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Many parents are not at ease right now during this Going Back to School time. Big questions and decisions to be made whether to vaccinate children or not and how to best protect our children and ourselves? Are there going to be more variants later in the fall in addition to Delta? All of this brings unease, anxiety and stress to almost every family. There are consequences to our health, immune system and general wellbeing with these emotions consciously or subconsciously running in the background especially for prolonged periods of time.
I thought that putting attention on something constructive, positive and creative helps to minimize the impact. I myself am using this time for writing a book that I’ve been wanting to write for a while but could never find the time. Today I wanted to share a few tips for children’s rooms from my upcoming book “A Soulful Home, Room by Room Design Guide ”. I hope it will help you to put your mind and heart into something creative and very useful such as improving the energy in your home. In this post I will talk about children’s room colors and bed and desk placement. It is especially useful during these times when children spend more time in their rooms.
Creating safe and nourishing spaces for our children will help not only with their sleep and studies, but will be contributing to their confidence, creativity, vitality and happiness. And the immune system too!
A child’s room is a world to them and it is up to us to bring support and structure that they need along with all the beautiful things that support imagination, curiosity, fascination and attention.
Over the years I have seen correlations between children’s environments and their personalities and I have learned how to correct some behavioral and emotional patterns by introducing some changes in their rooms. When I work with a child’s room, I would ask questions about their personality, behavior, their levels of vitality and overall happiness. It’s good to understand and address children’s emotional disposition, so we can give them the specific support they may need. Shy children will need a very different kind of support than overly active children. Children with ADD or learning disabilities would need even more specific support from their environment.
Often parents report improvements in their children’s study and ability to concentrate after we move their desk as well as improved sleep after we find a better placement for their bed. Adding the right colors helps to support and balance a child’s energy and their emotional states.
Having two or three different colors next to each other creates contrast. Contrast creates energy and liveliness which is generally great in kids’ rooms, but be aware that too much contrast will create too much energy. Spaces with too little contrast are more relaxing but can also be disengaging. So choose according to your child’s needs. If you feel like they need to be energized more, create contrast with more saturated colors and if they need to be pacified, use pastel tones with less contrast. Examples of strong contrast are red and blue, orange and green, red and yellow. Examples of gentler contrast are pink and green, pink and white, yellow and green or green and blue. It also depends on a level of saturation of a particular color.
Often a child knows what wall color they want and it is good for their sense of developing self to get what they want. But sometimes their choices can be pretty random or disturbing. Occasionally I see that a room is way too bright, or way too dark. A few times I’ve heard from parents that their kid wants their room to be black. We can make some educated suggestions and see if they can relate to it. If we do it right, children will go with it.
Here are some wall color guidelines for children that I’ve used over the years with a great success:
– If your child is shy and reserved, he or she would benefit from a more stimulating environment. Go with brighter and warmer wall colors such as yellow, pink or green.
– If your child is hyperactive and having trouble falling asleep, lighter and colder colors are better choice such as light, warm blue, soft green, very light pink or lilac.
– If your child is confident, balanced and grounded, you don’t need to limit them in color choices. Usually they make the right choice.
– If a child has ADD I would not use too bright or contrasting color schemes. For children with ADD it is important not to overwhelm and overstimulate their senses, therefore keeping things simple, clean and spacious would be best. Very important to help them to create a good organization system.
– If a child has learning disabilities or some health issues or overly sensitive, I would suggest doing their birthday based Bazi chart to understand their energetic needs better. Several parents reported improvements after we implemented a child’s specific most helpful balancing Element which are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal in the design of their room.
In this girl’s room we decided to use green and blue because the girl liked both of these colors. I suggested using pink accessories to make the room feel warmer and happier.
The boy’s room had only one window and not enough light. A brighter yellow color was used to bring more warmth and light. The right amount of an accent red color helped to create more energy and a feeling of joy.
It’s deeply embedded in our mind that pink is a color reserved for girls and blue is reserved for boys. I know some little girls that liked blue, but I have to admit I don’t know boys that liked pink. I would go for pink, lilac, or green for girls and green, blue, or yellow for boys. I would contrast wall colors with colors of the rugs, comforter covers and wall art. For example if the wall colors are pink I would use whites and greens with it. If the wall colors are green I would use pinks or yellows with it. If the wall colors are blue, yellow or red accents would create a beautiful contrast.
If you are thinking about painting a few rooms in your home any time soon, check out my beautiful new booklet with actual Benjamin Moore color samples “Interior Color, Room by Room Guide”
The best bed for children is made of wood and with a solid headboard, either wood or fabric. A solid wall behind the headboard will add an additional support. For older children bed can be placed similarly to the adults’ bed placement guidelines. It is placed diagonally from the door with a view of the windows just like in all the photos.
For younger children it is best to place their bed by the wall. They will feel more protected and supported if the bed is placed in the corner of the room. It’s often hard to place the bed along the wall because of the windows. Make sure to find a corner that has more wall space and fewer windows.
Many boys love bunk beds, and they are fun when having friends sleeping over, but they are actually quite terrible. The top one creates a visual and energetic pressure for a child sleeping in the lower one, so there will be a feeling of confinement and limitation. The top one is simply dangerous because a child can fall at any time during the night. I would avoid bunk beds even if you have a small room with two children in it.
If your child is school age, you may need to add a desk to their room. It is often quite a challenge to find a good place for a bed and a desk in the same room. You need to be really creative with it and if at all possible place the desk not in front of the window but with the window to the side of the desk. Ideally the desk is placed in a way that a child would have an open space in front of them and a wall behind their back which is rarely possible due to the constrains of the space. Most children end us facing a wall. Consider placing a photo of nature that features open spaces such an an ocean, lake or meadow. It is much better for productivity and creativity to face an open space rather than facing a wall. You may want to minimize the view of the bed. If a child sees the bed, they will be less productive and feel sleepy. Inevitably somehow they end up sitting or lying on the bed doing anything else but not homework.
Make sure there are no sharp objects pointing at the child’s head while they are in bed or sitting at their desk. This includes shelfs, bookcases and edges of dressers. Some children have headboards that have shelfs right behind their heads and there are all kinds of things pointing on their heads and collecting dust.
Often children will resist the change at first, but after they try it, usually they like it. After we worked in the room of the twelve years old boy, his mother emailed me: “After you left I had to tell my son that we were moving his bed and his desk. He was not happy, but now I can’t tell you how happy he is with the change. He keeps saying ‘I love my new bedroom!’ He is definitely sleeping more soundly and longer than before. I can’t believe I didn’t look into this earlier.”
Like with adult’s bedrooms, the same goes with electronic devices in children’s bedrooms. Children are even more sensitive to EMR than adults. I had a case of a young girl who was sleeping for 13 years right above the electrical panel that was in the basement. The panel was leaking and the level of EMR was high at the child’s bed. She slept poorly, had ADD, food sensitivities, low energy and headaches and this wasn’t even the full list of her health and emotional problems. After the bed was moved away from the EMR source she changed pretty dramatically and two years later when I met her again, she was much more stable, played sports, her grades improved and she was relaxed, confident and happy.
Sometimes even a small change if done correctly, can make a big difference.
With great love,
Natalia