top photo:www.potterybarnkids.com
I asked myself this question the other day as I browsed through one of my favourite magazines. It featured the home of a young family with a toddler and infant. The home was decorated in a style I like to call "clean", i.e. little clutter, simple clean-lined furnishings, but not necessarily modern. More of a modern/vintage blend, with a tendency towards minimalism. It was actually quite a pleasant home, and I pictured the children's rooms to be fairly devoid of clutter, but decorated with brighter accents and just the right juvenile artwork and "quality" toys. Restrained, but happy still. Well, I flipped the page and if the descriptive hadn't been below the picture labelling it a child's bedroom, then I would have been none the wiser. The toddler's room was devoid of personality and certainly not a happy, child's space. Tan bedding, cream painted walls, very little on the walls, just a tricycle in the middle of the floor that you suspected was placed there simply for photographic effect. Blah!!!
Now, I'm not saying we all have to turn our children's bedrooms and nurseries into candyland or gussy them up in the perfect rendition of Mother Goose... but surely a child's space should announce itself as such?? I thoroughly enjoyed decorating my children's nurseries and delighted in finally being able to use colours that didn't always suit the rest of my house. I loved the scaled down versions of chairs and ottomans that were perfect for my little ones to curl up in and enjoy a book. Sure, I could just have pushed a spare recliner in from the family room, but what's the fun of that? The chairs in the family room belong in the family room. My kids were going to have just enough stimulation via toys and artwork in their rooms and the toys were to be enjoyed and looked at and played with...not stored behind a chic sliding wood panel door that hides the wonders of childhood. Babies (and toddlers) are babies for such a short time...we need to enjoy them, not hide all evidence of them.
I definitely agree that parents should make their child's furniture choices ones that will grow with them, but not jump ahead and purchase the leather club chair that will look so hip when they are 16 and hanging out with their equally hip friends. Babies don't need to be hip, and you can't streamline them or make them minimalists. Babies and children are larger than life...not literally of course... but just listen to their squeals of delight and drink in their big, toothy grins and you are reminded that restraint is not something normally associated with them.
My advice is to enjoy this fleeting stage, purchase sensible but realistic furniture, and have FUN with all the accessories available to dress up their rooms in fitting style. There will be plenty of time to have an empty home devoid of "clutter". Lie down on the floor of your baby's room, look around and ask yourself this, "Do you really want your child to have to look at a book to see the colours and symbols of childhood?" Relax and enjoy bringing some colour and fun into your home. Babies grow up too fast as it is...
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