Perfect rooms to give kids sweet dreams

THEY are only pint-sized, but there's nothing like having a child in the house to make you wonder if you'll see an uncluttered floor or neutral colours ever again.

With their mind-boggling collection of toys - the smaller they are, the bigger the toys - their vast wardrobe of outfits and shoes, gaming equipment and DVDs, picture books and their own portfolio of artistic masterpieces created from twirly pasta shapes, decaying leaves and lots of very red poster paint, children have definitely failed to grasp the concept that less is more.

No wonder that when it comes to finding somewhere to put all this stuff and a place for them to rest their weary heads, kids' bedrooms often begin to resemble an explosion in a Toys R Us megastore.

Yet houseproud parents raised on Habitat and Ikea, Next Directory homes pages and television programmes obsessed with interior design have been increasingly turning their attention to knocking junior's space into shape.

And unlike in the past when children were grateful for rooms furnished with granny's old dressing table, a second hand single bed and whatever wallpaper and paint was left over from the rest of the house, today's generation of pampered princes and princesses have far greater expectations.

Beds shaped like Formula One cars for the boys, princess castle murals with matching lamp, rugs and pastel pink furniture for the girls and then teen rooms inspired by the glossy pages of Elle Home... the sky is the limit when it comes to giving our children the bedroom of their dreams.

While a white junior wardrobe and matching kids' room chest of drawers from The White Company at over 1000 may be out of many parents' reach, according to Jo Avery of furnishing specialist Jonathan Avery at Church Hill Place, Morningside, there's plenty who are prepared to push the boat out when it comes to lavishing attention on their children's rooms.

"The recession has had an impact," she nods, "but parents are certainly spending a lot more nowadays than they did when I was young - even down to bringing in interior designers to create their children's rooms.

"They've got the rest of the house looking how they want it, so they want the children's rooms to look good too."

Until recently the shop's bespoke furniture collection included child-size sleigh beds and handmade junior wardrobes. One stunning queen-size bed nestling under a net canopy was snapped up by one mum for her daughter.

"It's not unusual for parents to buy double beds for the children these days," adds Jo. "Children seem to go straight from cot to double bed."

Of course they are then unlikely to smother such a lavish bed under a SpongeBob quilt cover - so Jo has seen a significant rise in parents swapping TV character designs for the likes of Cath Kidston prints and Greengate patchwork quilts with matching accessories.

"There are parents who really don't want Thomas The Tank Engine," she says. "They want something that will last - so they might have plain pastel colours for the bedding and brighten the rooms with pretty accessories."

You only need to look at the latest offering from John Lewis to see how the trend for stylish kids' rooms has become mainstream - the Edinburgh store has just launched Little Home, its first coordinated collection in children's furniture.

The range includes stylishly themed lighting, bed linen, furniture and rugs - cupcakes and polka dots for the girls, robots, rivets, sail ships and cars for the boys. There's even a coordinating range of dining room accessories, baking utensils, storage boxes and towels.

Morningside interior designer and mum-of-two Emily Black recommends built-in furniture with plenty of storage space to cater for all their baggage, and careful planning to ensure furnishings last well into teenage years.

But striking a balance between the Boden catalogue style you yearn for and the Hannah Montana or Stig look they crave, requires a diplomatic approach, she warns.

"It's probably best to give children simple choices: they can have this shade or that shade. Handing them the paint chart and asking what they want is a big mistake!"

Allowing them to express their individual tastes can be as simple as sticking to a neutral base colour and allowing them to choose a colour for a feature wall.

"Let them pick a brighter shade for one or two walls," she adds. "That way the kids get the colours they want but the room isn't overwhelmed by a sickly pink or green glow.

"And when it's time for a change, you only have to paint those walls!"

• Emily Black, www.emilyblackinteriors.com; Jonathan Avery, www.jonathanaveryhomestore.co.uk; The Little Home range is at John Lewis, www.johnlewis.com.