How to design a toddler friendly bedroom? What’s your godsend?

[sellotape12]

My son is now 18 months am going to move his room on from baby-room to a nice bedroom and play space he can have for a few years after. But this is my first kid. I don’t know what I don’t know.
So, interior clever people: what kinds of furniture or hacks have been really useful for you through the toddler years? And what was a waste of time or gimmick? His room‘s floor plan is attached. (We don’t have a separate playroom, it’s just the living room and his bedroom)

In my head

• Will he need a little desk to do drawing and colouring at?
• what do we do for toy storage and how does it not end up one giant pile of Legos everywhere?
• When he’s ready for a bed do I put it in the alcove or stick it out of the chimney breast?
• How do I prevent drawing on the walls or is that is futile?

He’s already got a nice armchair, wardrobe and chest of drawers.

Honestly, through the toddler years mine played in the living room (no playroom either). We just set up a corner with a toy box and toddler desk in chair. Didn't go off to play in bedroom until around 5/6 I'd say.

Washable paint is your friend, but crayons/art stuff were kept downstairs anyway, ikea is good for all sorts of kids furniture/storage. Trofast range is useful. We also found whatever was the previous version of the smastad range useful - we had small units that could be low bookcases which then stacked on to for a larger bookcase later, deeper ones that could be cupboards for bulkier toys etc. with a shallow bookcase stacked on top. We used these in different configurations up to about 11/12 years old, just sometimes buying new doors or drawers to change the set up according to what we needed.

Toddlers need to be under supervision so don't tend to play in bedrooms. I always kept the bedrooms for sleeping and not play areas because it will make getting them asleep more challenging. I made sure comfortable arm chair to read stories etc and low lighting.

I had play area set up in living and kitchen areas.

Mine were about 7+ before they started to play in their room.

I'd avoid toys in the bedroom until much older. Transitioning to a real bed that he can get out of by himself is going to be tricky if he knows there are toys he can play with and his room is a play space.

I don’t let my 3 year old have any pens in his bedroom, disaster. kitchen table only being watched

He has a little desk though, for sticker books, water draw books, megasketch, puzzles but we have desk in living room instead at this age still

Main thing in bedroom I would say:

• book storage. We keep books in his bedroom. Just take a few out to living room at a time, but mainly read first thing and bedtime. We use ikea wall book shelves for this. Saves space, and we have low down ones he can reach, and high ones for fancier books he’s not quite ready for
• comfy rug and small basket of quiet toys. If he wakes early he will sometimes now play alone 20 mins in room. Ie magformers. Teddies.
• storage for clothes, and clothes to grown into ( which sounds like he has)

Oh wow thank you, I was assuming that toys would live in the bedroom. But his bedroom is next to ours so don’t particularly want anything noisy once he can get out of a bed 😂
we have a storage bench in the living room which we use as a toybox. And good idea about pens and felt tips only at the kitchen table under supervision.
My niece’s room is a bombsite. She’s ten now but gosh her room has always had various pen all over the wall, tiny bits of plastic jewellery and beads all over the floor, books upended on shelves and then random knickers or tutus strewn about. I can’t even describe. It’s just chaos everywhere. Any visual ideas to mitigate stuff like this - whilst remaining practical - are appreciated. And don’t say a bin liner and Hoover every six months. 😂

These ikea book shelves are great as small
children can see the front of the books. Plus you can hang next to bed or behind door for space saving.

The only trick is have storage for what you have. Don’t keep extra. Sort regular.

I always have one drawer of Ds locked (with those magnet kid locks), so I can contain any clothes or gifts he’s too young for and he can’t get to them. You could have high shelf and baskets for same purpose.
Any drawers are kept not rammed full, so there’s space, ie drawer probably fits 20 pairs pants, Ds only has 10. That way he doesn’t have overflowing pants everywhere

In living room foot stall ottoman has storage here. Contains duplo. Brio live sun baskets that slide hidden under sofa

Yes good idea. A friend also keeping the bed out of the line of sight because it’s always going to be a mess. So when you walk into the room don’t position the bed as the first thing you see unless you are committed to a Pinterest-worthy set up. Keep it out of your peripheral vision, she said, because the reality is it’s going to be unmade. Does this ring true with you guys? Obviously we are still very much in a cot so I’m naïve.

suggested *

All craft stuff is kept downstairs and done at the kitchen table, saves the walls to some extent.

I have kallax units in the kids rooms, big boxes along the bottom, smaller stuff in the middle (so they can't pull box onto head), then more big boxes out of reach. Every so often I swap some of the bottom boxes with the ones at the top, and they get really into the 'new' toy selection.

One thing I messed up, don't forget that the cloths get bigger! I planned enough draw space to house a full wardrobe of 1 year old clothes, but now really struggle to fit in the same amount of 4yo cloths.

I always liked having a small sofa in the kids bedrooms. Good for reading stories together and some fold out to a sofa bed for sleepovers.

Both my children have beds that are in the sight line from the landing. But their rooms are tidy because I don't want to break my neck going into their room in the middle of the night, nor did I want them falling over on the way to the toilet in the middle of the night. We just made sure that their rooms were tidy, every day. You don't do it just before bed but you make it part of the daily routine like teeth brushing. We have always kept rooms for sleeping/reading, all toys were kept downstairs. At first that was just a couple of massive chests in the lounge with smaller boxes/crates inside but then we did move and since then have had playrooms. Simple things like gluing pen tops into their packet or a stand so all pens will have lids put back on and the lids won't disappear. Loads of suggestions on Pinterest for this type of thing.

Bed making is easy, they have a duvet and a pillow, not hard to straighten up each day. Get your child to start helping from a young age, same with clothes being put into a laundry basket. An 18 month old can do that. My children are now 20 and 17 and their rooms are tidy. Ds has one of the tidiest and nicest smelling rooms at uni too. They have to learn to respect toys/games/clothes and that means not allowing them to walk all over things on the floor.

If you are running out of room then lockable storage, not high up because some children are climbers and risk takers <looking at Ds2> so keep the bedroom for reading and calm because otherwise they will get out of bed, turn on their light and play at 4am.

For colors and space planing there is a room planning tool that could help. Having enough drawing space should prevent wall drawing, and you can have drawing board(s) so that some vertical options would be available as well!

*planning

Like other pp craft stuff is supervised access only in our house. Mine loved their little kids table and chairs, we kept ours downstairs in the lounge where we had laminate flooring, but if you have more room in the bedroom you could put it in there (beware climbing hazard though if they're likely to want to jump off it!).

We had a wall mounted bookcase and big floor cushion in the corner for a cosy reading corner.

A basket of soft toys

We had the IKEA Trofast drawers with age appropriate stuff in to play independently like Happy Land figures, wooden building blocks, play food and dolls. My DD was a 5am riser so sometimes we'd let her play quietly in her room for a while before we went through if she was happy enough.

We opted for low, toddler friendly wardrobe and drawers (IKEA again) so they could reach their own clothes to help choose their outfit

We put a baby gate on the room door. I know it's not for everyone and some people won't agree but I didn't want to risk them wandering upstairs alone during the night.

A full length mirror securely attached to the wall. Mine both loved looking at themselves and performing in front of it!

Magnetic board which we put magnetic photo frames with family pictures on (don't use small magnets to attach photos due to choking hazard).

Great ideas on here! Following with interest. Anyone with a floorbed here?

I found a single mattress on the floor as well as a cot was really helpful because it meant that when DS was unsettled or sick, a parent could sleep in his room, and it was also useful for transitioning from the cot.

Kallax is really useful for storage. We arranged the one in DS's room horizontally when he was little, so that he could reach his books and toys, and then vertically when he was older and needed the space for a desk.

All toys were in the living room, not for any deliberate reason they started off there and just stayed there so the bedroom had a bed and teddies I don't remember much else