Crossover Blog #4: Designing Kids’ Rooms
Red and I decided to go with a bit of a lighter topic this week. She’s sick of writing about penises… I’m not sure why.
I remember when Josh and I first found out I was pregnant. I was so, so excited to design Jude’s room, I could barely contain myself. I looked around online, went to Babies R’ Us, you know… all that stuff. There’s a huge difference from what I though I wanted for him to what we ultimately decided to do. And honestly, if I had to do it over again, there are a bunch of things I would do differently as well.
Josh and I chose bright accent colors for the walls in Jude’s room. Three walls are a latte color, and the fourth wall is a deep, bright blue with a deep, bright lime green stripe and two latte-colored stripes bisecting the wall. We also painted the inside of his closet the same color green as the strip on the blue wall. The only pieces of furniture in there are his crib, a glider, a bookshelf, and a toy box. On one wall there are three square canvas paintings. They’re done in primary colors and feature a lion, two monkeys, and a zebra. We also have one of Josh’s paintings on an adjacent wall. It’s a really simple room. There’s plenty of room to play, and at any given time you’ll find a number of different toys strewn on the floor.
If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t even bother outfitting the room with a crib. Yeah, it made a nice changing station at first, and yes, eventually we’ll be able to convert it to a toddler bed, but honestly, we have no need for it. I would rather Jude have the extra floor space to play on. While I love having a bookshelf in his room, when we move and have to set everything up again, I’ll be sure that 1. the bookshelf it secured to the wall (securely) and 2. no books are placed on the bottom two shelves. Instead, I’ll use those shelves as a holding area for Jude’s often-played-with toys. I love the colors we chose, and I hope that we’ll be able to recreate the bulk of the room when we relocate.
One thing I’m glad I didn’t do was buy one of those crib bedding sets you see advertised all over the place. Sure they’re cute, but honestly, those things are such a waste of money. Bumpers? They’re not recommended for use in cribs because of the suffocation risk. Decorative quilt? Again, suffocation risk. Dust ruffle? Really, do I even need to go there? I think your best bet, and what worked for us, is to get a few tight-fitting crib sheets that compliment the design of the rest of the room.
As I stated earlier, Jude’s room is used mainly as a playroom. When he first became really mobile, it was the safe place we all retreated to for play. If your child is going to be spending a lot of time in his bedroom outside of just sleeping, I think it goes without saying that the room needs to be made as safe as humanly possible. Now that Jude’s older and is even more mobile (if you can believe it), we’ve worked hard to baby-proof the entire upstairs. When it’s play time, I can take Jude upstairs and feel confident that he’s safe walking from room to room and up and down the hallway, even if I’m sitting on the bed blogging.
It was important to Josh and I that whatever kind of design we came up with for Jude’s room, it would be able to grow with him. Although we’re facing the prospect of moving, if we were to stay in this house for the next 10 years, the colors we chose for Jude’s room would be easily adaptable for each stage of his life. Right now it looks like a young child’s room with brightly colored walls and cartoon-like paintings. His bookshelf is covered with books and stuffed animals alike. In a few years, the animal paintings could come down easily to be replaced with pictures of his favorite baseball team (the Cubs!) and his stuffed animals could be replaced with trains. Sure, he may eventually decide that his favorite color is red and we’ll have to repaint, but the room he has now is more likely to have appeal 5 years from now than a traditional baby boy room does (in my opinion, at least).
I’m sure there are many other more ‘artsy’ things we could do to make Jude’s room unique for him, but for right now, I think making the entirety of the room accessible to him and to exploration are more important than it being really stylish.
I know Red has had a pretty busy week, so her post isn’t up yet. Keep an eye on her blog though, it will be up soon, I’m sure.
Want more? Check out the Crossover Blog archive!
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