Children’s Rooms | Interior Design for Discerning Littles
Children’s Rooms | Interior Design for Discerning Littles
“We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some of our earliest architectural memories hearken back to imaginary rooms conjured in children’s literature. The grand and terrifying hall of Misselthwaite Manor in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden.”
The entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shaped panels of oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great iron bars. It opened into an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted that the faces in the portraits on the walls and the figures in the suits of armor made Mary feel that she did not want to look at them. As she stood on the stone floor she looked a very small, odd little black figure, and she felt as small and lost and odd as she looked.
Or the Old Professor’s house in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by CS Lewis:
It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they found a suit of armor; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out onto a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books--most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church.
The Plaza in “Eloise” as conjured by Kay Thompson, or the great green room in Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon” – we could certainly go on, but you get the idea.
Children see the world from a unique perspective, and we have learned they are often deeply perceptive and keenly observant. So why not celebrate whimsy and infuse the rooms devoted to our children with charm, playfulness, and a touch of magic?
Tapping into our children’s interests and preferences is an incredible opportunity to connect and better understand what defines their unique individuality. Celebrating beloved characters and themes, current obsessions, and favorite colors by executing the design in a sophisticated manner can yield rooms that delight both young and old alike.
Reminiscing on our own childhood bedrooms, one CB designer conjured fond memories of a blindingly radiant sunflower-themed bedding ensemble, while another recalled a voluminous custom canopy bed fit for a small princess. These are core memories that fade into warm and nostalgic recollections over time.
A wonderfully whimsical children’s bedroom by Arent & Pyke Studio. Design: Arent & Pyke Studio | Photography: Anson Smart
A hip tween room featuring a Wonder Woman gallery wall by Proem Studio. Design: Proem Studio | Photography: Reid Rolls Interiors
Do you have fond recollections of any of your childhood rooms? Have you engaged your children in the process of designing their own spaces? We love collecting these family folklores and participating in the making of memories.
A playful nursery for a little boy swathed in a sea of sweet songbirds. Design: Counterbalance Studio | Photography: 424 Multimedia