Children's Rooms

I HAVE BEEN REALLY ENJOYING DESIGNING A CHILDREN'S PLAYROOM FOR ONE OF MY CLIENTS. IT’S A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO BE CREATIVE WITH COLOUR, PATTERN AND WITH WALL COVERINGS AND FABRICS. SO IN THIS NEWSLETTER I THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE SOME HINTS AND TIPS FOR CREATING GREAT ROOMS FOR KIDS –HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM
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IDEAS FOR CHILDREN'S ROOMS:

• Very young children don’t need really expensive wall coverings and fabrics in their rooms. In fact they will probably benefit from changing their surroundings from time to time. For example use posters to brighten up their walls, hang colourful mobiles etc.
  

• Once children get to school age, they will need their room to have a more personal feel. By creating somewhere they love to be you should have less trouble at bed times etc. This still doesn't mean spending the earth though. For walls what about painting in your child’s favourite colour and then using wall stickers to add interest and fun? Wall stickers are becoming really popular now, and are available in a variety of fabulous designs. Here are a few designs that are available from http://www.aspace.co.uk/
  

• Rather than spend loads of money on curtains and poles etc for your child’s room, how about a fairly inexpensive roller blind instead? You can personalise these in a variety of ways –from hand painting with your child, sticking ribbons on the bottom edge, using feather trim along the bottom edge, or stencilling all over the blinds.
  


• You can never have enough storage in a child’s room! There are so many things on the market that are really useful for toy storage, but if you are not careful the boxes and crates can all start to look a bit messy. Ideally buy enough of the same size box so that they stack well and look tidy. To help your child you can stick pictures of what is inside the box onto the outside. Ikea have some great storage ideas for young children that can actually be really useful for older ones too!
  
  
  

• Children spend so much time playing on the floor. Carpets are expensive to replace, but rugs can be a great way of adding colour and fun to the room, whilst giving your little one somewhere clean and warm to play. If you don’t spend too much on a rug, then after a year or so, you could replace it with something cleaner if required. These lovely rugs are from Aspace.

• Most children accumulate a large quantity of books from an early age. Buy a reasonable sized books case for your child’s room, and remember to fix it securely to the wall (some toddlers think bookcases are remarkably like ladders) When your child is young, the lower shelves can be used for soft toys and books whilst the higher out of reach shelves can be great place to store special toys and mementos. As the child gets older, the shelves can be used for more books, ornaments, collections in storage baskets etc.
  
  

• If your child is lucky enough to have a playroom as well as a bedroom then you may need to think about seating and work spaces as well. Consider buying a table top from Ikea along with the height adjustable legs that they sell. That way your table can start off low, and “grow” with your child.
  
  

• Any sofas etc that you have in your kid’s playroom will get a lot of wear and tear! Consider loose covers that are washable, and if possible buy a spare set so that you can keep the sofa looking reasonable for longer. Another tip is that although cushions look lovely all lined up on a sofa –your child will constantly throw them on the floor! Only have them if you don’t mind them looking untidy in between times.
  
  
• Of course if you really want to go to town there are some lovely children fabric and wallpaper ranges available to suit all tastes and budgets. Here are a few examples of these ranges that are available from DESIGN FOCUS. http://www.interior-design-focus.co.uk/
  

Top tips for choosing window treatments

Choosing window treatments for your home can be confusing as there are so many things to think about. Here are my top tips to help you get a great window treatment for your room.

1. Look carefully at your window in the context of the whole room. Small rooms do not merit over fussy bulky curtains as they visually take up too much room. Similarly very large grand rooms will look sparse if the curtains are too thin and flimsy.

2. Look at whether you have much “stack back” room for your curtains. This is the space either side of the window that your curtains fill when fully open. If you do not have very much stack back you may wish to choose curtains that are less bulky, a curtain heading that compacts well or perhaps a roman blind would be better.

3. When choosing a pole for your curtains make sure it’s up to the job. A pole with a small diameter will not look right with interlined luxurious curtains, and probably won’t be up to the job of holding the weight of this type of curtain.

4. Measure your windows carefully. Take down all the necessary dimensions as per the diagram below and give them to your designer or curtain maker. Better still if possible get them to take the measurements for you.

5. When choosing patterned fabric consider the scale of the pattern. Large scale patterns work better on large drop curtains or blinds where the pattern has room to be repeated. However on some occasions if a large design can be centred on a blind it will look really spectacular. Small scale patterns can look very busy on large curtains or blinds and are usually better suited to short length curtains and blinds.

6. Generally speaking curtains and blinds should be lined unless made from sheer fabrics that are designed to let the light through. Think about how your curtains will look from the outside and try to use the same colour lining throughout the house.

7. For bedrooms blackout lining is a good choice allowing less light to penetrate the room.

8. Silk curtains and very luxurious window treatments are better interlined. This means they have a layer of thick “wadding between the face fabric and the lining. Interlining curtains protects the face fabric from the sun, prevents heat loss from the room and helps the curtains hang well.

9. If you have set you heart on a particular fabric that works out too expensive when made into full length curtains you could consider either making it into a roman blind and using a less expensive fabric as curtains. Alternatively you could use a less expensive co-ordinating fabric as a wide border at the bottom of the curtains.

10. When deciding on the type of curtain headings you are going to have to think carefully about the atmosphere you are creating in the room. Pinch pleats, goblet pleats and cartridge pleats are more formal types of heading than tab tops, pencil pleats, slot headings or eyelet headings.