Decorating Guides
10 Beautiful Rooms for Real Kids
Let's get real. Kids have stuff, and they're not always neat, but great decorating doesn't have to be a fantasy
I have perhaps the tiniest chip on my shoulder about kids' room decor. My pet peeve is photos of children's rooms that are just too perfect and tidy and design-y to be even remotely real.
I'm all for aspirational photography, and I understand that the room should look its best for design shots. But what I really love are kids' rooms that look like perhaps real kids live in them. They are cute and functional and well designed, but they are not museum pieces.
Here are a collection of my favorite kids' rooms that look like they belong to real kids. Kids who have stuff.
I'm all for aspirational photography, and I understand that the room should look its best for design shots. But what I really love are kids' rooms that look like perhaps real kids live in them. They are cute and functional and well designed, but they are not museum pieces.
Here are a collection of my favorite kids' rooms that look like they belong to real kids. Kids who have stuff.
Kids do not generally do subtle. They do bright and joyful. When choosing colors keep them bright (and consider mixing brights and pastels). You don't immediately notice a color scheme in this room, but it's there.
When you use a lot of color in the decor, much of the kids' "messes," like toys and books, blend into the overall patchwork of the room. Rather than being distracting, they are part of the big picture.
Embrace visual chaos with multiple colors, patterns and textures. If you go with it, you can achieve a lovely and exuberant balance even when there's no obvious focal point.
This room is modern and lovely, but it also has places for kids' stuff — bins, shelves and large under-the-bed drawers.
This borders on aspirational dream room with that built-in loft and design-minded wallpaper. But it makes room for a real child with all that storage and color and clever use of space.
This is another borderline room. To have a room like this assumes that no one ever gave your child a giant, ugly plastic toy and that somehow you've managed to convince the kids to collect only neutral-colored objects and paint in only pretty pastels. But I like it because it shows how a cohesive color scheme can help make a room look "done" even when it's messy.
The room that Ikea built. Whatever your opinion of the Swedish giant, you can't beat it for colorful, playful children's design. The items might not last forever, but neither does childhood.
White or neutral walls are a good balance for the jumble of color and textures in most children's rooms. Notice that the leaf-green accent color helps bring together all the other colors present here.
Well designed and nicely symmetrical but not too perfect. And the bins. There is nothing more useful in a kids' room than bins. Nothing.
You can include design-savvy elements like this Kartell FL/Y light in a children's room. In fact, having a single, beautiful focal point can be a nice foil to all the clutter. And, of course, bins. Always bins.