Sunday, October 17, 2010

Promising the Kids They Could Chose Their Decor: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

"Kid-smart design Part 1: A room for all ages"
Washington Examiner (October 11, 2010)

"Like clothes, kids can grow out of their rooms quickly. She may like Sponge Bob today, but want a Barbie bedroom tomorrow.

"So when it comes to decorating a child's bedroom, the best advice is: Keep it classic.

" 'If you're going to spend the money to decorate, choose classic, not cartoon-y type fabrics,' said Page Palmer of Page Palmer Interior Design. 'Choose classic fabrics if you want the room to stay. Keep the fabrics more solid and the lines clean.'

"But that doesn't mean your child can't have style. A solid yellow wall and a pale pink bedspread could be accented by a Sponge Bob throw pillow or a Barbie beanbag chair...."

The Lemming's household hasn't had to worry about interior decoration on this scale: but this sort of thing is a real issue for some folks.

The article's mostly common sense observations, which the Lemming would suggest taking with a pinch of salt.

For example:

"...[Palmer Interior Design's Page] Palmer seconded the sentiment. 'Your child may want to have lavender or purple or even brown or black walls. I would let them express themselves. It's important to let them have input and work with what they choose.'..."

P. Palmer has a point. Particularly if a parent started out by giving the kid carte blanche about how the room would look.

On consideration, though, what the designer described was - interesting: a room with black walls, trimmed in gold, with silver fabrics and "lots of white." "Cosy" might not be the first word that comes to mind: but it sure would be distinctive.

4 comments:

Brigid said...

You seem to be missing the rest of your post. It ends with this:

"P. Palmer has a point. Particularly if a parent started out by giving the kid"

The Friendly Neighborhood Proofreader

Brian H. Gill said...

Brigid,

[grinning sheepishly & rubbing the back of my neck] Thanks for spotting that: The rest was there, cleverly hidden by a typo in an HTML tag.

Found it, fixed it.

Dwell, Urban Style said...

When allowing your child to design their own room in the home parents should always have there say as well, if you show your children love and time in deciding theirchildrens furniture, and make every effort to value there childrens design taste it could be the most exciting things to shop for knowing it is for your little one.

Brian H. Gill said...

My Urban Child,

I think a key word there is "love." My household's budget hasn't left room for the sort of makeover discussed in the micro-review, so we haven't had that sort of choice.

Our kids have, however, had rather free rein in what they do with their rooms - with the understanding that they need to take care of what they do.

With our set of people, it's worked.

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