Over the last few years, I have been lucky enough to have two wonderful (albeit cheeky!) little sproglets. Inevitably this has meant that I have spent more time on the rollercoaster that is motherhood, then I have at my drawing board. This has made me realise what a safe haven work is for me- unlike the chaos of parenting, Interior Design is an area that I feel safe and confident in, like a shoe (the glamorous kind of course!) that fits.
So when the chance came to apply my Interior Design skills to my life as a parent, I jumped at the opportunity…. Designing my children’s bedrooms!
When we were expecting our first, we didn’t know if we were having a girl or a boy, which meant I was designing for someone that I had no preconceptions of- not even their gender. I loved this! No pink for girls or Blue for boys…. Just things that would make me and the baby smile. A Red hot air balloon hanging from the ceiling, a toadstool nightlight… a giant bean bag made from squidgy foam for those long nights of endless feeds (the best purchase for all new mothers!)… and colour- lots of colour and fun! And in the two years that our son was in that room- we both loved it!
However, my real challenge came when we were expecting our second sproglet. By then our boy was two years old and absolutely knew his own mind! We were going to have to somehow break it to him that he was to move out of his much treasured room (the room next door to ours), to make way for his baby sister. I dreaded the moment of having to tell him, particularly as it was downsizing considerably…. and so I decided the best way to do this was to create a room that was even better than the existing one, so he would chose to move on his own accord- boys/men always seem happier with decisions that they believe to be their own!
This time I am afraid I didn’t go quite so gender neutral…. A bright blue wall with gold stars stuck onto it, with a rocket in one corner! It isn’t a big bedroom by ANY means, but it is certainly not lacking in character either; Lucas’ face when he first walked in was something I will remember forever. My only concern now is trying to stop him from asking everyone that comes to the front door if they would like to see his bedroom.
Luckily he never looked back, and so my daughter now has the nursery all to herself. I kept it pretty much the same, but I did source a few things to make the room feel more individual to her. A canopy for above her bed (I had one when I was a little girl and it made my bed feel like my own magical safe haven), a garland of flowers, and in place of the hot air balloon (which my son insisted went with him), she has a felt elephant floating up into the sky on a multicoloured bunch of balloons.
I have designed a number of Children’s Rooms for clients over the years, and understandably they tend to want to go for a timeless design… its impossible to keep up with a growing child’s taste otherwise… however there are little things that you can do to make sure that the room is still fun and relevant to their age- you just need to make sure that they are things that are easy to change over time. Wall stickers are amazing these days- yes there are still very tacky ones out there, but you can also get really beautiful ones too, and they are incredibly easy to put on and take off. Accessories keep it flexible- fun cushions and maybe a mobile to hang from the ceiling (which they can then pass onto their children in years to come). And of course, there are all sorts of wonderful children’s fabrics out there too. The one I absolutely couldn’t resist was Andrew Martin’s linen with hand painted depictions of all of the animals from Noah’s Ark… and although this might not feel timeless to the children when they are in their teens- it will always be timeless to me; infact I have already reserved them for my little room at the old peoples home in years to come, to remind me of the happy rollercoaster days and what fun I could have with my Interior Design.
