Cool and Functional Children's Room. Storage Solutions and Other Tips.

A schoolchild spends a lot of time in their room, which is why the children's room must be both stylish and functional.

• Design together with your child

The most important thing when designing a child's room is to involve the future resident of that room in all decision-making. What color will the walls be? Does your child want to sleep in a regular bed or a bunk bed? And so on.

Your job as a parent is to make sure your child's wishes don't get out of hand, but we remind you to find the child within yourself when planning this room. You're not designing this room for yourself, after all, but for your child.

• Create plenty of storage space

A schoolchild has a lot of various items that need their own place. If you live in an apartment and don't have much large storage space, you should take this into account when planning your child's room.

Here are some ideas:

Shelves above the bed

You could place boxes with items there that aren't used daily, such as seasonal clothes, sports equipment (rarely used) or old toys. (All toys should have some waiting time before being passed on to reuse. Maybe you or your schoolchild will want to keep something as a memento.)

Equip the boxes with labels if you don't want to use transparent boxes. We think that transparent boxes on open shelves might make the room look too cluttered overall.

One option is to arrange soft animals on the shelves above the bed, but your schoolchild may not have any stuffed animals at all. Well, maybe one, but its place is in bed.

Wardrobe

The wardrobe should only hold seasonal clothes and school clothes to save space and keep an eye on things better.

Drawer box under the desk

Drawers have a tendency to start collecting all sorts of useless clutter, so you should clean them out at the start of the school year with your child and divide items into separate groups, such as notebooks, drawing supplies, pencils, etc. It's also smart to label the drawers.

Bookshelf

You can nicely arrange both children's books and school textbooks here, and there will certainly be room left over for smaller boxes where you can put all sorts of crafting materials or other odds and ends.

Storage bench

By this we mean a box that you can sit on and also put things inside at the same time.

Under-bed storage boxes

These are also suitable for storing the same kind of items as on the shelves above the bed, but since under-bed storage boxes are more easily accessible, you can also keep everyday items there, such as sports clothes. Since under-bed storage boxes are somewhat hidden, you can use transparent boxes there.

• Make better use of the under-bed space

You can make even better use of the under-bed space if you build your child a higher bed that you can access by ladder. This instantly brings a whole lot of extra space. Under the bed you can create a play or reading corner or build a system of drawers there.

• Desk in the brightest location

The best place for a desk is under the window, as this way the work surface gets plenty of light. Don't forget a desk lamp and place it on the left side for a right-handed child and on the right side for a left-handed child. This way the shadow from your hand won't fall on your writing.

If you've decided to buy your child a computer, the desk should also have space for writing. This is very important. You can't write in a notebook while sitting on your lap or on top of a keyboard.

• Teepee tent

If your child has a slightly larger room, you can place a teepee or Indian tent there. Younger children find it fun to play in, and older children might just hang out there or chat with friends in secret.

• Consider your child's personality

Definitely take into account your child's interests and preferences. Maybe you need a separate corner for painting or crafting, for example.

Try to take their wishes into account regarding wall color too. We've even written a separate post about color psychology in children's rooms, which you can read here.

• Your child's own gallery

Choose some of your child's drawings or other works of art together and have them framed. Maybe they will decorate the children's room walls for a few years before posters of pop stars push them out.