If your children have grown past the days when the easily shared the same bedroom without question and now are complaining about having to share the same space, the easy days are over. At least, they seem over until you get creative with your kids’ bedroom design. Children who are nearing the end of elementary school or who are already well into middle school start expecting more privacy and more personal space, and are less appeased by new toys than they are by being treated more like adults. If you don’t have the space to give your kids separate bedrooms, some creative approaches can help you tame the bedroom space into one that has a more grownup feel, but is also distinctively workable for children.
The most critical aspect to consider when redesigning a shared bedroom is space. Having two fun, separately decorated twin-sized beds may have been great for first graders sharing the same room, but it’s far less fun for two seventh graders. The older the children get, the more bed space they’ll need, and also the more floor space they’ll need. This poses a serious problem, as giving each kid a full size bed would eliminate much of the remaining free floor space inside the bedroom, while using typical twin-sized kids’ bunk beds would prevent them from getting the sleeping space they need. A great third option that is far more workable is to get full size kids’ bunk beds. That way, you can fit two full beds into the room for the size of one, and still end up with far more floor space than the children had initially.
- Andrew Stawarz / Foter
Now, with all that extra floor space, you can provide each of your children with space for a desk as well as some seating. Using wicker chairs and a wicker coffee table can provide your children with space to entertain friends at a more reasonable cost than hardwood furniture, while you can find used desks for cheap on the next and refurbish them with some quick paint and polishing. The shared wicker furniture will help encourage your children to continue sharing and learning to live together with one another (a great asset come their first years in the college dorms later on in life), while the individual desks will still provide them with plenty of personal storage space.
Of course, so long as you’re creative with your approach, you can expand upon these ideas to make even more out of the bedroom space for your two kids sharing the same bedroom.
