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Home › Articles › Academics › Back-to-School Bedrooms

Back-to-School Bedrooms

Redesign Your Child's Room for the School Year

By Laura Paul

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Parents can create a paper management system for permission slips, books and papers. Wirtz has a master family calendar she keeps in the kitchen. "If their soccer schedules come home, I write the dates on the master calendar, and I take the roster and put it in their folder," Wirtz says.

Writing on the Wall

From Peter Rabbit and teddy bears to daisies, hearts and stars, the bedroom themes of Hannah, 10, Leah, 13, and 16-year-old Chelsea Wirtz evolved as they grew older. Wirtz hired Mulvehill to personalize the bedrooms.

Mulvehill painted Hawaiian flowers on the walls in Leah's room to match a tropical print comforter. Mulvehill says she finds girls generally like flowers.

Lavender is the most popular color for girls, surpassing even pink in popularity. Shabby chic has also come into style.

Store More

Storage is the key to a well-planned child's room. Mulvehill says a lot of items are taking on the look of school lockers. "TV stands, bookcases and general storage are all taking cues from metal school lockers," she says. "The beanbag is also back in style."

A child will be more apt to read a book if he or she can see the illustrations on the front cover, and many kids' bookcases are designed to show the face of books. Cantor suggests making the most of storage under the bed. Rolling bins or drawers that fit under a bed are ideal.

"Bedrooms are small and people don't have enough storage," Cantor says. "Parents should have things down at the level of the child so the child does not always have to ask the parent to get the toy out."

Easing Sibling Rivalry Between Roommates

Decorating a child's room becomes double the challenge when siblings share space.

Cheryl Young, a stay-at-home mother living in Tampa Palms, Fla., says two of her three daughters share a dainty, feminine bedroom. Savanna, 5, is a kindergartener and Cameron, 4, is a preschooler. Young painted the girls' bedroom pink with matching butterfly bedding. In the hallway leading to their bedroom, Young attached a colorful rope with clothes hangers for displaying artwork they bring home from school.

Young and her husband, Jamie, also have a 1-year-old named Kaley. "A lot of people ask me how we have made it work," she says. "They are close enough in age that they go to bed at the same time. They are best friends."

By sharing a bedroom, the girls learn to get along with other people. They also learn to function in a noisy environment, which Young believes will help them in the future when co-workers are talking in the next cubicle.

Samantha Pennala, a certified feng shui consultant in Pomona, Calif., says many times parents can placate siblings who do not get along simply by removing the clutter in the home. She employs the ancient Chinese art of placement to bring in positive "Chi" energy. She strongly suggests parents remove televisions from the kids' room and keep the alarm clocks and radios away from the bed area.

"One of the best things is to make sure that in the child's bedroom, you put the bed on the east wall," she says. "East energy is very enlightening spiritually and softer. It's a very good energy to have the children sleeping in the evening."

Ellen Cantor, an interior designer from Torrance, Calif., says it is important for children who share a bedroom to have their own senses of identity. "For two children sharing a room you could paint their name over each child's bed so each one has a sense of property in their room," she says.

For siblings sharing a room, consider buying a "buddy desk," which seats two children on an extra wide seat. One child may sit at the center and use the computer, while the other child is working on an art project.


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