Inspiring ideas for creative kids’ rooms

Studio Giancarlo Valle designed this room in a Brooklyn loft for a young boy, choosing a colour palette of strong red and blue. They used the canopy to soften the bed and create a tent-like feel, but also to cover a beam that sat overhead. ‘According to Feng Sui, sleeping under a beam creates “bad energy” as it puts pressure on one’s body’ says Valle. giancarlovalle.com

This bedroom belongs to Olivia, the daughter of the Melbourne-based Doherty Design Studio director Mardi Ola. Now 15, Olivia was 10 when they moved into their South Yarra apartment, but Mardi’s romantic, rock ’n’ roll scheme meant that the room grew with her. The bed is an antique, the ‘Eden’ rug was made by Behruz Studio and the lightning bolts on the wall were bought at a David Bowie exhibition. dohertydesignstudio.com.au

LA-based interior designer Sarah Sherman Samuel’s son Archie was promised bunk beds in their new family home, so that’s exactly what she made him. Their cocooning feel is emphasised by being placed inside a curved alcove, which is theatrically framed by velvet curtains. Spotted H&M Home bedding and a rug by Justina Blakeney for Loloi lend the space a mischievious feel. sarahshermansamuel.com

The Farrow & Ball team used the ‘fifth wall’ of this room to make a statement, painting it in the style of a circus tent. They opted for diminishing bands of ‘Blazer’ and ‘Wevet’ to recreate the traditional red and white stripes. The ceiling has been counterbalanced with breezy, blue walls in ‘Lulworth Blue’. farrow-ball.com

Soft grey walls (Earthborn Paint’s ‘Cat’s Cradle’) provide a muted backdrop for Farrow & Ball’s joyful ‘Yellow Ground’, which bathes the shutters and floor of this upbeat room in year-round sunshine. The space was created by interior designer Jo Berryman for her daughter and features a Made.com sofa, Designers Guild rug and custom-made coffee table. joberryman.com

For their daughter’s bedroom in their Milan home, furniture designer Francesco Meda and Alessandra Orsi, a creative director and illustrator, devised a light, airy scheme with striped walls – created by Alessandra – and fabrics evoking the deckchairs found at the Venice Lido. dalwindesigns.com

Mother-and-daughter design duo Monica Damonte and Victoria Lacarrieu created this fairy tale-like room for the 18-month-old child of a family living in Piedmont’s Langhe region. They installed two trees that were sourced from a forest in Denmark, then cut and polished by a local lumberjack. damonteelacarrieu.com

Róisín Lafferty of KLD led on this project in Bushfield, Ireland, which included a nursery for the client’s new daughter. ‘We wanted to create a dreamlike sanctuary for her; “head in the clouds” was what we were thinking,’ she says. The room needed to adapt as the baby grew, so the wardrobe was designed to frame both cot and bed. kingstonlaffertydesign.com

Natalie Tredgett designed this bedroom for her daughter in their west-London home. The carpet’s strict geometry creates an intriguing visual tension with the organic shapes in Cole & Son’s ‘Hummingbirds’ wallpaper. A neon-pink Ikea desk is tough enough to take anything that’s thrown at (or drawn on) it. natalietredgett.com

Japanese aesthetics are balanced by a relaxed Californian rawness in the Amsterdam home of Valérie Boerma and Bart van Seggelen, the couple behind Studio Barde + vanVoltt. A custom-made bunk turns bedtime into an adventure, while a Ferm Living rug and Zara Home chair add cosiness and texture. barde-vanvoltt.com