How To Design A Childs Bedroom

1. Introduction: In this lesson, I'll be telling you how to design a children's bedroom and what to expect. They're usually quite fun to do as the child is always really enthusiastic and brimming with suggestions. And I can guarantee that the child would be ever so excited about having an interior design around to design their bedroom. 2. Meet The Child With The Parents: So you've been asked by the parents to design their child's bedroom. They may also have asked you to design other rooms in their house and they've provided on their child's bedroom as well. And that's great, great for you. More rooms to do in the house. Fantastic. So how do you go about this? Well, first of all, you need to look at the bedroom with the child and the parent. Have a look at it, take it all in, maybe take some photographs if you want to, then have a chat with the child about what their interests are and what they like and what they dislike. But never let mum and dad decide what the children what the child wants. Yeah. Mum and dad decide what the child wants. Okay. It's the child's decision, really, with a bit of help from mom and dad. 3. Measure And Draw A Plan Of The Room: You may need to draw a plan of the bedroom with any furniture in it that they're going to keep. E.g. they might decide to keep the bed and a cupboard. Or they might decide to change all furniture around and put, put completely new furniture in if you do need help with this, do watch my lesson entitled how to draw an interior design plan of a room. And that'll help you and I are not, I demonstrate everything that you need to know about drawing a plan of a room, measuring up that sort of thing. Now, having measured up the room when gone away, back to my my studio drawing board, I normally do about three or four or five plans of a room for child's bedroom show the different permutations of the furniture, and then I'll take that back to show the child with the parents and talk them through various options for where the furniture is going to go. And all these plans are drawn to scale either one to 50 course and it's to a foot. Or if you prefer a larger scale, half an inch to a foot or one to 2001 to 25, whichever suits you best. 4. Steer Clear Of Overally Themed Bedrooms: The child, depending on their age, may have exciting and wonderful ideas for their new bedroom. There may be enthusiastically describe in detail how they'd like an outer space bedroom or a princess castle bedroom, or a Manchester United bedroom, or a jungle bedroom or under the sea bedroom, I going to have great ideas. But unless the parent asks you specifically to pander for the ideas that the child is giving you a totally jungle bedroom. I would advise you to steer clear of overly themed bedrooms. Okay. And the reason is simple. Reason is simple. Children do change their minds. They're growing up fast. They're exposed to them that they see different things in the world around them. And they're continually changing their ideas about the world and their interests. I mean, I'm as guilty as the next person when my children were growing up and they're adults now, when my children were growing up, oh gosh, every year i'd I'd decorate, redecorate their bedrooms. My daughter would come home from school and say, Oh, how about him? A jungle bedroom mom. Okay. Not beyond that, that we can do jungle bedroom then a year later oh, come apprentices bedroom, conferences. Bedroom. Yeah. This one taught for years and years. But most parents are not like me. They won't pander to every whim that their child has. They want something that can sort of that that has lasting appeal. Basically. 5. Design A Bedroom With Lasting Appeal: With this in mind, it's, it's best to design a bedroom that the child won't tire off easily. It's great to add some elements that reflect their current interests. But do remind yourself and the parents that children grow up fast and you know, e.g. a. Bed shaped like a sports car, accosting an enormous amount of money to have made or bought for an 8-year-old, nine-year-old boy would be great. But when he's 13 and his friends are over for a sleepover, He's gonna be so embarrassed by it isn't a bad shape. Bed shaped like a sports car. And then the same, same goes for a girl, a little girl who wants once a princess ferry, a fairy princess mural all over the walls, all over the walls. Great, when you're eight. But when she becomes an email at 14, oh my gosh, she's going to sneer at that and sure enough, the paintbrush out painting over it so I wouldn't bother. 6. Research: If I'm designing a child's bedroom, I'll put together some photos of bedrooms to show them. Um, trust me, when I said that, there'll be very quick to tell you whether they like something or they disliked something. And they'll have no doubt loads of ideas of their own. And do listen to the child carefully. Do listen to them. Don't dismiss what they're saying. Listen to them and listen to the parents to take it all in, take it all in. 7. Colours: Now, this isn't a guessing game when you're trying to guess, we know the child's favorite colors. When you have your first meeting with them to ask what colors they like best. And apologies if I'm being gender stereotyping here. But in my experience, a little girl will say that she likes pink and purple and wants a pink and purple bedroom. And a young lad, or say that he wants all these walls and ceilings painted black and he wants to be let loose with a couple of neon spray cans and he's going to spray graffiti over all the walls. So that's happened to me. You know, it up. Take note of everything they tell you though because it's important to show them that they're hopefully going to like based on their their ideas. And mom and dad will probably intervene saying that they're loud, cannot possibly have a room that's painted completely black, black ceiling and then spray painted all over with neon. But you know, when you're putting together ideas, consider wallpapers that have black and grazing. And maybe you could do one wall in that and maybe something a little less dramatic on some of the other walls. And I promise you actually, if you get down to being q or the depo, they've got wallpapers there that are sort of brick like and have graffiti on them. So you could get a wallpaper that was like that for one more if you wanted to. And the little girl who wants the pink and the purple bedroom, great shirt. You can show us. Do they cover as wallpapers, carpets, lighting, all those kinds of things. All the elements with pink and purple in Bhutan maybe add another color as well, a third color. Perhaps agreed to sort of balance out the whole scheme. Yeah, It's all about balance, okay? Um, and then that will give the room much more flair and interests. And just a pink and purple bedroom, perhaps a little bit of green or cream as well or white with it. To just balance and provide a contrast. 8. Educate Your Client: You see you are the expert and part of your role as an interior designer is to educate the clients. And this applies to all clients, both young and old. Show them ideas that they, they wouldn't have thought of. Colors and patterns and textures that will open their ideas, open their eyes, sorry, that will open their eyes to new unexciting and design possibilities. People with your schemes. When I say pause, I don't mean bold in so much as show them really bright colors, which you can do if that's the brief but be bold. Be out there and not afraid to show them different ideas and different schemes. Because this way you'll get to know what they like and dislike very quickly. 9. Don't Despair If Your Client Rejects Your Design Schemes: Don't despair if they reject your design schemes. This may well happen. And very occasionally it happens to me both with kids and adults. If they dislike everything that I show them, turn this into a positive in your mind. Because now you have a clear idea of what they like and dislike, and pack your samples and all your ideas back into your car. Very, very cheerfully, you know, keep it light and cheerful. I'm, even if inside you're feeling down or gosh, I've wasted so much time putting through those ideas. I didn't like anything. No. You now know what they like and they dislike. Arrange to see them a week later with some more ideas. Plus also being cheerful and lights and maybe add a bit of humor as well. It prevents your customers, your clients feeling guilty or bad, from rejecting everything that you've shown them. This has happened. There's sometimes happens they go, Oh, I'm sorry. We didn't like over there. So apologetic. And if so, I'll go I knew you wouldn't like anything. I was just testing you. Keep it cheerful. Don't make them feel bad and uptight about that. 10. Wall Murals: Recently I had a client, a lady who wanted very colorful leaves and flowers, a wallpaper sort of cascading down her walls. Very bright colors and greens, bright, really bright greens, bright yellows, bright pinks. And I showed her so many different wallpapers. I showed her so much stuff and she rejected every single idea. I showed her. I'm looking on the Internet. We just we just couldn't find everything. There was something wrong with everything. So how do we resolve this? So I suggested that we get an artists to come and paint a mural on the wall is exactly what she wanted. And we found a very, very nice Artists up in Manchester actually. And she sent ideas down and we discuss them. And then she came down and she did that. The mural and client was absolutely delighted. She, she, she loved it. She loved what the artists have done so much so that now she's going to have the artists paint the similar sort of thing going up stairs as well. And probably some murals out in her back garden on the back gate, back wall. Murals do look great. And if young child's room too, perhaps some jungle animals on one wall with the other walls painted a sort of a plane green, e.g. there are plenty of examples of all kinds of murals to be found online. Bear in mind, mural artists tend to be quite expensive. So if you're commissioning and mural artist do get them to quote first and negotiate with them on the cost. They are quite expensive. They do cost a lot more than wallpaper. Believe you me. 11. A Bedroom Is For Sleeping In: Remember that this is primarily a room for a child to sleeping. So do consider which colors will be conducive to a good night sleep. Perhaps the child is or Manchester United fan. And as you know, Manchester United colors are red and white, I think. And maybe the child wants the entire room painted red. Manchester United, I love monkeys died on what the walls painted red. Red is often seen as a very stimulating color. To tone it down a bit, perhaps consider painting warm, warm red and then the other walls or something different, maybe a light tone. This happened to me recently actually. I suggested oh, painting one wore red and then the, I suggested painting the other, not painting wallpaper and the other wars with a sort of a brick effect wallpaper that was sort of an urban gray brick effect wallpaper, which the child went for it, it looked very, very good actually. And then if we've got a Manchester United fan, perhaps go on to the Manchester United merchandise website and select a few, few things on their signage and some pictures of players, that sort of thing to go, to go with it so that the room has a Manchester United feel, but it's not overly themes. That's what we're trying to, you know, to think of because, you know, next week the child might be into cricket or DO of football completely. You never know, you never know with kids. 12. Blackout Blinds And Curtains: So to suggest to parents that they put up a wall, that you put up a blackout blinds at the windows. And and all curtains. Blackout curtains as well. Or the blackout blinds and curtains or just blackout curtains at the windows. Bear in mind that in the UK, in the summer months, sunrise is sunrises like hoppers 45 in the morning. And the sun doesn't go down. Sunset isn't till help us. Nine, 10:00 at night. And, you know, kids aren't gonna get to sleep or they are, they're going to wake up really early in the morning. Parents don't like their kids waking up really early in the morning and at night they want their kids to go to sleep. So do suggest blackout blinds and or curtains at the Windows. I can't stress how important it is that children get plenty of sleep. Studies have shown that children who regularly get enough sleep every night have improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, and overall mental and physical health. And not getting enough sleep can lead to high blood pressure, obesity, and even depression. So how much sleep does the child need further persuade the parents to invest in blackout blinds and curtains? You could discuss the amount of sleep that their child needs as they may need, reminding very, very gently. So babies under one year old, they do need 12 to 16 h sleep per night. Toddler's age one to two years and he'd 11 to 14 h and age three to five years and he turned to 13 h. Kids age six to 12 need nine to 12 h. And teenagers 13 to 18 need eight to 10 h sleep per night. So you could either put up a blackout blind and curtains or blackout curtains. Okay. So that's one to discuss. 13. Homework Area: Children will always need a desk and a chair. A child needs their own space away from the hustle and bustle of the home to sit down and concentrate on their homework at a desk and chair in the bedroom. We fewer distractions, you know, just think about how a child would concentrate if they're doing their homework on the kitchen table with somebody cooking, people coming in and out telly on the wall with something on the telly than ever gonna be able to concentrate, are they so a child needs to be able to have quality time in their room doing, doing their homework. So they will need a desk and a chair. 14. Desks and Chairs: You'll need to choose some desks and chairs to show the child. Recently I took her parents and her 10-year-old boy shopping to choose his new desk, chair and lighting. Of course, he was very excited to see the gaming desk is huge gaming desks and big comfy swivel chairs on wheels. He begged and begged his mom to buy them, but she was having none of it. No. No. Despite his protestations, he had to have a nice small desk and a simple small desk and a swivel chair on Wheels. He was allowed that your kids all kids love swivel chairs on wheels. And what he wants to do, and that's little Chalmers was the wizard and down his floor, up and down the Fourier spectrum whizzing around on this swivel chair. So there you go. 15. Lighting: Lighting, this is very important, as well as an overhead light is important to have decent lights for the desk and angle Pause would be a great option. It's so important to have decent lighting for homework because not only their eyes getting strained, that sort of thing. Also the child will need a bedside light for for reading in bed as well. So you need an overhead light, work clamp or anger poised lamp on the desk and then a soft light for reading by the bedside table? Yeah. Okay. 16. Storage: Kids accumulate so much stuff, books, toys, games, sports equipment, trophies, clothes, et cetera, et cetera, and all this stuff needs to be stored somewhere. Parents will thank you for suggesting shelves and a bookcase and some cupboards to, to, to tiny stuff away. With younger children, you could suggest storage boxes or baskets that the kids can check their toys in at the end of the day, try to, to try to keep the place relatively tidy. Bear in mind that sporty kids will often have a lot of trophies and team photos and certificates. And these needs to be displayed nicely in the room. So you might need to add some nice shelves with plenty of space for additional tropes that they're going to win certificates and team photos too. 17. Notice Boards: Consider placing a notice board above the desk. You can buy these quite cheaply, actually a mote. Most places kids do accumulate a lot of bits and bobs, don't they? You know, things like party invitations, certificates, photos of their with their friends, tickets to them, match. All kinds of things. To save the parents are headache, haven't noticed before that pin or we use magnets or whatever to stick these onto, helps prevent stuff getting lost. 18. Duvet Cover, Beanbags And Cushions: The duvet cover, bean bags and cushions, show the child various options and do let them choose and do tell the parent to order several sets for laundry days. Never assume that the child will want to overly theme, do they set okay. This may, they may prefer something a bit more subtle. E.g. when I was designing a Manchester United fans bedroom recently, he opted for a very subtle do they cover it? I think he went, went from one that was sort of black with a tiny motif, matches United sort of shield in the center. Very, very subtle, subtle, um, he didn't want the bright red do become with all the pictures of the players on it, that sort of thing. You know, he's only turn and even at ten, he was aware that he didn't want this room to be very childish. She wanted something quite sophisticated and more grown up bean bags. Bean bags are great fun and Charles bedroom and they may have gone out of fashion in living rooms and that sort of thing. But in a kid's bedroom, it's great to get a couple of bean bags for kids to slouch on by their video games with their friends come round robin sprawling all over the bed. Yeah, a couple of couple of bean bags, quite cheap to buy. If the child is very little, you might suggest a chair as well, Bertram chair. This is quite useful for the parent to sit on the bed in the evening to read the child a story rather than sitting on the bed. And then when they get up off the bed, when the child's fallen asleep, the child wakes up because the parents got off the bed sort of thing. So yeah, I do suggest perhaps a little bedroom chair, quite nice. And it's important when you're showing these design ideas to the child and the parent that the child participates in. Looking at the ideas, make a note of things that they like and dislike, just in case you forget later on when you're putting together moodboards. 19. Moodboards: So just like any other interior design project, do the mood boards as usual. I think of a mood board or reference board as a sort of a visual shopping list with everything on it to complete the makeover. And if you do need help with mood boards, do check out my lesson, putting together mood boards. When you've completed your mood boards, a race to take them over to the house and give them to the child. And parents suggest that the child puts them in their bedroom and lives with them for a few days, just in case they changed their mind on any of the ideas that you're suggesting. They may let them live with their ideas before they order anything, okay? Okay. They may change their minds or how a few more suggestions? Ppp flexible. Okay. 20. Get The Makeover Done: As with any room, the may cover needs to be project managed efficiently. So begin by getting your local trades to quote for the project and to tell you their availability. And once the quotes have been accepted, then it's time for you to put together a schedule of work starting with the dirtiest work first, e.g. stripping the walls of any old wallpaper, ripping out the old flooring, that sort of thing. I'm moving through to the cleaner jobs, just decorating and new flooring down. I'm putting in the furniture, hanging the curtains, putting the lights in, arranging the lights, that sort of thing. So start with the dirtiest jobs first and work your way up to the cleanest jobs. 21. During The Makeover: As the project manager, as usual, you do need to keep a close and watchful eye on how the Makeover is going to call round and monitor progress every day or every few days just to see how it's going and your life. That's something they'll have some query or question to ask you. They want to change something, you know, keep an eye on things during the makeover and if possible, the child sleeps somewhere else during the makeover. I mean, we don't want them knocking over cans of paint or scribbling on the new wallpaper, do we? Plus there won't be any curtains up at this stage. So if it's summer, well, you've guessed the rest grumpy kids, stressed parents. 22. The Completed Makeover: What's the Makeover is complete and everybody's happy. Remember to take a couple of photographs of the bedroom for your website or portfolio. And when you take these photographs of the room, make sure you include some very wide shots. I usually take a photograph standing at each corner of a room with my back to the corner, I'm going to take a vertical across the room. Quite nice, a depth that way. Remember switch all the lights on as well. Gibson, Gibson, Gibson photographs. It's a bit of a sparkle. Close the door and make sure the bed is neatly made with no creases. Please don't include the child in these photographs because these photos will be on your website and your portfolio. Actually, I never include any people in my photographs that I take my portfolio. The client might get upset at being featured on our website. So you never know. So it's best just to sort of not have any people in the photographs, even if the charge is all crabby in a photograph, they're just saying No, no, no, no, no. I don't need it. It's fine. It's fine. If you've been cutting enough and you've taken some photographs before the makeover started. You could arrange these in your portfolio on your website. It's a before and after photographs of the makeover. They're quite fun to look out for for prospective clients. 23. Conclusion: Once everything is completed and the child's happy and the parents happy, cheerful goodbye, and onto the next project. 24. The Project and Brief: For this project, yes, you've guessed rightly, I'd like you to design a child's bedroom. I'm not giving you a choice. Two bedrooms, you can design either one or both. If you've got lots of time, choose the one that appeals to you most, the brief. So I'd like to design a child's bedroom for one or both of the following. George's bedroom. Josh is ten years old and he's a Liverpool Football Club fan. It loves playing football and he's won lots of trophies. It's also having piano lessons and enjoys playing his keyboard, which is in his bedroom. There's also a piano downstairs, but he's got a keyboard in his bedroom. Josh likes reading and his amassed a huge collection of books. He wants to call grown-up bedroom as an urban vibe. They live in a large modern house in the suburbs. So he's going to need a new bed, bedside table or desk and swivel chair, wardrobe, shelving for all his books and trophies. An overhead light and desk and table lamp, new wallpaper, and paints, new carpet or wooden flooring with a rug and do they cover sets. So that's George, his bedroom. Oh, you can design a bedroom for Kiara. Kr is bedroom. Chiara is nine years old and lives in a large old house in the countryside. And she's becoming very interested in wildlife and conservation. She loves watching wildlife programs on TV, those David Attenborough ones. And recently she went with the parents on a safari holiday to Africa. She started to play the guitar and listens to pop music. And she wants a bedroom that reflects all her interests. She needs a new bed and bedside table or desk and chair for homework, a wardrobe, and a bookcase, new flooring, do vase sets or paper and paint, lighting. A small bedroom chair or a window seat for reading, curling up and reading on. I'd like you to draw three plans or the bedroom showing different positions for the furniture. The bedroom has both a window and a door. And these can be drawn to scale either one to 50 or quarter-inch to a foot. Or if you prefer a larger scale, one to 20 or half an inch to a foot, if you need help with any of these, do watch my lesson how to draw an interior design plan of a room. Design a minimum of three mood boards to include a look and feel to please either these can be either physical or virtual mood boards, or you can lay out your ideas on a table and take photographs. There's absolutely no need to spend time gluing samples of wallpaper fabrics together onto cardboard, as this would only be done once the client accepts and agrees one of your design ideas. Once completed, please upload your bedroom ideas and plans and mood boards to the project gallery. This will ensure that other students on the platform can look and give feedback to your project. I will also provide critical feedback, because feedback provides additional learning opportunities, please use the skills that you're learning from the classes. Learn to become a design practitioner, evolves through doing multiple projects and emulate real life scenarios. Design is all about creative problem-solving. 25. Learning Outcomes: By completing this project, you'll be able to draw our child's bedroom plan to scale. And you'll be able to put together different ideas for particular bedroom and brief. You will also learn how to put together ideas for mood boards. You will need to research ideas regarding the themes required by the client and use this research to inform your designs or good luck. And I'm really looking forward to seeing your designs. Buh-bye.