apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My brothers and I shared a room until I was about ten; they continued to share a room until leaving home. As much as I like to look at gorgeous kids' rooms, I remember how much pleasure we got out of rearranging the furniture and finding decorations for it for $0.05 at garage sales and orchestrating occasional changes in beds (now you take the top bunk, I'll move to the lower one, and he'll move to the single bed).

It might not've been a photogenic space, but it certainly encouraged creativity and thought about the use of space more than the brightest, bestest adult-defined bedroom could've.

I agree with wordling. get furntiure that can be used seperately or together and let your kids design their own room. So much more fun for them!

I recently saw an episode of Deserving Design with Vern Yip on HGTV where he designed a small room for two sisters to share.

He placed two West Elm day beds side by side against a wall under the room's windows and used curtain panels on hospital tracks for privacy. The beds being against the wall really opened up the room up and created space for a desk, storage and a television.

"Children's Spaces from Zero to Ten" by Judith Wilson has a great section on shared rooms. Lots of great pictures with text that gives tips on everything from boys and girls sharing, how to create privacy and personal territory within a space (not always with a physical barrier!) and allowing for differing tastes and interests. And I love this quote on one of the pages:

"My sister Sophie and I talk after lights-out and plot midnight feasts" Jack, age 7

Doesn't that make you want to give your kids a room to share even if they don't have to?

I would love to see more shared rooms, too. I am pregnant with #2 and they will have to share a nine by nine room. I know this presents MANY challenges, but I feel that when they're young, it's actually better for them to be together than apart.

I have two children, ages 2 and 6, that are sharing a room. We bought a full-size metal-framed loft bed from IKEA for my son which was 6 ft. high. We cut the legs and ladder to 5 ft. so it would not be so high. Then we used the space under his loft bed to make a small room for my daughter. I hung fabric from the bottom of my son's bed on 3 sides to give the illusion of walls. This allowed me to decorate the two rooms separately and my kids are absolutely thrilled with it.