Interior Design for children has reached a whole new meaning during the past decade. If you are undertaking a home renovation, you might want to update some items for your kids. Black and white stripes on wallpaper, a wall mounted stuffed toy lion head – where does the madness begin and end? Well, when it comes to the kid’s department in furniture stores, it doesn’t. The endless depths of creativity has led to a continuous stream of merchandise being available to us. Where do you start? Where do you go? What will actually be a good purchase? Children change so fast; you don’t want to create a room that is going to be outgrown within the year.  

Here at Home Tales, we have seen it all! Here is some guidance on how to design a functional, practical children’s bedroom or playroom. 

Curtains & Blinds

Curtains and blinds seem like an obvious area to go bold but try to avoid this trap. Good quality curtains and/or blinds are expensive, and they are also a pain to replace. Instead, go for a child friendly, warm colour and a lively material. Velvet blinds add a wonderful, textured appearance to any room and they don’t date as your child gets older. Loaf offer a huge variety of colours and all of their blinds are made to order. You can expect the cost to be in the region of £200 to £500 for a typical bedroom window. If you have a bay window, the cost will increase to £1200 as its lots more window to cover! 

If you can’t resist a pattern, go for something lovely and neutral. Our client in South London chose this beautiful bumble bee pattern. The yellow compliments their colour scheme perfectly, and oozes warmth with those soothing tones. These are the Kids Curtain Company. They have been custom made to fit this window with a snug fit. 

Remember to consider black out lining on curtains and blinds. Kids are particularly reactive to sunlight, so keeping a nice dark room might help them sleep that little bit longer.  

Wallpaper 

Wallpaper images and stencils have got very popular over the last few years. As companies have adapted to the market, the prices have come way down. There are hundreds of options at your disposal – patterns, world maps, jungle wallpaper, or maybe a flamingo paradise? Murals wallpaper offer a fantastic selection and each of the options are made to order to the size of the wall. You can expect a typical 3×2.6m wall to cost around £200 to £300. You only need to do one wall in something this powerful and colourful. Go simple for the other walls with plain white or a complimentary colour to the wallpaper. 

A cheaper alternative is to simply paint the wall using frogtape (or something similar) to make shapes with contrasting colours. You can do this with a simple line at the same height across the entire room. We’ve also seem homeowners create mountain peaks or interesting triangle shapes too. 

Lighting 

Lighting is another area you can be playful. There are loads of options for mood lighting. This means fairy lights and novelty night lights (basically lights that don’t have the responsibility to light the room). Notonthehighstreet.com has some wonderful options that include dinosaurs and polar bears. Ceiling lighting can also be bold, we love these balloon lights from beautifulhalo.com. Again, if you would rather keep it more generic so you can re-use the lightshade for a teenager at a later stage, keep it on the simpler side.  

Rugs

Rugs are versatile and can be moved around the house easily. You can go for a colourful yet sophisticated style so you can use it for the years to come. Bold patterns and bright colours are often used on rugs. Therugseller.co.uk do some wonderful patterned rugs. They also do the children specific ones if you can’t resist! If you do go for a more child orientated one, try and find a thinner material which gives you the colour and design, but without the hefty price. There are lots of rugs made from linen or cotton which are designed to go on top of a carpet. These helps protect your higher value items (the permanent carpet), and you can simply throw the rug away when it becomes damaged or worn. 

Beds

Beds are not something you want to invest heavily in with children. They grow quickly, trust me! Ikea do a wonderful bed that you can adjust as your child grows. If you want to go for a novelty option, you can find beds in all shapes and sizes nowadays. Cars, jungles, princess castles… Happybeds.co.uk does a variety of options, but we warn you that their taste might change faster then their size! 

At Home Tales, we would be delighted to assist with interior design if you wish. We can help with as little, or as much as you would like. Call our team on 0207 043 2378 or email us at hello@hometales.co.uk.