Creative Kids’ Spaces

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, MA.