Designing Children's Rooms

Coming up with new ideas for your child's room, let alone putting them into action, can seem overwhelming. But Errol Hendrickse, an interior designer on GMTV's popular Hand Over Your House series and one of TV's hottest new interior designers, believes it needn't be a nightmare task.

"I find designing children's rooms great fun, as you can be really creative," he says. "You can have fun, play with color, come up with themes and create unique rooms." Although famed for his exuberant use of color, when it comes to children's rooms, he recommends a base colour of a neutral shade, using color in the furniture, accessories and one wall, rather than on all the walls.

"When you're designing a child's bedroom it's always good to remember to try and keep it as neutral as possible," he advises. "Kids are obviously going to grow up and start to develop their own personalities and likes and dislikes, so by keeping things relatively neutral you can easily add and take away elements as the child gets older."

For example, "Football colors are great, but consider adding them in on a pillow rather than on the walls," he suggests. "You can easily change a pillow at a later date rather than having to change wallpaper, which will cost you a lot more money. Or, if you have a child of two or three years old who loves Winnie the Pooh, add little themed bits and bobs in the room that will keep the child's interest. Then as she gets older, remove the things she grows out of and replace with new items."

Having neutral walls needn't mean having no color in the room at all - far from it. In fact it just gives more opportunities for using it in other inventive and imaginative ways. "For a little boy of six you could have the walls a lovely cream color, then have a really funky blue bunk bed with tons of storage underneath. For more storage you can do funky primary color boxes, which double up not just as storage by also as seats, adding a novelty factor to the room."

In one of the rooms he designed for a child in Epsom, he created a wonderful cloud theme with a sky scene on the ceiling. Rather than just having plain, ordinary mirrors, he created cloud shapes made out of MDF and padded into shape. This is another example of an element that can be changed easily at a later date, when the child wants a different sort of mirror.

Starting points

Before launching straight into a project, as a starting point, Errol recommends making a list of all the things the child is going to need, such as bed, bookcase, desk, storage, wardrobe, mirror and a unit for a stereo, then designing the room around them. "Then you'll have a tick list to follow and you can work out how you can make the space and work with the area you've got."

Even a small room can be effective, he adds, especially as there are some great bunk beds in existence and you can go up in order to give them more space. When it comes to safety issues, "One of the key things to remember is to not use glass mirrors, because they're incredibly dangerous for children," he says. Instead, you can opt for plastic mirrors which, although a bit more expensive than glass, are much safer.

The price of paint, soft-furnishings and accessories can put some people off, but Errol believes you can still create top-notch, designer-looking kids rooms without spending a fortune. "A lot of people shy away from high street products, but there are some fantastic and really child-friendly things out there. They're cheap and cheerful, but if it only lasts three years, that's okay as the child will outgrow it anyway."

Likewise, "Don't be over-elaborate with fabrics either," he advises, "as, again, it's only going to get messed up. There are some fantastic cottons out there from the high street that you can chuck away after a few years, yet still have the designer effect."

As far as actually doing the work goes, Errol optimistically believes most people could attempt a lot of it themselves. However, if DIY really isn't your forte, or you're stuck as to how to go about creating specialized beds or doing fiddly building, then getting an expert in to help you certainly could be worthwhile.

So, if you're inspired to transform your kid's room from dull and dreary to a creative fantasy, why not get your thinking cap on, grab your paintbrush and get going!

By Rachel Newcombe