Hi readers of Lady’s Little Loves!
My name is Satinder and I work for Zillow writing about interior design, real estate, and home improvement. When I came across Shannon’s site, I immediately knew I wanted to offer her a design related guest post because her home is so beautifully put together. With a new baby on the way, a topic related to designing a nursery seemed like the obvious choice. While tons of resources exist about how to put together a nursery, most baby rooms cost a small fortune. I wanted to put together a budget-friendly post about how to design a timeless room for child instead. I hope these tips will help you create a room that will transition with your child throughout the years.
3 Ways to Create Timeless Kids Rooms
Kids grow up quickly and it can be tough to keep their bedrooms up to date with the times, their own styles or interests and within budget. Redecorating their rooms every couple of years can be costly and time consuming, even if you find great deals online or at consignment shops. When you have a baby on the way, you’re probably not thinking about what kind of décor they will need as a teenager. But, thinking ahead a few years can save a lot of money and effort long term.
Follow these three tips to create a room that transitions with your child from one stage of life to the next.
Buy Lasting Pieces for the Big Ticket Items
When it comes to the big pieces of furniture for your child’s room, opt for high quality, neutral pieces that hold up over time. Rather than spend a few hundred dollars every few years on a low-quality piece, splurge now to save long-term. Dressers, bookcases, side tables and lamps are all pieces worth spending more money on in the beginning.
Additionally, items designed for kids’ rooms are usually found in vibrant, gendered shades that won’t necessarily match more mature décor in a few years. If you pick up the main pieces in neutral shades, they are substantially more likely to work with the décor in your growing child’s room. Think about quality pieces that might pair with updated bedding, rugs and wall art.
Focus on the future instead of immediate needs – your infant won’t have an opinion anyway. By opting for pieces that might be initially more expensive, but high quality, you’ll spend less replacing items that get scuffed and deteriorate. You also solve problems before they occur; clothes for a 3-month old girl might fit in a tiny, pink dresser but not for your future 10-year-old.
Customize Easily Replaceable Pieces
In order to keep your child’s room appropriate for his or her age, focus on customizing items other than the big pieces of furniture. The inevitable items you’ll need to spend money on are bedding as your kid requires larger mattresses, overall décor themes that suit your child’s interests and other items that experience extra wear and tear throughout time. Expect to replace:
- Bedding: pillows, sheets and comforters need to be replaced periodically, so pick items that either fit your kid’s age or interests at that time.
- Wall art: buy a couple of neutral, quality frames and swap out the images whenever you want. This is a great project to work on with your child; have your kid pick out quotes, stock imagery or family pictures he or she wants to display.
- Rugs: not only do rugs get dirty and need replacing, they can help establish a color scheme. As your child gets new bedding and updates the walls, you can buy a new rug to match the theme.
Keep the Theme Consistent With Your Home
Kid’s rooms often stand out starkly from the rest of your home decor. It’s not uncommon for the design of a child’s bedroom to conflict with the design of the overall home; but that doesn’t have to be the case.
When decorating a room that contrasts with the rest of your home, you end up buying pieces exclusively for that room which costs more long-term. Think about when your kid grows up or changes tastes; you can’t bring that furniture out into the rest of your home or swap pieces back and forth. You’ll have to sell that designated furniture and buy new pieces for the updated space.
Instead of designing your child’s room in a silo, mix and match pieces from the rest of your home. Overall styles that blend seamlessly with hip kids’ rooms are art deco and eclectic decor. Consider the flexibility of moving furniture throughout the home or updating your family spaces with new pieces and reusing the slightly older furniture in your child’s room. Plus, more mature furniture ensures your teenager isn’t living in a room they have outgrown.
Children’s rooms don’t need an expensive décor refresh for every stage of their life. With a little planning before you decorate, and the willingness to diverge from tradition, you can save money and time through the years.
How have you extended the life of your child’s room? I’d love to hear from anyone who tries these tips or has other suggestions. We’re always working on new and creative content ideas about the things our readers are interested in at Zillow. Please leave a comment or get in touch with me through Shannon. In the meantime, I hope your creative juices are flowing—get busy designing!
I wish I would have made our kids’ rooms more versatile. I ended up re-doing them when they were toddlers, and again when they were tweens. Probably could have saved a lot of money had I planned ahead!