How to Design a Timeless Children’s Bedroom

 Children’s bedrooms are their sanctuary, playroom and study area all in one, so it pays to make this hard-working room a place where they really want to spend time. Pringle & Pringle’s Creative Director Sophie Pringle shares her advice for creating children’s bedrooms which they – and their parents – will love

Do you remember your childhood bedroom? I’ll bet that you do. It is, after all, the first space that we can call our own and is often the backdrop to precious childhood memories: playing games and building dens with our siblings; bedtime stories with our parents; feeling our stuffed stocking at the foot of the bed on Christmas morning.

So, if you have children of your own that you’re decorating for, bear in mind that this will be a room they are likely to remember for the rest of their lives. No pressure. 

We love designing children’s bedrooms here at Pringle & Pringle, but we intentionally don’t design them so they feel too ‘child-like’ – that all comes from the styling. The foundations of the room – from the window treatments to the flooring ­– could work just as well in an adult’s bedroom. This creates a timeless space which can grow up and adapt with your child.

What does your child like?

Most important of all, we’d say, is how a child’s bedroom is going to make them feel. As a designer, it’s very tempting to just talk to the parents about how they’d like their children’s rooms decorated but we make sure to include and respect the children’s opinions too. We find that most of our clients do want their children to have a say; it’s their room, after all.

We have a long list of questions we’ll ask our clients about their child so that we can really understand what kind of child they are and what they like to make it personal to them. If the child is old enough, we’ll canvas them for opinions as well. Are they introverted or extroverted? Is it going to be a busy room where they will play and take friends to, or are they a quiet child and they’d like a space they can retreat to – or perhaps a combination of both?

What are your child’s hobbies? If they play a musical instrument, include a space so they can easily practice. If they love to draw, set up a dedicated table or desk with their pencils and crayons. If they love to read (and even if they don’t yet) set up a little reading nook with cushions and fairy lights which will feel cosy and inviting – it may even encourage a reluctant reader to pick up a book.

As well as working out how the child wants to feel in the space, we want to know how their parents want them to feel in it. If their child is particularly energetic we could use some colour psychology to help calm them in their room.

Choosing colour for a child’s bedroom

Often the most important element for the child will be the colour of their room, and sometimes their choice will really jar with their parents’. When my five-year-old daughter said she wanted a pink bedroom I initially baulked at the idea. But I realised I could design her a wonderfully cosy and quite sophisticated pink bedroom which didn’t feel at all tacky or sugary. I chose Sanderson’s Light Rose Ash Light which is a definite pink but is not at all garish. It’s that typical thing with pink colour psychology – it’s very calm, and looks beautiful in lamplight in the evenings.

One of my sons wanted a red bedroom, which would be far too stimulating, but I got around that by putting up Ottoline’s Improvisation Number 1 wallpaper which has red in it, and painted the back of his bedroom door red. I love wallpaper in a child’s bedroom and it’s an easy way to bring some colour and fun. It also works really well in small spaces. 

A client’s son wanted a navy blue bedroom, but with a high vaulted ceiling we agreed it would feel rather oppressive. Instead, we painted the walls in Farrow & Ball’s Hardwick White and painted the mezzanine in his room navy blue and took it up over the ceiling. We also painted pieces of furniture navy blue, so we honoured his choice in a way which was easier to live with.

Green is an excellent colour for a child’s bedroom as it is calming and also gets away from those typical primary colours of blue and red which are so often the default shades for boys’ rooms. We used Farrow & Ball’s Calke Green in a client’s son’s room taking it over all the woodwork, and it looks fantastic.

Remember that children’s lives bring colour, so you could opt for a neutral colour on the wall and let their toys and possessions make a statement. You could also paint shelves or pine furniture in a bolder colour, or paint the woodwork in a contrasting colour for interest.

Paint colours can be changed fairly easily, but window treatments are a more costly investment. I’d recommend allocating your budget on beautiful curtains and blinds in timeless fabrics as these will bring cosiness and colour into the room. Vanderhurd’s Flower Cut Out fabric looks beautiful in a girl’s room but can equally work in an adult room, and we’re using de la Cuona’s Rugby fabric in a project which adds a preppy look to a boy’s room.

 Layout & storage

Aesthetics aside, a child’s bedroom usually has to perform a variety of functions: sleeping area, study area, play room and calming sanctuary – so it makes sense to factor all of these functions in from the beginning of the design process.

If you’re designing for a baby, we advise thinking about how you want the room to function in years to come and work backwards. If you’d like it to have twin beds in future, consider how it can have a cot and a single bed for a parent now. Will they have somewhere for their friends to sleep? If you don’t have bunk beds or a dedicated trundle bed, can you factor in some storage so they can have roll up mattresses ready for sleepovers?

If you have bunkbeds, installing a little shelf will give your child somewhere to keep their precious things or special toys or books and a glass of water.

In terms of feng shui, it’s best not to keep things under the bed – it’s much better to have a free flow. Likewise, feng shui also recommends not having water motifs in a bedroom – especially turbulent rivers or seas as it disrupts the energy in the room.

Parents often think their children need both hanging and folded storage, but if you embrace the Marie Kondo method of folding, you’ll be amazed by how much less space you need.

Soft toys can be stored in pretty baskets or trunks, and teddies look very sweet sitting on top of a wardrobe. An antique pine cabinet makes an excellent storage unit for board games and Lego, and make use of dead space or awkward corners by installing shelving which can be used for toys which aren’t used that often.

  It’s all in the styling

In children’s rooms, it’s all about the styling. Have fun with the bed linen – H&M and Zara do such nice ranges, and Society of Wanderers do beautiful patterned bedding. A beautiful Liberty print quilt from Coco & Wolf could become the key piece that you start your styling from.

People tend to avoid getting cushions for their children’s beds as they’ll inevitably end up on the floor but I say embrace it! It’s lovely for them to use them to make their dens cosy and their beds look so inviting with some pretty cushions on them.

Artwork is really important in the home and especially in a child’s bedroom. Frame your child’s art and mix it in with other pieces of art, prints and textiles. The papier maché animal heads from Edit 58 are always really popular.

Rugs are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to bring colour and fun into a child’s bedroom. I like jute carpets in bedrooms because rugs look better on it than on wool, and then you can change the rugs as the child’s tastes change. Ferm Living [https://fermliving.com], Anthropologie and MiniKnots do lovely rugs and I love Amy Kent’s animal rug collaboration with the artist Jane Bristowe.

Lighting is a really important consideration in children’s rooms. An inexpensive wooden lamp with a cream-coloured shade (more likely to withstand being knocked over!) throws out a lovely warm glow in the evenings. Pooky has a wonderful range of bases and shades, and I recently bought one of my sons a globe light by Ferm Living from Skandium which gives off a lovely light and stays in play even when balloons are being thrown around the room.

Just add fun!

It’s so important for a child’s bedroom to have a sense of fun and playfulness. We always try to include little surprises in our designs, such as little nooks and hiding spaces as even older children love these.

In one of our projects, the children’s bedrooms have a mezzanine and rather than putting a ladder up they have a climbing wall and a fireman’s pole. In another project, we created a secret tunnel through the wardrobe which comes out into the games room, rather like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We also made the most of the eaves space by filling it with cushions and fairy lights.

By taking the time to consider your child’s personality you can create a space for them which they will truly love spending time in, and which will give them precious lasting memories.

 Get in touch and see how Pringle & Pringle can help you with your interiors project

 Written in partnership with Studio Home Page