Children’s rooms are some of our favourite rooms to design. It’s the room a child wakes up in every morning, so we take it seriously, and we don’t think it needs to be pink or blue.
A gender neutral children’s room isn’t a beige one. It’s a room full of colour, pattern and things to do, designed around the child rather than a stereotype. Until children are old enough to tell you what they love, give them the whole rainbow and let them choose. Here is how we approach it, with rooms from our own projects.
Start with a wall worth looking at
A mural or a big wallpaper does more for a child’s room than any amount of accessories. Forests, mountains and abstract pattern work for any child, at any age, and they hold their own when the toys change. We use a black and white tree mural in one family home and a blue mountain scene in the room next door, so each child has their own landscape.
Storage they can actually use
The tidiest children’s rooms are the ones where children can put things away themselves. Low open shelves, baskets and drawers at their height, with the grown-up storage higher up. Bespoke joinery earns its keep here: house-shaped shelves, arched toy alcoves and wardrobes designed to grow with the child.
Room to play
If there’s space for a playroom, we plan it like any other room: zones for making, reading and climbing, a floor that copes with all of it, and lighting that works for a rainy afternoon. Teepees, climbing walls and painted mountains do more than any theme ever could.
Rooms for sharing
Shared rooms need even more thought. Built-in bunks save floor space and give each child a corner of their own. Keep the shared palette neutral enough for both, and let each child’s bedding, art and books make their side theirs.
Themes without the stereotypes
If a child wants a theme, keep it in the things that are easy to change: cushions, prints, bedding and lighting. A few that work for any child:
- Magical: clouds, rainbows, unicorns and light-up stars.
- Pirates: maps, ships, treasure chests and stripes.
- Animals: jungle prints, woodland creatures and soft toys that double as cushions.
- Space: rockets, planets and a starry ceiling.
- Fun and funky: bold colour, felt letters, food-shaped cushions and a cactus lamp.
- Pattern only: polka dots, stripes and colour blocking, with no theme at all.
Children grow out of themes quickly. A room built on good colour, proper storage and space to play will see them through several of them.
