A Bedroom Your Child Won’t Outgrow

The title of the article should be, "A Bedroom Your Child Won't Outgrow for Rich People."

I love many of the ideas in this article and certainly agree that purchasing for the long term (even with a modest budget) can be useful. Our twins are 23 and I decided, when they were born, to buy a dresser (with a changing pad on top) rather than place an ugly changing table in their room. After my son fell on his head and a agonizing trip to the hospital, we decided an inexpensive Ikea table was a fine idea in the bathroom. I sold it to a friend when we no longer needed it

There are a lot of negative comments here so I thought I’d chime in. I can’t defend the $2400 price tag on a dresser for a child’s room but I do agree with the overall approach of the designers. We too bought neutral furniture (but we purchased from West Elm at prices we thought were reasonable) and yes, we too bought a cream colored rug for my son’s room because we thought it looked nice and happily, after 6 years, the room still looks great. We absolutely get spills, but we clean them up immediately after they happen. And my son, who sees that we care about maintaining his room, just as we do with all the other rooms in our apartment, has learned to be thoughtful about his room. He’s rough and tumble like any other kid (probably more so!) but he knows he can’t spread slime on the rug or plaster his walls with stickers. I think it’s okay to teach kids to respect their things, and for them to learn that not everything is for their amusement and that there’s a place for everything.

I was advised not to buy baby furniture and instead get forever furniture. I picked out Stanley Furniture and it was the best decision we made. It's classic, sturdy and timeless. Now that my son is in elementary school, we selected a NY Mets-themed room and we all love it. It's something that I'm hoping he'll keep for years to come. Save your money and borrow a crib like I did. I'm so glad I did.

My twins currently share a room. We're looking for a place big enough for them to have their own rooms. Instead of a changing table, we put a changing pad on top of a small desk. Eventually, the desk will go into one kid's room.

As the owner of a house with wallpapered ceilings, I can authoritatively say, it is a truly terrible thing. Please at least remove it before you sell your house.

I have 15 month olds and when I look at these pictures I just see disaster and/or a huge mess at every turn. A $3K dresser in a baby's room? That thing will have a giant teddy bear sticker on it in no time. And it won't come off. A the white rug? I am guessing these people's twins can't crawl or walk yet. Also, buying at $3K dresser so as not have to waste money on lots of furniture is kind of funny.

Brilliant! I love Amanda Reynal's idea of wallpaper on the ceiling. Cool!

Do the children of parents who are not wealthy get aesthetically-interesting rooms, too, or is 'whimsy' strictly the domain of those who can afford a $2,234 dresser? Also: reupholstering "forever" vintage chairs intended to be used for nursing with "about" $2,500 worth of light blue velvet? Really? So the baby can puke all over them? Because that's what babies tend to do after nursing. (None of these rooms look like a child should actually touch them, let alone play in them.) How about setting a good example from birth and creating a more kid-appropriate space using thrift-sourced items, then donating the difference to families struggling to simply care for their children, who would likely prefer a hot meal over 'a foundation piece.' The tone-deafness here is pretty astonishing.

What happened to kids putting up their own stuff, like drawings, and, as they get older, ratty posters of bands and singers and movies and heartthrobs they like? Not pretty enough?

$2,500 to cover two vintage chairs for a 2 year old's room?? In light blue velvet. What is she smoking?

A dresser for a child's room that costs $2,234? That's a lot of money that most people could not afford. Concerning that The NY Times would include so casually, Actually possible to get a kid's dresser for much less at Target and numerous other stores.

This is a cold and unfriendly color palate. I would feel badly for a child raised in this environment. There's plenty of time for neutral, bland and boring--which is where design is currently stagnating. Let childhood be for imagination, excitement and wonderment. Bring back the color!

Let's start with NOT hiring an interior designer to "do" ones baby's bedroom. Then, let's find a chest that is less than $2400 to use as a changing table. How about an old cheap mahogany one with a fresh coat of paint? They are usually heavy as lead so no fear of the child pulling it over on themselves. Then move on to a large, bound carpet remnant. That rug is going to get FILTY! It will be drooled on, pooped on, peed on over the years. It needs to be a "disposable" price. Art? Buy calendars with old children's book illustrations and frame them. Find colorful posters, and frame them simply. Velvet chairs in which to nurse? Are you kidding? Babies spit up - even breast-fed babies. That chair will be a mess before the baby is a month old. A good old fashioned wooden rocking chair with a comfortable cushion works quite nicely. Paint the walls - walls take a beating in a nursery/small child's room. Use washable/scrubbable paint. Find some old twin beds and paint them. It's nice to have a bed in a baby's room - just crawl in under the covers for that middle of the night feeding, especially in winter. And again, forget the decorator, whether or not they have a baby or small children. If they're working full-time, they also have a nanny and a housekeeper and are clueless about the actual use of such a room.

I laughed when I saw the picture - white in a kids room? What kind of angels are your offspring???

Thank goodness I read the NYT for its informative articles on climate change and its biting commentary on our embarrassing excuse of a president....because your interior design suggestions for a nursery are laughable . I won't be passing them on to my son and daughter in law. They are buried so deeply under their student loans that a $2,234 changing table/dresser and $2,500 fabric for two chairs would seem like a sick joke.

I love the concept but I laugh at the dresser for $2,234...really???? While this idea of making a childs room easily transformable as he or she grows, which can help families of every economic level, who in the world, except the top 2% can or even would buy a piece of furniture for a child costing over a thousand dollars? You started off being real then ventured into the prividged. bummer.

My favorite is the $2,234.00 chest of drawers in the nursery, holding diapers & wipes in the drawers. I guess you can rationalize the cost, as it's servicing twins... Still ridiculous.

Don't get the wallpaper obsession. Paint is relatively cheap and an easy fix/upgrade as time goes by. Also, if the neighbor upstairs has a leak and you get water damage, wallpaper is a PITA to remove. And you have to remove it all or it looks terrible. Also, for babies and toddlers, their rooms are primarily a place to sleep. It should be soothing, attractive and safely furnished. As they get older, kids may spend more time in their rooms playing, reading, talking with friends, and they usually have very definite ideas about what they want. Within reason, let them make the room their own. They'll be grown up and gone before you know it.

Good for toddlers, good for the 24 year old who moves back home, lol.

I am betting all the commentors below are parents; I bet many of the designers are not.

$2234 for a chest of drawers? And so on. All a baby needs is a crib. And that gets handed down. through the family. A couple of cloth books. A plush bunny; later, some donut blocks from Fisher-Price. Crocheted blankie from Grandma.

Wait...these were designed? I'm a schlep 54 year old male and my wife and I did just fine "decorating" our children's bedrooms on their own. Oh, and the $2400 dresser? That thing will have dings and chunks out of it with three years. Trust me.

Oh, just $2200 for a dresser? I'm sure that's just peanuts for most of us New Yorkers. Oh, $3200 for two chairs in a toddler's room? Also peanuts. And also not a complete waste of money when the toddler colors all over them with markers, play-doh, etc.

The only pieces of furniture we recommended in the first year of parenthood is a lazy boy rocker and a pack n play. Our child was a fussy sleeper the rocker saved our marriage. We could take turns dozing off in the rocker with the baby in our arms nursing away. Our child didn't take to the crib. We ended up putting my mother's milk scented tops in bed with our baby in pack n play. So long as I smelled like I was nearby the baby happily slept for hours. We also recommend putting a hot air humidifier in the baby's room to help them sleep with clear nasal passages during the cold and flu season.

I agree with the concept of buying furniture that will last through a child's youth. We, too, went with the dresser-as-a-changing table, and it worked very well (only we had a $150 Ikea dresser instead of a $2,234 one). We also moved our sons right to a twin bed when they outgrew their cribs, dispensing with toddler beds altogether. However, with the exception of the room with bunks and the map wall, these bedrooms all look very beige and bland. What's with those sad stuffed animals in the last photo, and the arrows on the wall? So depressing.

Understanding the photos are esthetic accompaniments to the article, should be noted that per infant safe sleep advice, cribs should be clear of toys and pillows.

Interesting. I was born in the 60's and my parents had no problem creating rooms that I could grow with up. It was simple, durable furniture, colorful curtains, a rocking chair and toys. Once I was out of the crib, I had a single bed, dresser, toy box and a child-sized rocking chair. Same colorful curtains. I babysat the neighborhood kids in the 70's and things were done much the same way. As for being cost-effective per the notes in this article? Very, especially since some of my stuff was handed down to me by a cousin. Maybe it's just me, but none of the rooms - except for the bunk-bed room - look happy and energetic. Where did the child go?

My mother decorated my childhood bedroom in Laura Ashley, including a wallpaper border. Then I turned 14. I tore down the border[1], which left a brown stripe running around the room. Then a bed slat broke and I insisted on sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Coupled with stuffed to the brim bookcases and a huge bulletin board full of doodles, comic strips, and "found objects," I thought my room was really cool. [1]I had permission but I think Mom was hoping I'd change my mind.

My first child was born during the winnie the pooh trend about 20 years ago where the original drawings were once again becoming popular (as opposed to the Disney version) so I put up a (very wide) border in his nursery and decorated with other pooh accessories. It was really sweet and cheerful, and I don't know if he liked it, but I did. Then number two came along and I painted her room an awful mint green that struck me as bright as cheery, and reminded me of mint ice cream. The rooms were child-like and whimsical and just perfect for that (short) moment. Definitely well before each child hit the double number, the rooms went through another transition, winnie the pooh border came down, mint green was replaced with white paint and horse posters. Teenage years another room makeover. Now both kids in college, and every time they come home, I ask them if they will take a few things off their walls. Both look at me with a horrified face and and tell me they love their rooms just the way they are. By-the-way, both are huge fanes of A.A. Milne and have kept his books over the years. I know I could have saved some money by decorating with neutrals from the get-go, but I am so glad I didn't.

To each their own, but I think this is terribly bland advice - a kind of regression to the mean of childhood that smooths out all the hilarious peaks, valleys and outlier events that make parenting such fun. Our kids rooms are THEIRS. Apart from safety issues, this means that they got to pick out their (oftentimes ridiculous) furniture, paint, etc. Each phase was marked with an outpouring of love for stickers or animals or cartoon characters, blazing through horse doll collecting and a highly regrettable Dora the Explorer phase. It absolutely was work peeling off those stickers, repainting, and so on but I can't imagine trading all those fun phases for all the "neutrality" and taupe-y decorating advice in this article. It strikes me as parental timidity.

I am contemplating a Persian rug and velvet chairs in a child's room …

I love the “incorporating your child’s creativity into the design”. Like many others I thought I did a nice job on my daughter’s room. I’m glad I didn’t go overboard and spend too much money because five years later my daughter imposed her new world order version of aesthetic. Picture this: scribbled markers and crayons on walls, floor, bed, closet, linens, bookcase, window, rug, and door. Stickers plastered on every surface, washi tape crisscrossing the floor and hanging from the ceiling fan. Plus she seems to be a bit of a pack rat. So in my experience children’s rooms rarely end up looking like the dreamy catalog vision.

As a sideline to my contracting business I did safety checks before the first baby arrived. (First thing to check are the car tires.) I would recommend replacing the small wood table with the sharp corners in the first picture, and the elephant should be off the floor. Window guards might be required and I'd like to see a handrail on the bunkbed. Of these, I think the handrail is the most important.

Disagree about the changing table. We thought it was one of the best things we bought.

Good advice, we left the walls a light green when our little one came along. We bought white, good quality furniture that can see the child from infant through high school. We bought a slip covered rocker chair that can easily take another color slip cover and the rocker part comes off and you have a lovely chair. I framed bright, antique needle points that look great together, include a bit of whimsy but are not juvenile. The toys can change from age to age, but the room is set up to last her many years.

As soon as that baby can crawl, that blue rug in the Brooklyn nursery will become a nightmare! Tiny things fall, adults don't notice, baby puts in mouth along with whatever carpet fibers they can pull off.

If those arrow decals "peel right off" when it's time to redecorate, then they peel right off when a child is in that crib and the arrows are right at eye- and finger-level. (And if you're going to go to the trouble of spacing literally dozens and dozens of them exactly, and getting them all level, why not just do wallpaper? Wallpaper is not THAT difficult. And it's harder to swallow or choke on than one of those little arrows.)

Why is the Brooklyn nursery missing window guards? It looks like it's on the second floor or higher because those appear to be tree tops. Window guards are the law in NYC. Don't forget them, it could save a life.

These rooms look like they were designed for the parents to show how cool they are instead of for the child.

What is wrong with a child having a child's room? Little ones like primary colors and I saw very little of that in these rooms. I agree that is isn't necessary to use scaled down furniture but a coat of paint is not expensive or time consuming. A world map for a toddler, really? If you are using a single accent wall with wall paper that can be changed out, why not use something the child would enjoy? Stark white might work for a teen but is a disaster for a young child. Few people keep a room the same and not repainted for decades. Let a child be a child. Paint their room to reflect their needs and desires as they grow and change.