Size matters in little ones' room redecoration
Creating a bedroom for the most precious little tenants in your life can be a challenge. Allow their independent spirit to shine through as the years roll on, and keep in mind the room’s primary directive as a relaxing haven for daily fun, plenty of daydreaming and a lot of precious and necessary sleep.
Despite the saccharine cute allure, wall to wall child-sized everything comes at a very high price. The ergonomics for miniaturised storage and sleeping are often unnecessary, and the expense of re-homing and replacing key pieces, a future annoyance. Compact but serious furniture, a shallow step, and a metamorphic genius such as the iconic Tripp-Trap chair, (€269 at www.babyaccessories.ie), can make reaches to low shelving and positioning at desks, for even tiny children, safe and easy. All high chests, shelves and drawer units should be securely fastened to the wall to prevent potentially fatal topples when toddlers decide to scale new heights, pulling heavy furniture down on themselves in the process.
Children are far more likely to use storage pieces that they can easily access and that are arranged to the logic of a young mind. Choose a theme, colour, object and mark-up bins, cubbies and shelves with symbols or one-word descriptions for fun, lightening clean-ups when asked. A good depth for a lower shelf is 45cm and made sturdy enough to take a loaded small crate of instep-bruising toys. As they stretch out, reposition the shelving up the wall or reorientate it to suit other furnishings. Rotate toys made available to younger children, stashing others in stacking boxes to keep their imagination sharp and the floors clearer.
The frame might be shaped into a big plastic Ferrari, but if that dreamy drivers’ mattress rides like an un-restored Morris Minor, it’s a triumph of style over substance. The number one priority of a bedroom is to provide a peaceful, comfortable place to sleep. Child sized beds are a baby-step up but will rarely last more than 4 years before hitting the landfill. Still, if you have a parade of children, a first berth in a smaller room until older siblings fledge and fly, may demand one.
Any mattress should support and align the lower back. Children sleep longer and more deeply than adults. An inner-spring pocket coil, (with wrapped springs), will contour well to the body. Add a good layer of top padding if your child is a determined side-sleeper. Prices for good quality start at around €250 for a full single mattress. If you’re concerned about bed-wetting, look for an anti-microbial surface and invest in a waterproof mattress cover you can lose as the problem recedes.
The best budget buy in a simple frame is wood or tubular metal with a headboard, (lose the footboard — it’s a hip bruiser), that can be re-painted and adorned as tastes alter.
Bed linen can re-imagine a room. If she longs for a draped four-poster, a simple canopy can be fixed from the ceiling in time for her to change her mind at 12. There is some evidence that the synthetic materials used in making a standard mattress ‘off-gas’ for some time, releasing potentially harmful chemicals. If you can’t run to a magnificent 100% natural mattress such as wool/cotton/latex from Core Natural Sleep at €750 ( www.corenaturalsleep.com), unwrap your child’s mattress from the storage plastic and leave it in the garage or another room for a few days to air before placing it in their room.
If you want to gift your child one thing in terms of confident, self-expression in their surroundings, steer them kindly away from matchy-matchy, cop-out themes. Accruing things that have real meaning, even if this entails a blizzard of pattern is preferable and will hold some sentimental value when the One Direction laundry hamper has been heaved out in horror.
Sticking to white walls, change can come through soft furnishings, shifting and re-organising the space and the addition of one or two truly grown-up pieces. Engender an interest in up-cycling second hand finds, painting up furniture, and choosing remnants for upholstery re-dos. Wall murals, stencilling and stickers that can be lifted off paintwork without damage, can provide enormous excitement when refreshing a room or moving to a larger space in the house.
Save a square of their favourite clothes as they grow out of them to make a small patchwork throw for the end of a bed. Don’t ignore the sensory power of colour. A soothing wall colour or feature block in grey based yellow, lavender or a moss green (a big colour story in 2014), will discreetly lull them to calm.
Low risers, drawered cabin-beds and bunk bed combinations, can provide a superb storage/ sleeping solution and a study hub for 1-2 children. Expect an outlay of €400 for a simple bunk and desk to €1,500 for something with a wardrobe, drawers, seating and/or desk. Check the classifieds as modular units are a staple, second-hand. Single room dwellers old enough for sleep-overs, may be happy to take to a bunk with a futon below for lounging with extra guests. With high risers and bunks being so popular, pick a theme, choose some heavy cotton ticking and use the void beneath to make anything from a set of pony stables or a mighty fort in a simple drape of fabric tied onto the rails of the bed. PinInterest.com is full of wonderful ideas for this and so many simple sewing machine adventures.
If the storage around the whole house is well balanced, the children’s rooms won’t be crammed with their every last, blessed thing. For the best modular sleep systems try Flexa at Flexa World, Dublin, www.flexaworld.ie, Aspace at Jellybean, Patrick’s Mills, Cork, www.jellybeangroup.com, IKEA and Argos for bed/storage combinations.
¦ We love the folded paper genius of the Leigh Tucker’s new Willow line for Dunnes Stores. The range includes delightful themed party centre pieces such as this Ahoy pirate ship for €18, matched to pirate hats €9, cups €4, ice cream tubs €4, napkins €4, garlands €9, plates and 24 straws for €4. Check out her folded cardboard playhouses from just €30, including a space shuttle to fire imaginations to the stars and colour-in too. Dunnes Stores nationwide.
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