Kids seem to outgrow their bedrooms every few years. Clutter accumulates; tastes change. Older children suddenly need a desk to organize school work; motifs that were cute for a toddler don’t work for a kindergartner.
Here are three solutions for morphing kids’ rooms as they grow and change.
Build in flexibility
Associated Press writer J.M. Hirsch said his 4-year-old has averaged a new obsession about once every six months — outer space, construction vehicles, pirates, knights and now trains. So when it came time to update his room his parents decided not to embrace any particular theme.
Blue is his color of choice, so painting the walls was an easy call. Hirsch paid a premium for fume-free paint ($45 a gallon) and Parker Hirsch was able to “help” with the job.
New furniture was a must, as his clothing had long outgrown the changing table repurposed as a dresser, and the twin mattress sans headboard looked a little too frat pad. They chose a natural birch set, with a bed high enough for storage beneath.
Parker’s large, bright room is L-shaped, so his parents decided to visually divide it into zones. The sleeping zone is the top of the L, with his bed, storage bins on either side for stuffed critters, and a wall light mounted over the headboard for reading. At the footboard, they put a kid-size table and chairs for Lego projects.
The corner of the L is home to his deep but narrow closet, and the dresser. Hanging fabric storage cubes from Ikea harbors out-of-season stuff.
The other branch of the L became a reading zone. A huge, nearly floor-to-ceiling shelving unit from Ikea is perfect for taming his massive book collection. A dye job repurposed an easy chair and ottoman, which four years ago had been a nursing chair.
Simple framed prints with a knights and dragon theme are easy to swap out when the next obsession hits.
The total cost was about $1,000, thanks in part to repurposing of stuff (mattress, chair, table), and Parker’s mom’s crafty skills dying the chair slipcover, sewing new curtains for the windows and closet door, and making a quilt with a color-wheel pattern that looks like King Arthur’s Roundtable.
Online bargains included the prints from etsy.com and two small wall shelves from Craigslist spray-painted to change from pink to blue.
Dealing with tiny bedrooms
Storage is the biggest issue for writer Beth Harpaz and her two sons. The Container Store had a terrific solution: inexpensive mesh stacking shelves. They were easy to assemble and small enough to fit into small closets. The shelves are designed for shoes but handle neatly folded sweaters and jeans.
Rows of brass coat hooks on each closet door are perfect for sweat shirts and jackets.
Captain’s beds greatly expanded storage space. And since a dresser was no longer needed, there is room for a hand-me-down desk and a chair from Staples.
Tweendom approaching
When 8-year-old Isabella Critchell wanted to ditch the pink princess theme, her mother, Associated Press writer Samantha Critchell, insisted the four-poster double bed had to stay.
Critchell purchased a sturdy desk for Isabella’s increasing load of homework and supplies from JC Penney’s Web site but picked it up at the store to save shipping.
Wall decals, for about $15 per package, are easy to handle, easy to move and, best yet, leave no trace when they’re removed. Each packet contains several dozen stickers and can be moved around when she’s bored and “redecorating” won’t break the bank.
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