooms CHECK THIS SITE.

Sharing some images to get those wheels turning to create that dream-room for your precious ones!

A girls' bedroom-Image credit

Cute isn't this? Image credit

A simple yet colorful enough theme for the kids-room - Image credit

A long study table for those study years-Image credit

Cool stationery dispensers - Image credit

Full height cork pin-board to show-ff their art-works-Image credit

Cool bed by the corner - Image credit

Worldly wise - Image credit

Why not add a rainbow to the room? Image credit

Super cool Closet storage ideas-Image credit
Stationery and toys storage ideas-Image credit

What a great idea this is! Image credit

Start that book-love early - Image credit

Some cool DIY's you can make for the Kids-Room!

Super cool and adorable don't you think? Image credit

Racy stuff this is! Image credit

I do hope I helped you with some ideas and inputs to put on the thinking-hat to plan that special room for that extra-special person in your life. Go get those creative juices flowing and do let me know in the comments if this post kick-started them into action!

Cheers and much love :)