The Magical World of Children’s Rooms

Yorkshire Post – 4th June 2008 - Life & Style Section: Homes

Interiors

"There are so many interiors and storage solutions available for children these days that theres no excuse for boring bedrooms or playrooms", says interior designer Jamie Hempsall.

Children are a wonderful addition to any household, but it is amazing how many possessions a small person can build up – and how much devastation this can unleash on you tidy family home.

One solution is to create a play area so that your little ones can create havoc, whilst you can just shut the door on the mess at the end of the day.

An indoor play area needs to be fun! Little minds have short attention spans and require plenty of sensory stimulation so create a vibrant area with fantastic colours (rich light greens, yellows, and soft strong blues – avoid harsh primary colours) to create a light, invigorating area.

It is important to source play furniture, such as chairs and tables, which is the right size for your child so that they can use them unaided. Choose items with round edges to minimise the inevitable bumps all children accumulate. There is a move back towards traditional wooden furniture, but there are plenty of stunning, good quality plastic alternatives.

The sky is the limit on furniture with handcrafted items coming in tops, but places like Ikea provide incredible entry level value. However, for really funky ideas check out www.awhiteroom.com where items such as the Magis Puppy offer a terrific alternative to the traditional chair.

Ensure any bookcases or cupboards are sturdy and well secured to avoid accidents, but at the same time make certain that they are accessible so that your children feel independent in their own space.

Encourage creativity by making a black board wall. Use MDF cut to a height a little higher than you expect your children to grow in the next three years and of a length to span an entire stretch of wall. Coat the MDF in black board paint (available from hardware stores) and fix to the wall. Your offspring will then have a great space to draw with either traditional chalks or chalk markers (as used in many pubs) both easily available from stationers. When your team are fed up with their art, simply wash down and start again. Store the blackboard paint to use for an annual refresher to keep the surface easy to use.

If you have enough space above the black board fill it by enlarging a special family picture (or have a digital image transposed onto a custom made wallpaper, for about £60 per m) to create an individual feature.
You can also create a home art gallery to display your children’s artwork. First, cover a wall in lining paper and then paint using a matt emulsion in a strong, warm colour (such as burnt orange or madder lake). Next, source colour images of picture frames (cartoon clipart ones are terrific) and print off in various sizes a local print shop can help to create larger sizes than are possible on a home printer. Cut out the frames and stick to the wall using wallpaper paste. Once dry, paint the whole area with an acrylic satin varnish. You can then blu-tak paintings in frames and change your displays as you wish. The lining paper makes the whole wall far easier to strip off should you wish to do so in a few years.

Flooring has many options now from cartoon check out www.softfloorkids.co.uk or www.thechildrensstore.co.uk).

Finally, add one or two oversize features (a large clock which can be used to learn to tell the time) or some indoor soft-play structures for added fun.

Jamie Hempsall, a BIDA associate, is one of the region’s leading interior designers. See more of his work at www.jamiehempsall.com or contact him on 01777 248463.