Need some ideas for your child’s room? Just like every productive adult needs a safe space where they can rest and recover from the world, every hard-working child in school needs their own room where they can feel secure. Almost 80% of all Americans claim to experience stress every day, and kids and teenagers are no exception.
Whether they’re one of the 20% of people who suffer from anxiety because of their smile or simple teenage hormones, a space of their own can make all the difference. A significant aspect of a child’s bedroom is the decor that speaks to them and makes them feel at home. But as every parent knows, kids don’t keep the same tastes and preferences for very long. This can make furnishing and decorating a child’s room a stressful and expensive process for the parent, instead of an enjoyable benefit for the child.
Fortunately, if you have the foresight to think ahead, there are some things you can do while your child is young to keep bedroom overhauls minimal throughout their life. Rather than spending a lot of money repeatedly keeping their room aligned with their shifting tastes or making them deal with a bedroom that no longer speaks to them, you can set their room up for life in a way that will grow with them. Keep reading to find out how.
Utilize Timeless Styles
When your child is very young, it’s all too easy to furnish their room like they’ll stay a toddler forever. Picturesque nursery furniture and decor looks delightful in movies and storybooks, but it has limited practicality in real life. Your child probably won’t appreciate the cuteness of it all by the time they turn 10.
To avoid this, invest more money in more neutral pieces of furniture that have timeless value. The same dresser and shelves can hold the same value to your child whether they’re four or 14. Even a desk can double as a diaper changing station while they’re little, then to be used for school and study purposes when they’re older. Limited by your imagination, you can come up with your own creative nursery organisation ideas for your newborn baby.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t buy adorable nursery items that only a baby (or a mother) would appreciate. But try to choose less expensive items, like curtains or wall art. That way you won’t mind replacing them when your child isn’t a baby anymore.
Think for the Long Term
Expensive furniture items aren’t the only thing you should be thinking ahead for. It’s not super obvious, but even the lighting arrangement in your child’s room is worth being mindful of. LED lightbulbs were estimated to achieve a 53% global market penetration in 2019 and for good reason: they’re beautiful, they produce large amounts of light, and they last for years. You can begin thinking ahead, both for your child’s comfort and for sustainability, by utilizing LED bulbs in their bedroom’s lighting.
Similarly, begin thinking about the availability of natural light in your child’s bedroom. Natural light is a significant mood-booster and it also helps keep busy minds awake through hours of homework. Your child may not be doing any studying while they’re a newborn, but if they’re using the same room throughout their childhood they’ll need the extra light as they’re going through school.
Other areas where you can think long-term include the flooring and walls. Besides adopting a neutral, timeless style, it’s important to use a highly durable choice of flooring and stain-resistant paint. Painting the bedrooms in your home can cost between $400 and $600. If you’re constantly re-painting your children’s rooms to hide marks and stains or to match their changing tastes, the costs will add up. For the floors, rugs are cheap to replace compared to hardwood or carpeting. You might want to consider using a sturdy hardwood floor and adding soft rugs for comfort.
Plan for Durability
One out of every four cell phone owners claim to have had damage done to their phones because they let one of their children use it. Smartphones aren’t the only item at risk — no matter how many times you tell your child not to jump on their bed or climb the bookshelf, they’re prone to breaking things during their daily misadventures.
Kids are like little tornadoes sometimes. There are two strategies you can use to prepare for the dangers posed to a house by childhood antics. First of all, you can opt for the most durable furniture and components you can find. This might mean installing floors and buying beds made of real wood instead of particleboard or vinyl. The other strategy is to intentionally buy the cheapest products you can find, since you know they might get broken anyway.
The best course of action is usually a combination of the two. When it comes to items where structural integrity is more important, such as beds and dressers, durability is often your best bet. However, expensive curtains and rugs are going to get worn out just as easily as cheap ones, so you might as well try to save money there. From there, you can choose fun bedroom additions, like a gaming area or mini fridge. After all, more and more teens are indulging in iced coffee, which has been offered since 1965. If your child spends a lot of time in their room, these nuances can make the space feel even more relaxing.
Get Your Child’s Input
Obviously, this won’t apply if your kid is under the age of three. But as soon as your child is old enough, it’s important that you give them a say in how their room looks and feels. This is an essential part of making their room a safe, rejuvenating place for them. After all, this room could be where your daughter builds dreams to be like the 27 women who were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in 2017 or your son starts his studies to be a doctor who changes the field of medicine. Allowing your children to have input in and control over their room can be the first step towards accomplished adulthoods.
While you want their opinions, you’ll also want to know when to take the reins when decorating your child’s room. When it comes to choosing paint, for example, kids don’t typically have the best eye for color. If you give them complete control and they choose hot pink or highlighter orange, you’ll have to shell out to repaint when they’re preferences change or you sell the house. So instead of letting them choose from the color swatches at the hardware store, ask them what color family they’d like their room to be painted in, such as blue, pink, or green. Then you can choose the exact paint color with more mature taste, like a soft pink or teal, that will suit the room long after the initial makeover.
Your child can afford to have more control for items that aren’t as expensive or long-lasting. This includes things like curtains, rugs, blankets, and throw pillows. These typically need replacing every few years anyway, so let your child’s imagination run wild.
Kids change a lot as they grow up and that’s okay. Learning and experimenting with what you like is part of the fun. There are lots of ways to design a stylish bedroom for your child that grows with them. Hopefully, this article has given you enough ideas for you to get started in your child’s room.
