Home Improvement Blog

Posts Tagged ‘children’s room’

A couple of children a likely to cause more wear and tear on wall and floor coverings than a roomful of adults. From a practical point of view it is most important you choose these items for children’s rooms with great care, bearing in mind they must be hard-wearing and easy to clean.

Walls
While the walls in the rest of your home are there to divive living areas and provide a pleasing background, it could be argued that the walls in children’s room exist mainly as a surface for drawings, paintings and pasted-up pictures. They also serve as a natural buffer for toys and a fair target for any number of assorted missiles. It is therefore necessary to equip them to cope with this kind of assault.

Although your own tastes might be for pretty pastel colors and small patterns, remember your children will respond more readily to bright, clear colors and large, simple patterns.

If you plan to paint the room, choose something really tough such as vinyl silk for the walls and heavy duty gloss for the woodwork; alternatively strip down the woodwork and seal it so minor damage will be less noticeable. Any murals or designs you want to add should be executed with materials which will stand up to a similar type of punishment. Read the rest of this entry »

Children have a way of doing everything they are not supposed to do, getting up in the night, running around half-dressed and examining minutely every appliance in sight. They have little appreciation of the dangers a dark, cold and potentially hazardous room might hold for them, so you must be extra careful when planning the lighting and heating in a child’s room and check on all aspects of safety.

Lighting
Illumination in a child’s room must be efficient and easy to operate and at the same time out of reach of small hands. Wall or ceiling lights are a good choice here, spots are ideal since you can change their direction with each activity or whenever you rearrange the furniture. If you fix a dimmer attachment, you will be able to reduce any light to nightlight dimness and increase it gradually to avoid startling a child should you have to enter the room in the middle of the night. Make sure there is a light switch near the door and that it is situated low enough for a child to reach. Avoid floor fittings which might come within a child’s reach and choose table lamps only if you have fairly high surface on which to place them.

An older child will appreciate bedside and worktop lighting as well as general illumination, but wall, ceiling or clamp fittings would again be the best choice, if you want to prevent accidents. It is very important the lighting you choose for close work such as reading and studying is adequate, so young eyes will not be strained unduly. Read the rest of this entry »

Above any other consideration, children’s rooms should be practical and flexible, practical because they will get much more damaging wear than any other room in the home, and flexible because children’s needs change frequently between they birth and the time they leave home.

Planning
As in all room planning, keep an open mind about which room will be used for what purpose. It may be slightly inconvenient to use a smaller bedroom for yourself, but there is a great deal to be gained by  giving the master bedroom over to the children as a sleep/play area. Here they can spread out their toy soldiers or model railways and leave them ready for another day’s play, instead of having to go through the frustration of dismantling their work before a meal or when a company is expected. In addition, the whole family will benefit from a play area where children can knock about happily without having to worry about breaking ornaments or damaging furniture and floor coverings.

Most young children (and many older ones) do not mind sharing a room; but if they differ greatly in age, temperament or interests, life will probably be easier when they have their own. If there are not enough rooms to go round, you may be able to use partition walls or room dividers in the form of large pieces of furniture to make better use of space; just be certain each area has enough light and ventilation, separate entrances would be ideal although they are not absolutely necessary. Any structural changes must, of course, comply with Building Regulation.

Think of installing a wash-basin in the children’s rooms, this will not only make it possible to wash and change small babies in their own room, but will also prove invaluable as the child grows up by relieving pressure on the family bathroom.

You may find it worthwhile installing an intercom here so you can keep in touch with a sleeping infant or a group of lively toddlers at play. These devices are not widly expensive and can be put to use in another area such as a garage or workroom when the children grow up. If you are wiring children’s rooms from scratch, install all socket outlets high on the wall, fit safety plugs to all flexes, and make sure each window, even on the ground floor, is fitted with childproof locks. Read the rest of this entry »