Baby Rooms

This ruddy red (marsala?) room color is quite nice, but perhaps not entirely suited to its 2-year-old occupant, Vera. Her mother, Petra Probstner, took a big risk and painted murals on all four walls mimicking the urban landscape of Chicago that lay outside the windows. The result is, frankly, breathtaking. Amazing, right?? As you can see in the progress photo below, she taped the mural off and then filled it in with grey, mint green and peachy-pink paint. Thanks for sharing, Petra Probstner!

Name: Romane (7) Location: Montreal (NDG), Quebec Romane grew up quite a bit since her first bedroom was featured on Apartment Therapy 3 1/2 years ago and our house changed quite a lot as well. This January, we had to move her to the tiny office space, at the back of our apartment, after opening up the living room into her bedroom (to set up the dining room there).

Name: Judah Location: Glasgow, Scotland Judah is 2 years old and looking for a good time. Luckily his mum, Lorna, and dad, Jack, both talented stationery designers (eyilove.com) are sympathetic to his needs. Judah’s space in their 2 bed Victorian tenement flat, a home that is warm and filled with color and personality, is wholly his own (though with another baby on the way it will soon be a play den for two).

Name: Archer Location: Los Angeles, California We bought our house when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Archer. Since then, we’ve completed a full gut renovation on the house, including new flooring and walling off a second doorway in Archer’s room. While those renovations were being completed, I had lots of time to come up with a plan for this room!

Name: Santiago (newborn) Location: Miami, Florida Making room for baby was a bit of a challenge in our 1,000 sq. ft apartment. We not only wanted to welcome our new baby with a cozy nursery, but we also had to incorporate a fully functional working home office for my husband, Carlos Pacheco, CEO of CapturePod. We wanted to create a space with a clean modern vibe with a little edge that Santiago could grow into.

Name: Atticus (4), Eleanor (3), & Ike (1) Location: London, UK We recently moved into a larger home and though we now have the space for each of our children to have his or her own room, we decided to keep them all together. They would be lost without each other – as it is they get upset if one wakes up late and the others aren’t there!

Name: Adrienne Designer: Sissy + Marley Location: New York City Welcome to Adrienne’s stylish digs. This young lady inhabits what is rightly described as “black, white and chic all over” by the design team Sissy+Marley. Fresh off the launch of their new line of wallpaper, the designers used their DROPS paper as the starting point for the room’s bold monochromatic palette.

Small bedrooms are always a challenge but a very narrow room has particular design obstacles to overcome. This bedroom, a former maid’s room in a pre-war building, is only 5’7″ wide – less than the length of a typical twin bed. The solution? A lofted space for sleeping leaving ample room for a workspace and storage for the young occupant. Casa Kids in Brooklyn took on this project with designer Roberto Gil at the helm.

Amanda’s boys had defaced this plain Jane dresser, so she decided to give it a heroic update with some super fabric: From Amanda: After years of carrying around these boring dressers that my children had graffitied, I figured it was time for a new look. A random stop into Walmart yielded the motivation I needed: 2 yards of Marvel comic book hero fabric. A little mod podge and some bright color paint was all I needed to make the magic complete.

So, you’ve decided your kids are going to share a room which means you have two beds (or a bed + crib) to fit into the room. The size and shape of the room may guide or dictate where you place the beds, but it’s worth taking a look at some different bed layouts to see if they spark inspiration for you. Probably the most traditional layout, this formation has a nice visual symmetry and conveys a sense of each child’s claim to the space being equal.

When I was little, I begged my mom for a bunkbed. If I had known about these sweet loft beds, I’m pretty sure I would’ve begged her for one of these. Not only does lofting your kid’s bed save space, but it also creates, within their room, a whole little world all their own, ready to be explored. Above: I am 30 years old and I would still like a bed that looks like this. Spotted on Home Design Board. A loft bed from Decoratualma makes space for plenty of storage below.

Project by: Taylor Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Just days before my scheduled c-section, we were finally finishing our daughter’s nursery. We wanted a room with lots of contrast, personality and DIY touches. We also knew we were working with a small space and so we wanted our choices to be high-impact and make a smart use of our limited floor space.

Project by: Allison Harlow of Curio Design Studio Project type: e-design Location: Miami, Florida This space provided lots of challenges! It was long and narrow, did not have a natural focal point and the budget needed to remain around $1000. To make things more complicated the client wanted to keep the gender of their baby a surprise and create a nursery that was modern, gender neutral, mature and utilized mostly neutral colors.

Changing tables aren’t usually very memorable which is why we like this simple idea for customizing and adding color to one. This nursery DIY is quick, non-permanent and only requires a pair of scissors and some yarn. The folks at bedding company Little Auggie gussied up this IKEA Gulliver changing table with four colors of yarn which they wrapped around the side dowels. You can create any pattern you fancy – perhaps an ombre or just one single color you love.

I don’t know about you, but my kids’ bedrooms always seem to get overtaken by new toys, clothes, and books after the holidays are over. And if your house is anything like mine (read: tiny), you’re probably fresh out of nooks and crannies to stash them in. Luckily, there are some really creative people out there who have found innovative ways to organize their nurseries and kids’ rooms on a budget.

Last week we rounded up the most popular girls’ bedrooms of the year and now it’s time to check out which boys’ rooms caught readers’ fancy the most. The top ten range from modern to traditional to un-categorizable. Check out the room →Where is it:Reader comment: Check out the room → Comfort & Simplicity in a Room for Four Brothers Where is it: North of Dallas, Texas Reader comment: “You just inspired me.

Name: Parker James Location: Olivebridge, New York Room Size: 14′ x 14′ Parker’s nursery combines all of the things that I love — the warmth of wood, clean, bright white walls, and colorful artwork, accents, and accessories. I love that his mom, Dana, was able to fill the space with toys and artwork that are fun and interesting for a small, developing mind, yet the space still feels comfortable for the adults who inhabit it as well.

When Emma’s family purchased this aging row house in Kingston, Ontario each of the three floors was a separate apartment. This room was occupied by a student and was filled with cheap furniture and textbooks. It needed a lot of love to match the vision she had for her 5-year-old son Angus’s space.

Name: Reid (6) & Ivy (3) Location: Prospect New Town (Longmont), Colorado My children had carefully designed individual rooms with pieces that were special to each of them. I spent a lot of time making them just right, so you can imagine how tough it was to make a move to a home with one less bedroom. Decorating their room meant more than just merging current pieces.

Dania was on the hunt for a rocker to go with the fresh blue and cream nursery she was planning for her new son. This old green vinyl rocker from her in-laws worked just fine…but wasn’t quite the look she was going for. And though she had never upholstered anything before, she tackled this task, and the result is impressive! From Dawn: The original chair came from her in-laws, and while it was in great functioning shape, the green vinyl upholstery wasn’t in the best shape.

Name: Finn (12) Location: Sydney, Australia Room Size: 4m x 3m I’ve been talking a lot lately about creating kids’ spaces that make both the grown ups and the kids happy, and Finn’s room may be the perfect example of just such space. Mom Simone worked together with her twelve-year-old son to create a space that is reflective of his personality and interests.

We did it! After endless deliberations about flooring — oak? bamboo? laminate? — an epic online and real life search for curtain fabrics, and several trips to IKEA (it was the cinnamon buns and free coffee before 10am that kept drawing me back!), we finally got our act together and got on with the real business of transforming Pearl’s room.

While most come here to see beautifully decorated children’s spaces, many of our readers still have a strong desire to make sure that kids’ rooms are still, well, for kids. While it’s understandable that design-conscious parents want their kids’ spaces to be just as stylish the rest of the house, it can be done without removing all of the fun.

Name: Jasper (7) Location: Sydney, Australia Room Size: 3m x 3.2m I always admire when a kid’s room is reflective of his interests, but still manages to be stylish. That’s one thing I’ve always struggled with reconciling — throwing Elsa and Anna all over the place and painting the room Barney purple just isn’t my idea of fun. Luckily I think my daughter and I have struck a good balance, and I bet the same can be said of Jasper and his mom, Simone.