Children's Rooms

When our third child was on the way, we decided to add a bedroom to our home. The room we were planning for our new born son was immediately claimed by his oldest sister. We realized that in fairness our first born deserved first choice of rooms, at that point we began to reevaluate the design of the new room.

This was an epiphany since our mental image of the room changed immediately. In fact the babies room would soon become a toddler's room, then a preschooler's room, an elementary school child's room, then middle school...until eventually it could become a college student's room. In our planning, we went from wanting the room adjacent to the master bedroom for access to the baby, to realizing that our daughter would soon want distance and privacy from her parents(and vice versa). This is a lesson I try to pass on to my clients who are adding a children's' room to their home.

The toddler will be a high school student quicker than we think. Additional sound proofing is inexpensive during construction but costly afterward. Choosing layouts that work both for a small child and a young adult makes everyone's life easier. There are always compromises,but living with a poorly thought out home is the biggest compromise. Paint and furniture is easy to change, relocating rooms is hard.

The new bedroom we built is the place were my three children gather and where they bring their friends. There is no better reward for good design than to have your clients love their new space.

http://www.crisparchitects.com/ James M. Crisp, AIA is an architect working in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. He is the author with Sandee Mahoney of On The Porch, Creating Your Place to Watch the World Go By.