For many households, shared bedrooms for the kids is a necessity. Whether you have a small house or a growing family, sometimes children’s bedrooms will need to be divided and setup to accommodate two different personalities and ages. This can be a hard task to master, not only so that both kids are happy, but also so as to ensure that the space is functional, including sufficient practical elements like storage. To help you furnish and decorate a shared bedroom, we’ve put together some handy tips.
Half it
If you have a conventionally shaped room, a simple way to handle room sharing is just to split it down the middle. This way, both children will have their own sides to enjoy, customise and call their own. Mirrored furniture – like twin beds and matching drawers – can keep the room looking united and minimise squabbles.
Room dividers
One of the big sacrifices in shared rooms is privacy. Older children in particular may want to be able to feel like they can retreat to their room undisturbed, and putting in some sort of divider in the room can help achieve this. Using a large bookcase as a room divider is a good choice as it works as a sort of functional wall, adding extra storage as well as partitioning. Curtains – either sectioning the room or encircling the bed – are another good choice as they are an effective yet impermanent solution.
Bunk beds
If you are short on space, bunk beds are an excellent choice. Taking up as little room as possible will mean more floor space for playing and storage, such as wardrobes or drawers. What’s more, younger children will likely enjoy their novelty.
Under bed storage
When space is at a premium, you should try and make all your furniture work as hard as possible. Multi-functional pieces are a great way to do this. One of the easiest ways to do this is find beds with ample built-in under bed storage – this will mean more room for storing clothes, toys and other belongings, all in the same space footprint as a normal bed.
Shallow units
It can be hard to get enough storage in a shared room when you need two of everything – from wardrobes and drawers to desks. Selecting shallow units and furnishings can really help to maximise floor space in a shared room. For example, look for daintier desks instead of deep, chunky options which will take up space needlessly.
Neutral furniture
Although it can be tempting to style up a kid’s room to reflect all the things they currently love, this can date quickly and be expensive to change. A Jurassic themed toy chest to suit your daughter’s dinosaur phase, or a racing car bed for your son’s love of cars can quickly fall out of favour. It’s best, therefore, to keep major furnishings, like bed frames and wardrobes, in neutral colours which won’t clash with changes in tastes in years to come. To add personality to the room, think fun bedspreads, cushions and art work, all of which are easy to swap out and change.
Complementary designs and colours
For rooms which are being shared by two different children, it can be tricky to find a way for them both to feel like they have their own personalised space. Give them some leeway to customise their section of the room, picking colours or patterns that they like. The key to making sure the room still looks cohesive is to stick to over-arching schemes.
There are two main ways to keep cohesion: stick to one colour scheme but allow kids to pick their own patterns, or stick to one pattern but in different colours. For example, you may decide on striped wallpaper for a feature wall but could then split this into two sides, each with a different colour stripe for each child’s half of the room.