Kid's Room: Ideas and Projects for Children's Spaces [Paperback]

Jennifer Levy (Author)

Book Description

It's an age-old dilemma--how to create a stylish room that still allows a kid to be a kid. Kids' Rooms solves the problem by presenting fresh, original ideas for creating fun yet functional spaces. Aimed at parents of 4- to 13-year-olds, this essential guide to pint-sized dcor offers practical counsel on the necessities of room layout--everything from furniture and fixtures to lighting and window treatments is covered. Color choices, fabrics, and themes are explored along with kid-friendly storage systems (a Folding Screen with Pockets!). In addition, Kids' Rooms showcases 15 fabulous and innovative rooms, that will pique the imagination. These featured rooms, such as the Log Cabin Retreat, the Purple Power Room, and Sheer Heaven, all blend form and function with charm and creativity. Best of all, Kids' Rooms includes numerous projects with easy-to-follow directions, demonstrating that redecorating need not be difficult or expensive. A must-have for anyone who's ever faced the challenge of decorating a kid's room.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Kids' Rooms is a mixed bag: it contains some good design and safety tips, and it is one of the most attractive books in print on decorating kids' rooms. But it also contains tips like this: "If you prefer to use blankets on your child's bed, layer them for added warmth, adjusting the number according to the season." So although one might be tempted to regard this book as symptomatic of a slew of irritating trends (parents' urge to control and systematize children's lives, publishers' urge to stretch what could have been a very good magazine article to the breaking point of a costly full-length book), let's instead take a look at what it offers.

Jennifer Lévy's gorgeous photographs of gorgeous rooms, for one thing. If these beautifully lit, enthusiastically gotten-up bedrooms don't inspire you to cross the threshold into the most forbidden room in the house--ignoring the "DO NOT ENTER. THIS MEANS YOU, MOM" sign on the door--then nothing will. You'll be going at it with stencils and chalkboard paint in no time. The Bon Jovi posters in your 13-year-old's purple-and-pink room won't stand a chance.

The book also features several easy, step-by-step projects like lacy lampshades (spray-painted with a doily stencil), a harlequin-design floor (although the instructions specify using polyurethane varnish, which is expressly banned from use in kids' rooms by the "safety tip" four pages later), a folding screen room-divider (canvas stretchers form the frame, and handy patch pockets are sewn onto each panel), an easy-wipe-up vinyl "play tablecloth" with pinked edges and decorative weights at the corners, a dreamy organza pillow sham, and a handprint-decorated light-switch plate. --Liana Fredley

From Library Journal

These books are aimed at anyone interested in designing children's bedrooms and kid-friendly houses. Jordan considers every room of the home when discussing children's needs, including bathrooms, storage rooms, and outdoor and indoor play areas, and also shows how to incorporate children's activities into the family room and kitchen. She also presents a larger range of bedrooms for children from babies to teenagers than is found in Jemima Mills's From a House to a Home (LJ 1/01). L vy considers all aspects of designing a child's bedroom, including lighting, furniture, floor and wall coverings, and window treatments. This book's strength is the large number of color photographs depicting designer-created rooms, accompanied by a discussion of how the child's needs and desires have been incorporated into the design. Projects are interspersed throughout, but illustrations are not included. A list of resources is provided in both books. The Kidspace Idea Book is recommended for its overall treatment of decorating for children, with Kids' Rooms as a well-illustrated companion if needed.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811828417
• ISBN-13: 978-0811828413
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Remodeling & Renovation > Children's Rooms

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best book on this topic out there!, April 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Kid's Room: Ideas and Projects for Children's Spaces (Paperback)

Jennifer Levy's book on kid's rooms is a much needed breath of fresh air in the home decorating book world. Looking for a book to inspire and teach me how to decorate my kid's room, I was shocked to find so many books with strange, difficult and outright unattractive ideas. This book is NOT one of those.

My favorite idea in the book is the folding screen with pockets...living in New York City, where space is a real premium, I found that I could slip books, toys and other items in the pockets while use the screen as a natural divider. Jennifer's instructions were simple, easy and the photographs were gorgeous.

I'm buying this book for my friends. It was definitely worth it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not horrible, but there are better out there, January 25, 2006

By 

Kristen Ramsay (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kid's Room: Ideas and Projects for Children's Spaces (Paperback)

The first 2/3 of the book deals with decorating elements -- light, color, furniture, and so on. If you are looking primarily for room after room of pictures to inspire you, this is not the one for you. There are only 9 projects in the 156 pages, and very little instruction on how to acheive a look, so if you are looking for a primer on mimicing a picture in the book -- its not for you. And as one reader noted, this manual is heavily girl-room centric. There are only 11 rooms profiled -- 8 of which are for girls only (highly reliant on pinks and purples, lace and sheers). The few "boy" rooms are nearer to gender neutral and are underdressed compared to the rest.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Waste Of Money, October 7, 2005

By 

karin - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kid's Room: Ideas and Projects for Children's Spaces (Paperback)

Basically I found this book showing pictures of what not to do. When I am looking to decorate my child's room, I would not want it to look like most of the pictures in the book. Also most of the pictures were geared towards little girls and not boys. The book was just empty. I read/skimmed it in ten minutes and then threw it aside, thinking to myself, what a waste. If you want something special for your children's rooms don't waste your time and money on this one!