How to make the most of a small children’s bedroom

Small rooms have their limitations, but there are some clever ways to maximise space and make the most of a small children’s bedroom. A small room never has to be boring and when you’re decorating a child’s room, you have a great opportunity to get creative!

It wasn’t long ago that I decorated my son’s new bedroom – you can take a look here: New home project: Toddler’s bedroom There wasn’t much I wanted to change with the interior design of the space – I just wanted to upgrade his bed from a cot bed to a single bed. Little K turned 4 last month and he was asking for a ‘big boy bed’ as a birthday present – bless him! This was a bit of a challenge though because of the size and layout of his room, we could fit in a single bed but not a lot else… So a high sleeper is a really great option for making the most of a small children’s bedroom. With a high-sleeper, you generally get a single bed at the top and a desk, wardrobe, drawers and/or sofa underneath depending on the style you go for.

After spending weeks researching, we finally decided on the Ohio High Sleeper from Homebase (it’s now only available at Argos). It arrives in two huge boxes and they will not take them upstairs. So make sure you have a clear spot in the living room or hallway to keep them until you’re ready to put the bed together. The boxes are extremely heavy and took two strong professional movers just to get it through the front door. So the best thing to do is to open up the boxes and take the parts up bit by bit and as you need them. Especially if you’re building the bed in a small bedroom like my son’s, it’s best to bring in the pieces as you need them!

My task was to follow the instructions and lay out the bits of white melamine faced chipboard (standard flatpack furniture material), screws etc. and my ever-patient fiancé’s job was to screw the bits together. If you ever want to test your relationship – do something like this! Luckily the bed was built as we’re in the process of planning our Wedding!

One thing to be aware of is that there are two sizes of these beds – a standard single and a smaller single. We went for the standard single as it can be a nightmare buying mattresses and bedding for non-standard sized beds! You can often end up spending more too…

I picked up these gorgeous Hartnell Homes black and white cotton bed sheets from TK Maxx – a steal at £19.99 as these sheets are normally around £45 for a single duvet cover. As always with TK Maxx – if you see something, snap it up as it’ll be gone fast. Take a look at some other bedding from TK Maxx – I always find great bedding bargains there ; )

To make the most of a small children’s bedroom – storage is so so important. Having a separate wardrobe, drawers, desk and bed can take up loads of space which is great if you have it – but a box room with just a bed can be quite soulless. A high sleeper such as this is a great solution if you need to transition from a cot bed to a single bed, but you don’t need to compromise on storage space.

One of my son’s favourite elements of the Ohio high sleeper was something quite unexpected… We realised that there was quite a lot of space behind the wardrobe and desk. The thin panel that’s supposed to block it off is not structural so we decided not to use it and created a ‘secret den’ underneath the bed. He crawls in underneath the desk space and had a light there as well as some toys and books. He loves it and as it gives him an additional space to play, it’s a massive thumb’s up to making the most of a small children’s bedroom!

This particular bed says it’s suitable for ages 6 and older, but Little K is really confident with using his cousins’ bunk bed and is pretty cautious with things like this and so I knew he’d be ok with it. He knows there are rules about not jumping on his bed, (he can jump on ours) and so far has had no accidents climbing down to use the toilet in the night if he needs to. Mircaulously, in the month that he’s had this bed he’s slept through the night without coming into bed with me. That’s a massive step in his development and for the first time since he was born I get a full night’s sleep every night – hurrah!!

Natalia xo