When designing children’s rooms, parents are automatically faced with the challenge of selecting the right furniture. This article presents tips and ideas parents should consider when choosing furniture, as well as photos to illustrate how these ideas can be conceptualized.

Choosing children’s furniture, such as cots, tables and closets can appear futile, especially to first-time parents. Nevertheless, parents still have to try their best to provide the best home environment for their children as the environment is crucial to children’s development.

In general, children’s furniture should be functional and divide the room into four main zones:, i.e.

  • An area for sleeping and resting;
  • Working or training area;
  • Storage area;
  • Playing zone.

Baby Cots and Cribs

It is common knowledge that the resting area is the most important zone in a child’s bedroom and therefore, the furniture should reflect this fact. For children’s bedrooms, the choice of furniture ranges from fully-fledged single cribs to loft beds, sofa beds and bunk beds. As a principle, you should always ensure the bed you choose for your child is made from quality material and has a comfortable mattress.

Quality rest is the primary basis of choosing furniture for a bedroom, especially if it’s a child’s bedroom.

Tips for Selecting the Material of the Cot

The modern market offers a wide variety of design options at the most attractive prices. Nevertheless, the design and price should not be your primary focus. Instead, you should focus on the material used to make the cot.

Experts have always considered the best material for a baby’s crib  to be natural wood, particularly beech or oak. Of course, such cots are a lot more expensive than analogues from other materials. However, cots made from natural wood carry an enormous advantage as they allow the baby to breathe comfortably. If you cannot afford a bed made from natural wood, you can opt for one made from MDF.

In addition, furniture made from natural wood does not release harmful fumes, unlike furniture made from low-quality materials such as cheap chipboard.

Another point that you should pay attention to when buying a bed for your baby is your financial capability. Usually, children grow up fast and having bought a crib for your newborn, you will soon have to get a bigger crib for the fast-growing baby. If your financial status allows you to periodically update furniture, adjusting to the speed of a growing child will be easy! Otherwise, it is better and more economical to get an adjustable bed that can accommodate the child for a good number of years as he or she grows.

It is also critical to pay attention to the material of the mattress cover. Cheap mattresses are often covered by chintz and coarse calico. More expensive mattresses, on the other hand, usually come with jacquard covers. Jacquard is a more durable material and therefore, mattress covers made from it last longer.

Picking the Right Table for Your Child

You do not need a table for your child’s room until the child is old enough to attend school.  Luckily, tables for children’s rooms take on several forms and designs, so parents have many options. Based on the forms, tables for children’s rooms can be grouped as:

  • Classical/ linear tables;
  • Computer tables (with special shelves for the system unit, keyboard, monitor, etc.);
  • Angular tables.

The designs of modern desks include:

  • Superstructures;
  • Boxes;
  • Curbstones;
  • Shelves.

The perfect solution for a growing child is a transformer table, which can be made bigger as the child grows, eliminating the need to buy new tables regularly.

Even though parents mostly buy tables when children start school, setting up tables in rooms for younger children helps keep the room organized. For young children, you can get plastic furniture. Having tables and chairs helps children learn to stay organized from an early age and provides them a comfortable space to engage in fun activities like painting, drawing and playing games.

Children’s Closets

In general, the models of children’s closets differ a slightly from those for adults. The types of closets you can install in children’s bedrooms include;

  • An ordinary wardrobe;
  • Corner closet or cupboard;
  • A chest of drawers/ pedestal.

Unlike ordinary furniture, children’s furniture works better with in-built storage for toys and other children’s essentials. Without the storage option, the children’s essentials can easily litter the nursery.

Alternatively, you can functionally separate the elements of the storage system by buying, say, a normal wardrobe for clothing, and allocating a separate cabinet for storing toys. However, a more compact and practical solution is using a universal cabinet.

If you go with the universal closet, then you will have virtually limitless possibilities for internal filling, which is perfect. Unlike many standard cabinets, a universal closet can be tailored to the needs and preferences of you and your child.

Another convenient option, especially when it comes to a children’s area that is small, is a corner cabinet that functionally uses only the corner of the room, leaving the rest of the room for other purposes.

On the exterior of the furniture, you can use interesting themes that your child will love, such as those of cartoons.

Keeping Your Child Healthy

All the furniture we have discussed above, i.e. a bed, table and chair and closet are essential in any child’s room. However, if you have extra space and money, you can as well add a sports complex.

Since children are full of energy, creating a small sports corner in the nursery is a great way to put that energy to healthy use! In addition, having a playing space in the nursery will enable your kids to play even when the weather outside is unfavorable.

Modern furniture stores offer a variety of options for arranging a sports corner – from the banal Swedish wall to functional beds, equipped with stairs, horizontal bars and ropes.

Multipurpose Transforming Furniture

Transforming furniture is widely popular because of its practicality and functionality, making it possible for the furniture to be put to different rooms of the house. Transforming furniture is also popular, especially among those with small homes, because it combines several functions into one, thus saving space. In a child’s room, a transformer bed fits just perfectly, as you can see in the pictures below.

In the above photo, you can clearly see how from a crib for a baby you can make a crib for a child of school age, which means that by choosing a quality model, you will save yourself from the need to buy a new bed for another 5-7 years!

Furniture for Babies: The Most Essential Elements to Consider

NB: Ensure that the baby’s crib or cot has smooth rather than sharp edges and corners, to avoid injury to the baby.

Modern furniture manufacturers, such as IKEA produce baby cribs equipped with various useful functions such as:

  • Changing table at the lower level;
  • Presence of an autowall;
  • Wheels that make the crib mobile;
  • The presence of a pendulum mechanism that cautions the baby against motion sickness;
  • Silicone pads on the sides.

In addition, modern baby cots are often integrated with storage boxes for children’s items, helping save on space and money.

Furniture for Preschool Kids

Preschool-age kids are usually active and love adventure. For this reason, furniture for children in preschool must be stable. This feature ensures the furniture is safe for children.

At minimum, the bedroom of a child in preschool should have a bed. If the room has enough space left, you can add other furniture such as tables, chairs, and closets, and even a playing area!

At this age, the child develops likes and hobbies. Girls, for instance, tend to be fond of princesses and unicorns, while boys may love things to do with pirates and astronauts. Therefore, when decorating the room, parents should always seek the opinions of their children.

Furniture for School-Going Children

As children progress from pre-school, they begin to shed off their earlier interests. This transition usually presents the need to redecorate the room, so that the room meets the child’s new requirements.

Consequently, parents may need to change the furniture. For instance, parents of children who have finished pre-school may have to replace the playing table with a stronger table that the child can use for studying.

It is ideal that a student’s desk is equipped with shelves for storing books and notebooks, as well as cabinets for storage other small miscellaneous items the child uses to study.

The study area for a child of school-going age should preferably be decorated in soft colors, since bright colors may destruct the child.

To diversify the design of children’s rooms, one can apply zoning principles, i.e. separating the sleeping and working areas by decorating them in neutral tones, and designating the playing zone by using bright accents.

Arranging a Teen’s Room

The adolescent age is the time to find oneself, set life goals and establish priorities for oneself. Teenagers are choosy and categorical and the role of parents is to choose furniture that pleases the child.

Even though you may dislike the tastes and preferences of your child, it is important to compromise and accommodate the child’s wants in decorating the room. Teenagers are often prone to making bold design and décor decisions. These may include acquiring unusual pieces of furniture, such as a hanging chair or hammock. Allowing teenagers to make these decisions is crucial as it makes them feel important and valuable.

Additionally, when children become teenagers the room has to lose some aspects such as the playing corner. Instead, teenagers opt to put these areas to other uses. Girls, for example, may opt to have a dressing table.

Choosing Furniture for a Girls’ Rooms

The essentials of a typical girl’s room include a large wardrobe with a mirror and storage area for jewelry and cosmetics. Girls also love large soft beds, a storage area for toys, and a shelf for storing and displaying books.

As for the color choice, there are a lot of various delicate color solutions, such as white, beige, lilac, gentle-yellow and their combinations.

As a leitmotif of design, you can choose classic girlish themes, such as those that feature dolls, flowers, princesses and fairy animals.

If you want to create a stylish children’s room for your daughter, then styles such as Provence, chef-chic and classic are just what you need.

Design and Décor Essentials for a Boy’s Room

Unlike with girls, for boys, having a sports corner in the bedroom is of utter importance. Also, boys mostly care about comfort and less about aspects of the décor.

For the color palette of a boy’s room, you can opt to deviate from the classical blue shades in favor of blue, green, and gray.

The main theme of the bedroom design can be sports, space, computer games or nature themes. For a more unique interior, however, you can adapt designs such as high-tech, techno, minimalism and loft.

Decorating a Nursery for Two Children of the Same Sex?

It is easier for children of the same sex to share a bedroom than those of different sexes, even if they don’t get along. This is because it is generally easier to choose the general style of furniture for children of the same sex than to try to combine two fundamentally different interiors, as is the case with those of different sexes.

In either case, however, zoning is of the utmost importance. If the room is of a large area, then nothing restricts you from completely zoning the space. This way, each child can get their separate crib and work desk. You can place a cabinet or closet in the middle of the zones, to be shared by both kids.

If the room is small, the best solution is purchasing a two-tiered children’s bed. Manufacturers offer a huge number of options, ranging from classics with single beds attached to each other, to interesting angular options that allow you to fit the workspace or sofa into the design of the bed.

Designing a Bedroom for Sharing by Children of Different Sexes

Designing a room for children of different sexes can be tough. Because male and female children differ physically and in terms of behavior, sharing a room can be tough. As in the case of same-sex children, it’s great if the room allows you to create two independent spaces. This way, it’s quite easy to decorate the room in a way both children will love.

Zoning space goes a great length in decorating a room for kids of different sexes. A simple way of zoning is by using wallpaper of different colors, a technique that visually separates the space of the children.

The study and play areas can be combined into one so as to serve both children, while the sleeping and grooming areas are separated from each other.

Custom Furniture for Children’s Rooms

Creating children’s furniture according to individual sizes to order has a number of advantages:

  • First, you can perfectly fit the furniture into the interior of the nursery;
  • Secondly, you can create unique and outstanding designs, which will make the room stand out
  • Thirdly, custom-made furniture can be much cheaper than getting the same type of furniture from a store

See more variants of children’s furniture in our photo gallery below: