Your kids are going to grow up. We all know it, but sometimes it can feel like their teenage years are a long way off when they’re crawling around the house. When it comes to custom home and kids’ room design, though, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about meeting your kids’ needs today but also about considering who they’ll become.
That’s true for almost every element of kids’ room design. A beautiful, bespoke nursery is wonderful, but will it be functional when your kids get a little older? Will it meet their needs when they hit the age where their independence becomes more important to them?
A family home is a safe and loving space. The challenge in kids’ room design is making sure that space can evolve to meet the needs of growing and maturing children.
Here’s what to keep in mind when you’re looking to design a custom home for your young family.
Why Kids’ Room Design Matters
There are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before you start designing a custom home for you and your family. Remember, your kids will most likely be living in this home for every stage of their childhood, and their needs will change and evolve as they grow. The right kids’ room design can make life easier for everyone.
- How Can Everyone Get the Privacy They Need? Even in the closest families, kids and parents will both need time on their own. Creating private areas is an important goal of home design.
- How Can You Bring Your Family Together? Just as important as the need for privacy is the time your family will spend together. Whether it’s your living room, kitchen, or outdoor spaces, smart home design encourages everyone to enjoy one another’s company.
- How Can You Maintain Order? Kids are messy, and they often cycle through hobbies at an almost alarming right. When considering kids’ room design, how can you make sure their mess doesn’t get out of control?
- How Can Rooms and Spaces Evolve? When designing a home with growing kids, it’s important to think about how a room can be used in different stages of a child’s life. It’s a big part of kids’ room design, as a playroom for pre-schoolers and toddlers can turn into a second living room or area for teens to play video games.
Ideas to Consider When Designing a Home for Kids to Grow
Bedrooms That Provide Privacy
The layout of a custom home design should consider not just how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are, but where they’re located. Teenage girls and boys may not want to share bathrooms, for example.
While it’s nice to have a master bedroom right next to your young children, they may go to bed later than the rest of the family as they get older, and a little separation will provide peace, quiet, and privacy.
Design ideas: The layout of your home should reflect the evolving needs of your family. Having a master bedroom for parents that is separated from where the kids will sleep can be extremely helpful as children get older. If that can be on another floor, great, but even creating separation by building bedrooms on opposite ends of a hallway can work wonders.
As for bathrooms, it’s likely that not every family member will be able to have their own, but considering who will share and where they’ll be located is important.
Spaces for Friends to Gather
It can catch parents off-guard, but there comes a point in most kids’ lives where their friends at school become really, really important. Providing a space for their friend groups to gather in your home can be a big part of both kids’ room design and overall home design.
Chances are, they’ll want a little separation and space to hang out without you listening in, so whether it’s outdoor spaces or an area in the basement, play areas for young children can become hangout spots for older kids.
Design ideas: Basements provide great opportunities for families to create play areas when kids are young and can be turned into second living rooms when kids get older. Even if it’s just a weeknight and your kids don’t have friends over, a fully furnished basement can provide a comfortable space for them to watch TV on their own or play video games.
As a parent, it can be nice to have them watching or playing on their own, too, and a second living room space means having space for yourself, as well, because, let’s be honest, you may not be interested in the same TV shows as your kids.
Bringing the Family Together
While kids crave their own independence as they grow older, that’s not the whole story. They still love time spent with family, and that shouldn’t be ignored. Designing shared living spaces to cook, eat, and hangout is a great way of fostering a fun and healthy family dynamic.
Design ideas: Shared spaces can take all sorts of forms and be one of the most fun parts of home design.
Maybe you build your kitchen with a large island so parents can cook while kids do their homework. Maybe you have a large outdoor dining area for summer meals or a dining room that’s filled with natural light inside. Maybe it’s a spacious living room for family movie nights.
These spaces will be used throughout every stage of your child’s growth and development and make time together something to look forward to.
Parents Need Privacy, Too
You’ll want to spend as much time with your kids as possible, of course, but that doesn’t mean you need them around for every waking minute of the day. Parents are independent people with their own interests, too, and while we’re focused mostly on kids’ room design here, that doesn’t mean we should ignore the need for private areas for parents.
Design ideas: Rooms like nurseries won’t be used by your children forever, so consider how they can be converted into private spaces.
Maybe the kids’ room design your children needed as toddlers can become a home office where parents can not only get important work done without the distractions that come with having kids running around but also get a little quiet time to themselves.
Storage Space Can Make All the Difference
Kids have an uncanny ability to accumulate toys, hobbies, sports gear, and anything else that might catch their interest. It all needs to go somewhere, or it will spill out and create a mess in their bedrooms and every other area of the home. Storage space is an important part of overall home design and kids’ room design.
Design ideas: Whether it’s a mud room at the entrance of the house, space in the garage for bikes and sports gear, or just shelving units built into walls and under benches in bedrooms, there is no shortage of options when it comes to creating storage space that makes sense for your unique home, children, and lifestyle.
Home Design to Meet Your Family’s Needs
Your family is going to create lasting, lifelong memories in your home. By carefully considering kids’ room design and how the needs of your entire family will evolve as your children grow, you can ensure that your custom home works as your needs change and mature.
At Ellergodt Design, we’ve been helping families get their dream homes for decades and can help guide you through the home design process.
Contact us online to get started on building your family’s dream home today.