Children and their Bedrooms, Best buys.

Spendless

Some time this year I want to decorate both childrens bedrooms. I have a 3bed house, DS (7) has a double bedroom, DD (4) has the single room. I want some ideas for space saving ideas, what other members have thought was a good buy and what was a waste of money. I've always had beds that have space underneath, which is where I've put their toys. This has made the room neater, when they are tidied away but my youngest has struggled with realising her toys are under there, cos they are not on show and you can't put tall toys under them.

Mine have always changed their mind who they are into, winnie the pooh, tarzan, buzz lightyear, dora. So I'm glad I've always 'ringed the changes' by changing duvet covers and accessories rather than having to strip wallpaper or borders.

I have thought of buying the wardrobes with drawers underneath, so I am taking up less floor space.

I'm putting this in families board, instead of 'in my home' cos I also want some ideas of what both boys and girls grow into. Aged 7 my son plays with lego, PS, watches dvds and prefers non-fiction books and likes making 'mdels' out of crayons and paper and whatever else he can find. At 4 my daughter is dolls and cuddly toys mad. Sometimes plays with dressing up clothes.

What did you find you needed space for when they got beyound my 2s current ages.

Thanks.

Carmina_Piranha_3

intead of putting toys under the high sleeper i put the wardrobe and cupboard under there. now that he's older he has a futon and a computer desk under there, but it's a VERY high bed. you can get beds that have the wardrobe etc. underneath.

for a cuddly toy fan what about those hanging mesh things? put a hook in the ceiling and fill it with cuddlies, you can stuff loads of them in there and when she outgrows them it can be used for other stuff.

by the way i found wardrobes with drawers underneath were too tall for my son - he could never reach the rail so he couldn't get his own clothes or hang them up himself. i got him a tallboy instead, it holds the same amount of stuff but has a shorter wardrobe bit - not much good for long dresses i suppose but my son doesn't have many

you can put something on top of the tallboy then - he has a stereo (for listening to story tapes at bedtime - he doesn't have a TV in his room) and a night light.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Do you have any charity shops or auctioneers nearby which sell furniture? I find that good quality oldish solid wood furniture often costs about the same as brand new flimsy chipboard/ cardboard/ plastic stuff, but the former will tolerate plenty of the kind of abuse that kids will inflict on it, whereas cheaply made items might need replaced after a few years. The one great advantage of chipboard is that woodworm don't like it. A wardrobe unit with drawers and cupboard space at the side rather than underneath will allow for hanging longish clothes within kids' reach.
For toy storage, an old blanket chest or ottoman is useful. Light items without sharp edges (cuddly toys etc) can be kept in the mesh type storage thingies which let the child see which toys are where without having to pull them all out.

crockpot

I too am wanting some childrens furniture- well wardrobe and bedside cabinet.

Going to do my 7 1/2 year old Ds first- he has the box room.

Was thinking of painting over the wallpaper with `basecoat` for walls and then just havings it plain, 1 or 2 shades of blue.

Then maybe changing curtains for a blind-as not too much room at sides- also more grown up?

His room is 6 foot 6 wide so can only have a normal divan down 1 side, he did look at highsleepers-but not many will fit and he did not like the idea of sleeping with his nose on the roof.

Which do you think is best a bed with drawers under? a slidestore or a bed you can put boxes under?

I was thinking of getting a bed with a plastic topped matress? are they anygood? he still wets the bed some times-and no matter what i cover it with-some of it gets on the matress.late bedwetting runs in the family-and i am not going down the hospital route.

thanks for the tip about wardrobes with drawersunder and kids not being able to reach the hanging rail- I was thinking of going down that route- but as we are all on the shortside-not a good idea!

Any ideas where to buy good cheapish new stuff-want it to match.

Was thinking of a 3 door wardrobe-2 doors hanging space-1 door shelves and a small 2 drawer bedside cabinet.

Want stuff to last till he leaves home!

rio

We painted our little one's room when he was on the way and then used removable stickers to personalise it, this way it has moved from being a jungle room to a Thomas room to a dinosaur room without necessitating a complete redecoration, just a bit of touching up here and there. I would recommend neutral curtains and lampshades etc to go with the colour scheme.

Spendless

crockpot-your son is a similar age to mine. If he is like mine and doesn't need the space for toys anymore, you could buy a bed with drawers. Not sure what a slidestore is.

I have already got blinds in my daughters small bedroom and they do save space. BTW if your small room is like mine have you measured to see if a bed will go underneath window, that's what I've done, which does give more floor space.

CMP - Thanks I've never noticed anywhere selling old furniture, but then I've not been looking either. Will keep an eye out.

Carmina-Thanks for idea about tallboy. I'll have a look. At min I doubt my daughters dresses will be a problem.

The mesh baskets, are these the sort that hang from ceiling. We did have some, but I'd never put them up, as I always thought they'd fall straight down. Are they good? I'll have to see if I can find ours.

Thanks for ideas so far folks :T Keep them coming.

Carmina_Piranha_3

i don't know how many books they have but a real space saving idea for us has been a tidybooks book case behind the door. we have it in our living room but that's because roo is under 2 and spends his time with us in the living room. it's expensive for a bookcase but it's only 7cm deep (has to be drilled into the wall to stop it falling over though) so it can go right behind a door.

http://www.tidy-books.com/about_tidybooks.html

you can get it plain, without the alphabet on

Coolmum66

Hi all

In our previous house there was not enough room for a full size bed to fit across the room. In IKEA they sell kind of extendable beds that extend to just under full bed length. With a matress is was around £80.

They also sell the mesh hanging things. And load of storage "things". My son is still into lego - so I bought 3 storage units where you buy plastic boxes and slide them into it. The boxes come in 3 depths and you can get lids as well. The storage units are called TROFAST and the frame is £30

If you have a Dunelms store locally - they sometimes have really good offers on curtains and bedding

Hope this helps!

nearlyrich

Just a thought your DD will probably have a lot more stuff (clothes etc) as a teen than your son, it might be a good plan to swap rooms now before they get to this stage as teens can be awkward. (understatement alert)

My two have identical sized bedrooms, not massive but big enough, when they were younger they had divan beds with sliding door storage. My DH had just built a large wardrobe in my DDs room to make it a bit more grown up, DS hasn't decided if he wants his changed yet.

Js_Other_Half

We went for a wardrobe system for IKEA when we were furnishing our spare room when we moved in. Now we have our DS, we have altered it by putting in more drawers etc. As he gets older we plan to replace them with shelves so he can put things back himself. (Well, a woman can dream...lol)

Spendless

nearlyrich wrote: »

Just a thought your DD will probably have a lot more stuff (clothes etc) as a teen than your son, it might be a good plan to swap rooms now before they get to this stage as teens can be awkward. (understatement alert)

Yes I have thought of that and she currently has more stuff than him now :rolleyes: . But we have already hit awkward stage and DS is not wanting to move regardless of how much we [STRIKE]bribe[/STRIKE] persuade him to. I don't really want to go down the tough that's what's happening route. I know wish I'd kept him in the smaler room when she was a baby, like it was suggested to me.