HOW TO DESIGN A DREAM CHILDREN’S ROOM

A child’s room fulfills several functions. In addition to the most basic activities such as sleeping, playing, or learning, and the necessary storage space, a child’s room also serves an educational function. Visually, it is necessary for the child and corrects the formation of aesthetic values. These requirements form my concept when designing a children’s space and furniture.

Space planning in the children’s room
The layout of the children’s room is determined by several features corresponding to the child’s age and the number of children. You could say that a children’s room is an apartment within an apartment. It brings together rest zones for sleeping, relaxation, activities such as studying, children’s play, and creative activities, and zones for storing various items from clothes, toys, and school supplies. Often includes sleeping for visiting or sporting activities. Preschool and younger school-age children need more free variable space for floor play, and a spacious bed and sufficient desk space are essential for student rooms. The different functional zones need to be organized into a suitable spatial plan, taking into account ergonomic rules and respecting the separation of resting from active zones, privacy, and good lighting and ventilation (Hájek, 2004).
The layout must provide variability for the child’s growth and the possibility of change in the future.

Educative role of a child’s rooms.
A child’s room’s partial arrangement should ensure safety and resist children’s games. Solid and safe furniture construction, sufficient edge rounding, and dimensions are necessary. Another aspect is the choice of appropriate materials and finishes. Specific requirements are included in the furniture standards. Few people know that a child’s room plays a big role in the child’s education and upbringing, as it is where the child learns self-care, coping with responsibilities, and time management. It is the first space a child learns to take care of. He acquires a relationship with his living space, learns to take care of it, and respects others. This is where his aesthetic sense and the need to individually arrange his environment are formed. The child learns by what surrounds him ed by natural materials, their straightforward use, colors, and good design. It is therefore not just about his life, but about the future of us all (Jana Boháčková et al., 2013).

What are the most important aspects of designing a child’s room?

Help yourself.
The child should be able to keep things tidy by himself and handle putting things away with minimal assistance from an adult. He needs furniture at good ergonomic heights. Small and seating furniture should be chosen so that the child can move it. It is good to remember to organize small items and drawings or school supplies.

Own a bunk bed or hideaway.
There tend to be more children and more functions in a child’s room. Therefore, each child needs their own intimate space. Due to space limitations in most apartments, it is not possible to give a child a regular-height bed and the relaxing space of a bunker or tent at the same time. A suitable solution may be a raised bunk bed, which is very attractive to children as they fulfill the function of a bunker. When designing such a bed, care must be taken to ensure good bed proportions, ideally with a mattress of 90x200cm, sufficient clearance from the mattress to the ceiling of at least 110cm, adequate fall protection with a minimum height of 16cm, and a safe ladder or steps (CSN 91 0100 (910100), 2006), (CSN 91 0102 (910102), 2006).

Child’s eye view.
When furnishing a child’s room, it is important to take their height into account. Not only for storage furniture but also when designing the placement of decorative and play areas. For young children, the ideal working and operative height is 42–50 cm. This height changes in the student’s age the height of sitting, and putting away (Arellano, 2018).

Game elements decorate
To create a tasteful environment, it is good to choose motifs for the children’s room. Visually accentuate game or creative elements not characters and elements from children’s series and digital games.
The child can participate in decorating the child’s room by drawing on the whiteboards, placing their creations, building their own structures, or arranging movement and motor solitaires. It is useful here to choose natural-based materials especially solid wood or to highlight these elements with colors.

Don’t approach the concept in a primitive way
After getting the child’s attention, the room can be designed thematically. It pays to leave room for the child’s imagination and not to choose themes that are too descriptive. The room will then get a more durable look.
In turn, the true choice of materials is important for the creation of taste. That is, do not surround it with materials with false decors or cheap non-functional objects for effect. Especially for younger children, natural materials, strong and easy to wash, are suitable. For shaping furniture, glued hardwood boards and plywood are excellent; for flooring, Marmoleum, glued wood, or cork.

Beware of noise.
Good room acoustics are beneficial both for the child who needs quiet for sleeping or studying, but also for the rest of the family and surroundings who may be disturbed by loud noises from the room.

A child’s room plays an important educational role in a child’s life. It is good to focus on its ergonomics and safety, but also on its visual and material aspects.

References

Arellano, M. (2018) ‘On the Dislocation of the Body in Architecture: Le Corbusier’s Modulor’, ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/902597/on-the-dislocation-of-the-body-in-architecture-le-corbusiers-modulor.

ČSN 91 0100 (910100) (2006). Available at: https://www.technicke-normy-csn.cz/csn-91-0100-910100-239183.html.

ČSN 91 0102 (910102) (2006). Available at: https://www.technicke-normy-csn.cz/csn-91-0102-910102-239185.html .

Hájek, V. (2004) Ergonomie v bytě, v projektu a v praxi. Praha: Sobotáles.

Jana Boháčková et al. (2013) Průvodce bytového designéra. 2013th edn. Praha: Edika.