I have perhaps the tiniest chip on my shoulder about kids’ room decoration. My pet peeve is photos of children’s rooms which are only too great and tidy and design-y to be even remotely real.
I am all for aspirational photography, and that I understand that the room must look its best for design shots. But what I really love are kids’ rooms which look like perhaps real kids live in them. They’re adorable and practical and nicely designed, but they aren’t museum pieces.
Listed below are a collection of my favourite kids’ rooms which look as though they belong to actual kids. Stuff.
Amplio
Children do not do subtle. They do bright and joyful. When picking colors keep them glowing (and consider mixing brights and pastels). You do not instantly notice a colour scheme in this area, but it is there.
The Sky is the Limit Style
When you use a great deal of colour in the decoration, a lot of these kids’ “messes,” like books and toys, blend into the overall patchwork of the room. Instead of being distracting, they are part of the big picture.
Fotograf Lisbet Spörndly
Exude visual chaos with numerous colours, patterns and textures. If you go with it, you can achieve a lovely and exuberant equilibrium even when there’s no clear focal point.
Savannah Surfaces
This room is modern and lovely, but it also has places for kids’ stuff — shelves, bins and large under-the-bed drawers.
CHIC Redesign
This borders on aspirational fantasy room with that built-in loft and design-minded wallpaper. But it makes room for a real kid with all that storage and colour and clever use of space.
Jute Interior Design
This is another borderline room. To have a room like this presumes that no one ever gave your kid a giant, ugly plastic toy which somehow you have managed to convince the kids to collect only neutral-colored objects and paint in only pretty pastels. But I enjoy it because it shows how a cohesive colour scheme can help make a room look “done” even when it is cluttered.
Kate Jackson Design
The area that Ikea built. Whatever your view of the giant, you can’t beat it for vibrant, playful children’s design. The items might not continue forever, but neither does childhood.
White or neutral walls are a good balance for the jumble of colour and textures in many children’s rooms. See that the leaf-green accent color helps bring together all of the other colours present here.
Wind and Willow Home
Well designed and nicely symmetrical but not too ideal. And the bins. There is nothing more useful in a kids’ room than bins. Nothing.
Earth Fur
It’s possible to include design-savvy elements such as this Kartell FL/Y light in a children’s room. In fact, obtaining a single, amazing focal point can be a wonderful foil to each of the clutter. And, needless to say, bins. Always bins.