How To Renovate

EP73 Designing Kids’ Bedrooms That Grow With Them

• Tash South

Share episode

Send us a text

Today I dive into into a space that’s often joyful, chaotic, and ever-changing — kids' bedrooms. I'm sharing advice on how to design children's bedrooms that grow and adapt over time, without constant costly overhauls.

You’ll learn how to collaborate with your kids, how to build a smart, flexible foundation with lighting, furniture, and layout, and why adaptable storage and modular design are absolute lifesavers. 

Whether you're starting with a nursery or refreshing a tween’s space, this episode will help you design a room that will grow with your child.

What We'll Cover:

  • Why collaboration with your kids (even little ones!) is key — and how to do it without committing to Barbie wallpaper forever.
  • How to create a flexible base that saves time, money, and stress over the years.
  • Lighting planning tips for every age and stage.
  • The magic of multi-stage furniture and adjustable storage systems.
  • How to leave space for change — hobbies, growth spurts, and everything in between.
  • Why vintage pieces can bring charm and personality to modern kids' rooms.

*******************


Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together.


Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


Or if you want to get social, you can find us here:

Instagram: @southplacestudio

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-place-studio

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/southplacestudio

Tash South:

Hello everybody, welcome back to the How to Renovate podcast. Today we're talking about kids' bedrooms. I'll be discussing from toddler to teen how you can design your kids' room that really grows with them. Now, kids' bedrooms can be quite tricky spaces to design because I find that when of course you have a new baby in the house, you want this gorgeous nursery if you're lucky enough to have the space, and people kind of go all out sometimes in designing that space for this tiny little baby, which is lovely obviously, but then that very quickly changes. What kids need as they get older changes quite quickly, actually. And so I just thought I'd do this episode so you can kind of future-proof a little bit, so still have those joys of designing for your little one or your newborn, but always in mind that obviously they're going to grow and they'll have different needs and different layouts and need different things and different storage as they get older and older. So let's get into the episode. Let's talk about number one, take a breath. There's always some room to collaborate. And this really means that you know it's so nice to be able to include your kids in the decision about what you're going to be doing in their bedrooms. So, of course, this is for when they're older and they can say what they really want. And then, you know, it's if you just let kids design their own bedrooms, it would be a little bit crazy, obviously, depending on what age your child is. Let's say it's a two or three-year-old, you might end up with all Pokemon or all Barbie or or whatever it may be. So this is where the collaboration part comes in. You need to kind of think of ways that you can incorporate what they want, but in a flexible way, so that if they change their mind in two months' time, that the whole room is not wallpapered in Barbie wallpaper or Pokemon wallpaper. So obviously, you want to work with what they want, but those elements of those phases that they go through need to be the things that can be easily swapped out as they get older and older. But collaboration here is really lovely, it makes them feel like they're involved in their space, it gives them ownership of their space, it kind of gives them some choices as to what they would like to put into their space, how they would like it designed, where they would want things. So I think to give your child that ownership and that responsibility to choose and to show them that this is their home too, I think is really important for them as well. So let's move on to the next point. So the next point is number two to start with a really good, flexible base. So what I mean by this is that the kind of the base of the room, the materials, the built-ins, if you think ahead and make all of those things really good and functional, then you can build on that as the child grows, you can change a few things around as they get older. But by base, I mean good flooring, whether it's wooden flooring or carpet that's perhaps a little bit more neutral, and then you can bring in the other interesting parts in other ways. So good flooring, whether it's wood or carpet, you want good storage, is there a place you can put in a floor to ceiling built-in that can really adapt as they get older, and then you can be flexible with the loose pieces of furniture. So, for example, you can have a changing table that can be swapped out for a good chest of drawers later down the line. So if you think about the really expensive parts like the parts that are attached, like the flooring, the built-ins, make sure those are really good, really well planned, really well thought out about how it could function for you now and how we could function in the future as well as the child gets older and older. And another thing that's really important here is a really good lighting plan. So if you are renovating from scratch and you are at the point where you want to be doing wiring or putting in new circuits or new lights, this is also great to think through in your kids' bedrooms because the lighting will also change as they get older. Obviously, if they're little babies, they don't need that much lighting. Usually they just need kind of quite a dim room, not much light in there. But as they get older, once they go to school, they need an area to do homework, so we need some perhaps some wall sconces, or somewhere you need to be wired in to have a socket to have a lamp on the desk. They need to have a bedside lamp, so you need to make sure that there are sockets placed around the room. So wherever the bed might be placed, there's an opportunity to plug in a lamp, or perhaps there's another wall sconce, or a different light source wired into the walls. So really think about not only the lighting but also how things might move and change, how you might move the furniture when you swap from a cot to a bed, or how you might change the furniture around if you're moving from having a changing table to having a desk, perhaps. So try and think ahead, think about how the room can be used in different ways, be flexible with it, but also just make sure that you've got wiring in lots of different places so that you can give yourself that flexibility when you need it. And then also a really good point here is to get a great bed. So get a bed that they can change from a cot bed to a toddler bed, and then maybe you only need to change over to a slightly larger bed when they are much older, like when they are perhaps school starting stage, or maybe six or seven. So think about that in terms of flexibility and functionality as well. Furniture that can kind of change and adapt with you. You know, I'm sure you've seen those amazing built-in beds where they're built-in cabin beds and they've got gorgeous woodwork around and curtains and drapery, and those do look gorgeous, but they're quite expensive to have built in and made, and as your kid gets older, they become a little bit more unsuitable because obviously, as they grow, perhaps you've got some sort of arch that they need to climb through to get into bed, or if they have friends over, those can become a little bit awkward to use. So think a bit ahead about that as well. Perhaps you can achieve that look by doing something different. Perhaps you have a cot bed or standard bed and you can use some drapery around it that can be either changed or removed. And so just think really carefully about you know how you want to spend your money because those cabin beds or those built-ins are really expensive to have made, bespoke. Or you can think about how you can make things more flexible for you if you're thinking long term about how you can perhaps spend that money on other things that might make the room more fun or more usable for your child. And then once you have that strong base, you can be flexible with it, can't you? So you can change up the elements like we talked about in the point before. Whether it's wallpaper, perhaps you don't wallpaper the whole room, perhaps you have some mouldings that are in a shape of rectangles or squares, and inside the moulding you will put the patterned wallpaper and everything else is painted a different colour. So that way, if you are getting a bit tired of the wallpaper, or maybe it's a bit young as a kid's getting older, you can swap the wallpaper out for a different wallpaper that's maybe a little bit more grown up, or you can just remove the wallpaper completely and just repaint within that moulding, or even the entire room if you want to change the colour. So thinking about these things ahead and about how you can carefully use those elements that will definitely need to be changed as your child gets older can really future-proof and save you lots of money as well when you're designing your kids' bedrooms. Something I also love doing in kids' bedrooms is once you have that great base sorted, is to source some beautiful vintage pieces. I just think it gives a kid's bedroom so much character. Whether it's a painted chest of drawers that maybe was handed down to you by a grandparent or an aunt, or whether it is perhaps a beautiful single bed and you can get a new mattress for it, or perhaps it's a piece of artwork that might be suitable for the child's bedroom. I remember in my daughter's bedroom we had so obviously our house is quite modern, but when we moved in, and my eldest was quite young, so she was about five or six when we moved into the house, we became the custodians of the most beautiful handmade wooden antique rocking horse, and we kept this for my husband's aunt for quite a few years in her bedroom, and just the contrast of her quite modern white minimal bedroom with some gorgeous wallpaper, with a contrast of this kind of dark wooden rocking horse was just so beautiful. So, think about how you can incorporate some character as well, some unusual pieces. It doesn't have to be all kiddie furniture in there, you can mix it up and still have it suitable for your child, but still have it have some character as well. So having that strong base and then having the changeable elements is definitely one of my top tips. And I know because my youngest daughter, Mickey, she went through a phase of changing her mind completely every four to six months. She would ask for her bedroom to be first completely Spider-Man, then completely Pokemon, then completely Minecraft. And so obviously, we didn't do all of those, but we had a good strong base. So what I did is I just included some elements into her room, like artworks of those characters, perhaps a cushion here or there, or a soft toy, or some other little figurines dotted around. So she got the feeling that her room had those elements included, but really the base was still quite neutral and it was functional and it could work as a backdrop against any of those. Number three, let's talk about multi-stage furniture and smart adaptable storage. So I've covered a little bit of this already, but let's go a bit deeper into it. So, like with a cot that changes into a bed as your kid gets older, there are various pieces of furniture that you can do this with, whether it's a desk that you can adjust the leg's heights on so that it gets taller as they get older. That's a great idea as well. Also, wardrobes, as we spoke about, any wardrobes with built-ins, any kind of internal fixtures, make sure that they're movable. So make sure the hanging rails can be moved up or down as they grow, as you maybe want to incorporate more drawers, more shelves. So just make sure you've got some flexibility on your internals as well. Because as their needs change, you'll need more adaptable internals. So as they get older, you'll need more hanging space, you'll need more shelves. When they're younger, you need a few more drawers. So just think ahead and think about how you can incorporate all of those and how the elements like the hanging rails and the shelves can be adjustable. And of course, kids come with clutter, so your storage has got to be good. Really think ahead about how you're going to store all of those Legos, all of those soft toys, all of those board games. They come with so much stuff, and believe me, every single birthday we get about 10% more stuff into our house that we need to deal with. So think ahead, think about all those things you may need to store. Their school supplies, their toys, their books, their clothes, they come with so much stuff. So try and have a place for everything that can change as they get older. So obviously, as they get older, they might not want the Legos anymore, and you can swap it out for something else, maybe some books. So always find a combination of closed and open storage is quite nice. I have quite a lot of closed storage in the kids' bedrooms because it's a lot of clutter, but then also just a few open elements, open shelves where they can display some of the pretty things they want to, or some of the soft toys that they want to have on display, or little trinkets or whatever they might have that they want to display some of what they like and their personality in places that they can see those. Another great idea is to use modular storage, so something that can be used on its side, or also vertically. Perhaps those shelves from IKEA where you can get the baskets that slot into the shelves, those can be used on their side as a bench. You can put a cute cushion on top, or they can be used vertically if you suddenly need more floor space. I've done this loads of times in my kids' bedrooms. I have a couple of those, and we kind of swap them around as their needs have changed through the years, and they're just so flexible, and they make a great little spot to store books as well, not just the basket. So you can have a combo of the closed storage, the baskets, and you can have some open sections as well for their books. So just think thinking about choosing your furniture that can kind of multitask for you in kids' bedrooms is particularly helpful and important. And then last one, number four, is to leave space for hobbies, for homework, for growth spurts. So, like I just talked about in the previous point, is this is where that flexible furniture really comes in. So think about your built-in storage first, that good base, so you can always have good storage, and then it's almost like the movable pieces are a bit of a bonus, and those are the pieces that keep moving around and changing as the child gets older. And then that way you can always have some flexible floor space depending on what your child is like. Perhaps they like getting stuff out on the floor, playing on the floor, perhaps they like being at a desk and drawing, perhaps they like just having some space to do cartwheels or whatever. So you can then adapt if you have some flexibility within your space and you have that combination of some built-in and some movable, you can move and change the room around as your child gets older and as they develop, and you can see what they like doing and what they don't like doing in the bedrooms, and you can work with it and really give them that space and that freedom to use their bedrooms and live in their bedrooms like they want to, so that they can enjoy their space within the home as well. Because their activities are constantly changing, much like as they get older, the toys change, the activities change as well. So they could go from loving crafts one year and wanting a table to do crafts on to loving music the next few months or the next year, and then suddenly you've got to get a drum kit or a keyboard or some sort of musical instrument storage in there. So it really does change, and you just need to be a little bit more flexible with it, and I think that way you'll save yourself some frustration as well because you'll know that you've kind of planned for it a little bit, you thought ahead at the stage of planning your nursery, perhaps, and also saved yourself a bit of money because it's expensive to change things around so regularly. So just make sure that you're leaving some of the elements that are not part of your strong base necessarily to be adaptable and movable so that it can move and grow and develop with your child. But that everybody brings us to the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Bit of a short one this week. I wanted to cover really quickly how you could really get into making your kids' bedrooms better. If you like the episode and you found it valuable, please do give us a subscribe, a comment, a like. If you leave me a review, I read every single one of them. So I look forward to seeing your comments in the reviews if we've helped you out today. And perhaps if you know someone who's designing a kid's bedroom right now or a nursery, please share this episode with them as well. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. I can't wait to see you in the next episode of How to Renovate. Bye for now. For more information on my five-pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudio.com forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudio.com forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on um planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.