Build your child a dream bedroom

Buy or DIY, we inspire you mums and dads out there to build an awesome room for your little one

hen it’s time to give your kids their own room, you can’t just put in a bed and a bunch of cupboards for their toys or buy some cheap decals off Amazon. Where’s the fun in that?

The theme

This is the most fun part of doing up your kid’s room. With a little bit of hard work and creativity, you can save thousands of rupees. But remember, as parents, you can’t get carried away and project your preferences onto your kids. Try and find the middle ground.

The possibilities are endless: A treehouse theme from Frozen , the Harry Potter series or something straight out of the pages of an Enid Blyton novel.

However, stay in the zone so your children can learn to think creatively or methodically, which will set the foundation as they grow into adults. For instance, if want to do a theme on Star Wars , focus on the droids like R2-D2 or the spaceships rather than the battle elements. Your theme does not have to encompass the entire room, instead, just bring in small elements. If nothing else, you can use or make your own chalkboard paint in any colour and paint the walls, so your kids and you can have fun drawing on the walls.

Those without the luxury of an extra room can have fun too. All you need to do is designate a corner of the room for your kid’s bed. With a mini theme, by day it’s a nook and by night it’s a fun bed.

Plan

You may have seen videos of super dads with some insane skills, building tree houses and converting rooms into actual enchanted forests. If you’re a do-it-yourself type, then building something is easy. The rest of us will need to get a little creative.

The most essential in a kid’s room is the bed. You’ll also need cupboards (kid-friendly ones so they don’t jam their fingers) and a few drawers for storage but cubby holes and hiding places are a must. Kids love a cosy place to curl up and play in, and it’s a great place for them to go sulk.

In addition, kids love physical activities: perhaps a slide, or a mini jumping jack. For older children, you can have loft beds with ladders and a slide for coming down quickly to get ready for school. Maybe you can have cushioned floors and climbing pegs on the walls.

Every idea should be adequately buffered with safety and your kids should always have something to do to burn that energy. Also, if you created a fun, controlled environment for mischief, then they won’t even think of climbing on your kitchen cabinets!

The bed

Getting down to the nitty-gritty: the most important part of the room is the bed, and that should be attractive to your child. It has to be exciting, but also a place him to feel safe and sleep. So one strategy is to buy or place the bed first and build the room around it.

Urban Ladder has some pretty good readymade beds, one with a superb slide, called the Olaf Midsleeper. It’s a bed with height, and a little built-in study and cubbyhole. You also get beds in the shape of cars, boats and more, which makes your theme a bit easier to plan.

The study / play area

A table and chair in this case will suffice, however, some beds come with attached study tables. Those with space constraints can have a bunk bed, but instead of the lower bunk, you have a neat study nook. Some parents may want to completely omit the study area from the room, and would rather keep the space as a play area or reading nook. Instead, you can have the study area in the living room or on a kitchen table, under supervision.

That play area can be good, but can also get messy, so good storage disguised as seating is preferred.

Here are a few quick ideas to replicate

The pirate room

This is a tricky one which will require a lot of custom furniture or additions to existing furniture. You can start by adding a ship-like hull and body to an existing bed. Then hang ropes with climbing knots, and cushion the floors, so your kid can swing away to board and plunder vessels. Perhaps you can have a rope bridge thrown in for extra fun. Perfect for swashbuckling with your child, complete with an eye patch, peg-leg and parrot.

The camp-out

All you need to do is clad the room with bright woodland wallpaper and a carpet that looks like the ground with leaves made of cut cloth. Perhaps fake flowers and potted plants can complete the effect. At night, use a small star projector to put constellations on the ceiling. Your child can choose to sleep in the tent or ‘out in the open’ looking at the stars. The tent can be a teepee, igloo or even a normal tent with sleeping bag and all.

The princess castle

Palaces are always perfect for little princesses. Use DIY methods like plaster of Paris or cardboard to build little steeples. Or use cloth well to give an illusion of a sort castle over her bed.

The enchanted forest fairy tale

Similar in thought to the camp-out, but very different in execution. The entrance to the room can be disguised by a cupboard with the back cut out. There can be forest wallpaper around the room. If you can find small fallen branches, sandpaper and varnish them to mount them on the walls. You can also fashion the bed into a Fairy Godmother’s carriage or an enchanted carriage with various Victorian elements.

The space explorer

Repurpose all that old technology and invest in some LED lights. You’ve got a funky console on your hands. In case you’ve left behind the past, you can also use wood or cardboard. Perhaps have a built-in speaker with a tablet embedded so you can video and voice call from another room to make-believe fly to distant planets and go where no kid has gone before. To bring in the stars, use a starlight night light projector.

The playground

A great activity-based home with slides. Perhaps a part of the room can be filled with soft plastic balls to mimic a sandpit. Keep the bed slightly elevated, with a climbing jungle gym around the room. This ensures your kid is active all the time.

The tree house

Build it indoors if you don’t have a yard. Get an elevated bed fashioned into a house. You can perhaps find a tree stump fashion one out of wood or metal with a plaster of Paris exterior. If you are using a found tree trunk, make sure you treat it for termites and varnish it. Then add in fake leaves and, voilà, you have your very own tree house. Perhaps with a little balcony, and a rope bridge. The best part is the floor area is free for the kid to run around and play.