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Please give a big welcome to my first ever guest blogger Jo-ann Fortune who is discussing a subject close to my heart, making rooms look stylish and pretty. Don’t forget to enter the competition either so that you can start sprucing up your child’s bedroom.
Our homes reflect our personalities, so our children’s rooms should do the same for them. Here, guest blogger Jo-ann Fortune takes a look at interior design trends perfect for transforming a child or teenager’s bedroom.
We’re also offering you the chance to win a £50 John Lewis voucher – all you have to do is answer the question at the bottom of the post.
Young children
The basics of interior décor for a young child are fun and colour, and the easiest way to inject both of these elements into a bedroom is with statement bedding. The high street offers a wide range of duvet sets for children, with most of the major department stores now stocking collections exclusively for little bodies. Current favourite prints include nautical, garden, robots, vintage vehicles and crafty patchwork. You can either theme the room around your child’s favourite bedding, or keep it neutral to be transformed by different sets.
When it comes to bedroom furniture, high sleeper beds offer the opportunity to grow with your child – you can add a desk, extra storage or even a sofa under the bed, and of course the extra floor space is always appreciated. Soft furnishings such as bean bags and a roll-up mattress are also great for when they have friends round.
Get them involved in designing their room and they may be more likely to keep it tidy – no promises though! Ask them to help choose personal touches such as fun wall stickers, cute bunting flags and funky cushions. Essential items such as storage and lighting can also be made fun – look out for ceramic animal lamps, hollow Lego heads and blocks and mini suitcases in which they can keep their toys.
Teenagers
Personalising a bedroom is even more important when it comes to teenagers, and they’ll no doubt have strong views on the look and feel of their own space. Help them to style personal touches with feature walls or customised furniture.
Save wallpaper and paint with groups of framed posters and photos of friends, family and pets, or collect vintage mirrors for an eclectic feel in a girl’s room.
Substantial storage is important as they start to buy their own clothes. Invest in a good solid wardrobe, or buy a second-hand one and paint the door panels with block colours. A desk will also be important as they knuckle down to coursework or revise for their exams and there are plenty of sleek, modern styles on the market at the minute. Monochrome, block colour and steel desks can work well in a teenager’s room, or again, look out for second-hand pieces that you can customise with tester paints for a cool retro look.
For those little personal touches, let them add accessories such as patterned screw-on door handles, mix-matched bedding and scatter cushions – there’s currently a great range of quirky animal design, paper-cut print and slogan cushions on the high street.
For more kid’s interior style inspiration, check out the John Lewis Little Home video:
To win a £50 John Lewis voucher (which can be used instore or online) leave your answer to the following question in the comment section below. Sorry, UK residents only. The competition will close at midnight on Sunday 6th November 2011 when the winner will be chosen randomly. The Judge’s decision is final.
Q. As a mother of five children storage is always an issue, tell me your best storage solution
The best storage idea? Well, Isabelle has toys in most of our cupboards in the living room, as I hate mess. I love the treasure chests too, as they store a lot of toys and you can aso have some on top of them. Also I am quite naughty and put a lot of stuff in the loft…for later…and then we never know what’s up there….
The voucher would be very useful, esp before Christmas 😉 @Kahanka All Baby Advice blog
Storage is a huge issue in my house, I always feel that I have “stuff” everywhere and no where to put it. I have decided to save up and get some sort of large cupboards that look like wardrobes but have shelfs in them, that I can put in the dining room in place of the dated pine sideboard which holds so little, but thats only if I don’t spend the money on a handbag first!
Having four kids myself and living in a tiny cottage I’m always on the lookout for space savers. I have lots of shelves and love door hangers of any kind for things like handbags, scarves, brollies etc. I also have hooks screwed in under the stairs for school bags, PE bags, swim bags etc so they are easy to find in a hurry. My biggest space saver is my vintage caravan on my drive that the kids use as a play room, I use as a sewing room and Hubby uses for peace & quiet. @mamamakes
When my children were little I always kept one room in the house adult friendly and kept toys out or made sure they were tucked away for the evenings, this helps keep your sanity. My girls loved dressing up and having a large dressing up box helped keep all those wings/wands and a mountain of outfits tidy.
Having moved to a smaller house twice in 2 years we have had to declutter big time. Our new house is lovely but tiny so I’ve bought high beds for both my girls to enable us to use the space underneath as well as cool boxes and baskets to put stuff in. We also rotate toys, putting some in a box in the roof and swapping them every few months. 🙂
If you could see the state of my house this evening I would probably be disqualified from answering as the clutter has all but won… Newest fad in our house is Decopatching the old shoe boxes that the clutter is stored in. It might not save time and almost certainly adds to the clutter but they do look very beautiful and can be kept out on display rather than hidden away.
Also we have a rather nifty wire shelf thing that hangs on the back of the understairs cupboard door and is fab for storing batteries, torches, lightbulbs, shoe polish, candles etc etc.
I love John Lewis too! 🙂
I simply clear it all out. I dont really store. I simply de clutter a few times a year! Unless it is shoes! They have a wardrobe space allocated just for them. They get stored in their boxes. I also write a description on the box so i can locate the right shoes quickly!
I adore vintage suitcases so I buy these whenever I spot them and use them for storage. They can double up as stylish underbed storage too if I don’t have space for them anywhere else in a bedroom.
Moving house was the best upscale to our storage solution but an expensive one! We are big fans of Ikea and keeping on top of clearing out what is unused and grown out of through netmums forums and eBay. I’d love a John Lewis voucher – so PICK ME! 🙂
I have 5 children too, so I sympathise with the storage issues!
My best suggestion is to keep a close eye on what they really play with and what they really need to wear. Toys that get left on the shelf can be sold or passed on, as can outgrown or disliked clothes. Also, in the weeks before a birthday or Christmas I always have a big clear out because with 5 children and a big extended family I know we’ll be needing space!
For storage itself I recomment ikea, big plas2ic boxes oor underbed boxes, which has the bonus of preventing them from shoving things under there when they are meant to be tidying!) and hooks! Getting things up off of floor level makes a place look a lot tidier and fabric bags look nicer than open shelves (at least I think so) and don’t require dusting!
My husband tore down my next door neighbours hut (don’t worry they gave him permission as they were getting a new one) and then he built a “mini hut” on to the side of his hut so that we could keep the kids garden toys in it. I still think he should have used the mini hut for his man tools but he wanted to sit in his man shed in the rain for his cigarette! Anyways, it was a cheap and useful storage solution for all the garden toys to save them getting weather-beaten! @LauraCYMFT
We bought an extra shed for ‘stuff’! Wish I knew the answer to the eternal problem of not enough storage!
The best storage solution for me has to be plastic boxes with clip on lids. They keep toys, clothes, shoes, bags, art supplies (endless list I won’t bore you!) all neat and they stack easily on top of one and other to go in cupboards and wardrobes. Stick a photo on the front of children’s boxes so that even little ones can help put things away properly!
We just have to use every space we can – i have chest of drawers in cupboards and drawers under beds.
Ooh I love storage! My friend had a great idea and bought two units from IKEA. She has one on top of the other and the bottom one has canvas boxes. ALL the baby stuff is in the canvas boxes, nappies in one etc. Then on the top unit she has all the books, room thermometer etc. It is soo neat and tidy but holds SOOO much stuff! Great idea. @rhodak09
We put double hanging rails in our daughter’s wardrobe – she doesn’t need the full height so we doubled the amount of clothes we could hang up!
SAM beat me to ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’!
Our biggest storage issue is toys. We have a toy chest that doubles as a seat and stacking boxes in bold colours. Once these are full we have a clear out.
I recently bought an over-door shoe storage hanging thing and that holds 16 pairs of shoes. It hangs over the back of the door to our spare bedroom and is brilliant.
Have to agree to the multi function furniture & stacking boxes rock! I also have a cabin bed for Skig so that it’s not as high as a bunk bed but it means that there’s plenty of room underneath. In fact, he’s quite partial to sleeping underneath 🙂 I think as busy mums, we’ve learnt as many space saving techniques as is humanly possible! I do like using old shoe boxes though for all those little bits of lego, Bakugan, plastic guns, everything I end up tripping over/kneeling on – there always handy.
my best storage solution… thats a toughie, my girls shared a room for 10 years and they had enough stuff to stock an argos lol
ive had under the bed drawers, a bunkbed that had cuboards in the steps (i thought that was fantastic)
wall book sleeves (pretty easy to make too) and stacking shelves
im still searching for the perfect solution now, but luckily we just moved and theres monster cuboards/wardrobes in every room lol
My best storage solution is taken from Bob the Builder – Reduce, re-use re-cycle!!!! I also am a massive fan of keeping on top of the clutter by having a John Lewis 8 drawer storage chest which houses different things – lego, dressing up, dollies etc. That way everything has it’s place!
Would love to win this!!!
Love S.A.M xx
I try to get furniture that has 2 functions, for example using a storage chest as a coffee table, or getting a bed with storage underneath.
I love John Lewis, would love to win the voucher 🙂