Creative Kids’ Spaces

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Other great ideas for spaces are attic eaves, converted walk-in closets, nooks in between windows and even areas where you can wall off a bonus room and create a space just for your child. Marcus Hunt playhouse. Photo by Dena Salman. When Dr. Randy Pausch gave his famous “last lecture” in September of 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University, he talked about the creative space his parents gave him when he was a teen, letting him paint his bedroom at will, even if it meant they ended up with the quadratic formula on the walls. He implored parents, “If your kids want to paint their bedroom, as a favor to me, let them do it. It’ll be okay. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.” What Pausch understood and what kids innately know is that children need space that’s theirs, where they can let loose and really be creative. “Engaging kids in active play to inspire creativity is so important,” says Glen Halliday, founder of Windham, Maine-based Kids Crooked House. “There are so many things in kids’ lives today where their creativity is force-fed to them, that doing anything you can create that evokes that imagination and creative play is key.” Design for Your Kids, Not for You One of the first mistakes parents make when creating a space for their kids is not involving them in the process enough. The best way to set out on a project like this is making your kids a part of it from the beginning. “There are so many times a parent will design a house for their child, and it will have all the bells and whistles,” Halliday says, “but if you ask a kid, they just want the simplest things.” And giving up a little control can make all the difference in how well-loved the room becomes. “What really makes a difference is when parents allow their kids to conceptualize and pick the colors and textures and have a say in what elements they would like in the space,” says Doug Masters, founder of the design and building firm Masters Touch in Medfield, Mass. Find the Best Space for Your Child The average home and yard has lots of spaces that are terrific for kids. Just looking at the world through their (much smaller) eyes can help you find areas for them you might have overlooked before. When David and Kelli Bercik moved into their Duluth, Ga., home, they transformed an area under the stairs into a playspace for three young children. Dubbed “The Secret Room” by the family, it’s decked out with whiteboard panels on the walls, a ladder that leads up to a balcony reading nook and kid-friendly foam mats over the carpeting. A finished basement makes a spacious room for kids. Photo credit: Kenneth Wyner Photography. Copyright GTM Architects. “I tend to be on the creative side, so when I saw this space that was unfinished (in the basement), with the little door, I just knew we had to "create" something for the kids, their own space,” Kelli Bercik says. Other great ideas for spaces are attic eaves, converted walk-in closets, nooks in between windows and even areas where you can wall off a bonus room and create a space just for your child. Look Outside for Other Hidden Opportunities Another great—but often forgotten—space is the backyard. Marcus Hunt, a carpenter on HGTV’s Designed to Sell, turned a friend’s old shed into a playhouse for his friend’s five-year-old daughter. She wanted to use the area for dancing and performing, so Hunt customized the space just for her needs. “It was rough 2x4 framing inside, so I used plywood to cover the exposed areas,” he says. “I made a little deck with railing and stairs on the back half, and I added chalkboard paint on the walls so she could create her own scenery.” He also covered the floor in rubber tiles for comfort and safety, made a reading nook under the balcony with pillows and even created a “telephone”—“I made a little telephone system from the inside to outside using 3/4-inch copper pipe with a 1 1/2 to 3/4-inch reducer piece on either end for the mouthpiece and earpiece.” If you’re not up for creating your own super-custom shed, giving your children a playhouse is a great choice because kids really treat the space as if it’s their own little home. “I’ve seen kids wait while the house is being assembled with boxes of their stuff, just like they’re moving into their own first place,” says Halliday. “They put up their photos, take toys and pillows…they have such ownership because it really is their own house.”

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