Bedrooms for children: Prepare the ground for those precious wonder years
THEY might not even be walking, but even young babies can roll, knee-drag and nappy-shimmy — finding their way into trouble.
Vigilance is your best defence, but before installing anything from window dressing to that adorable second-hand cot your neighbour willed you, ensure that the key pieces, including any rails, beds, fire alarms and electrical devices, conform to current national safety standards.
Get down on the floor and examine the space from a fearless pre-schooler’s perspective. Furniture climbing is a specialist infant skill that can be underway in moments. Secure high dressers and drawer units to the wall with suitable hardware.
Don’t place shelves, screens or anything of any weight over a child’s cot or bed. Corners should be bevelled or covered and safety plugs placed on all open sockets. For a useful video on judging your window blinds for cord and slat safety go to www.consumerhelp.ie/window-blinds . A 21-piece BabyDan Safety Set starts at just €13.95.
If you buy in toddler-sized furnishings, in three years they will be completely useless. If you buy in child-sized robes, drawers and desks, in six years they will be completely useless.
Without being an utter Cruella deVille, it makes sense to choose at least a few versatile products that can develop with your child. Consider paying more for pieces that can be adjusted for height or adult-sized furnishings that can safely perform in the nursery.
Dowelled desks that climb up with height are widely available. Plastic character toddler beds start in the area of €135 without mattresses (Littlewoods Direct), but what about a classy extendable bed-frame instead?
Take a look at IKEA’s Minnen at just €92 in curved steel styling. High sleepers are not recommended for the under-sixes, but if you want them to go aloft take a look at the Danish Lifetime Bunk bed system at Little Dreamers.ie. It can deliver a bed, 2-bunks and 2 singles as your family develops. From €975.
If they are allowed to have something, they should be able to reach it. If they are not allowed to have something, don’t have it within sight or in their room at all.
Low level storage for toddlers will prevent accidents and encourage them to at least attempt to tidy their own things away. Clear or coloured buckets set in a shelving unit allow children to take their favourites to other parts of the house and return them to their room. Our present favourite is the 4-tier storage unit at Argos with 12 primary coloured bins at a wobbler-friendly, 80cm height. It’s so useful, according to the reviews online, it’s become something of a hit with adults for tabletop storage too! €48.99. Cat: 717/0425.
It’s not long before your growing child grows a little attitude and will want some say in their surroundings. Wall colour changes offer great value for money, and if you stay with white and non-tack stickers you might not even have to do more than stencil or stick up something new to bring the room to new life.
Include the little sleeper in choosing a theme, and have some fun sourcing and creating pieces to follow that thread. Softwood furniture can always be painted up and with a universal primer, even melamine can take new colour and even a wallpaper.
A change of bed linen has an inexplicable influence on a kid’s mood, and with characterful bedding and cheap canopies, a bed can become a throne, castle, tent or ship. We love the Hot Pink bed Canopy from Frugo.ie, edged in velvet, a steal at €22.33 and secured on a single hook. Again, stick to age appropriate dressings, as ties and high hangings can prove a fatal attraction for tiny children.
It’s so tempting to put a snowy white pure wool surface down to receive every tottering step your child will take. With all that nose-to-pile activity during the first years, natural materials are certainly a plus, and the higher the wool mix the great the wear and stain resistance long-term.
Putting aside colour, where we know darker and patterned flooring will hide dirt (is this actually wise?), any changes in going from hard to soft from room to room or over the edges of a carpet should be examined for trip hazards.
Install extra traction with anti-skid rug matting to hold rugs firmly in place. In wood, laminates and vynyls think Le Mans, with rubber and plastic wheeled vehicles being driven at high speed by hand or pedalled ruthlessly over and into a circuit that will include those bedrooms, playrooms and corridors.
Tile is ultra-hygienic but completely unforgiving on temples and knees. Look for floating flooring rated for high traffic areas that clicks together without the need for glues which may off-gas formaldehyde and resinous fumes after installation.
Be insistent for information on the VOC content of any flooring you’re considering, even those eco-friendly choices such as rubber and bamboo which may carry chemical heavy sealants. Floorscore certification for VOCs come with some, but not all vinyl flooring which has been linked to lead and phthalate risks for younger children ( www.consumerreports.org ).
The time of the occasional ‘good-room’ pickled in manners and set out in high maintenance, fragile materials is happily behind us. Yes, your bedroom, home-office and everything you get up to in those adult realms should be respected, but corralling children of four-plus into determined wipe-down zones around more treasured daytime living spaces can breed resentment.
Practical, attractive, robust materials will make as much of your home available for children to use and enjoy as possible. If you have sofas and chairs, for example, you don’t want the children to really ever put their feet on, it’s time to either cover them up, or change them out.
What’s really important here? Once you’re baby-proofed, get real about other compromises. Sofa and chair covers are available from Littlewoods from €129, IKEA from €30 (see their Ektorp range) and in easy stretch linen varieties from HomeStore & More nationwide.
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