Toddler Design Logic
Lillian, my four (going on forty) year old daughter, has a pretty sweet set-up at home. As an only child, she has dominion over the entire second story of our century-old farmhouse, including three awesomely-sized bedrooms and a full bath. Over the last year, we’ve been changing the spaces to function better for her (read: her stuff) and have involved Lil in each critical decision for the best outcome.
The second story’s three rooms functioned as follows: the largest is the super-cool playroom complete with custom painted murals of jungle animals. The middle one was Lil’s original bedroom, and the last was a good-sized guestroom for frequent family visits. Last Christmas, after having taken the hints from Lil that she had claimed the larger guestroom as her own (dragging her bedding to the other room after we went to bed was a good sign), we completely transformed the space into toddler heaven. Lil chose the color (Sherwin Williams 6709 “gleeful”), which she described as “happy spring grass”, the funky headboard (“polka dots, please, mama”), the artwork (“pictures of all my friends and Grandmary, please”) as well as all nine different fabrics which back the open hanging bookshelves (“let’s go to hovvvvy lovvvy and choose!”).
The result was a fantastic blend of all her favorite fabrics, colors and textures. I recall being amazed that she was able to look at different furniture pieces from the other upstairs rooms and determine what would fit in the new space. She vetoed the large storage armoire in favor of the loveseat. Her reason? “I have a big closet anyway, and I’d rather sit couch with a snack and watch tv in here”. Can’t argue with that.
Her design logic was applied to a recent space issue on the second floor. We have a busy summer planned with tons of family and friends visiting and realized we needed another bed to accommodate them. The logical choice was a daybed in the playroom. Knowing how design savvy Lil is about her spaces, I ran the plan past her. I was shocked to see her face fall and hear the words “no, you can’t” follow. “Why not, Bean?” I asked. She thought very hard for a minute, then replied “I feel it’s a space issue”. Picking myself up off the floor, I remembered that she’s four and that some of my clients couldn’t even vocalize that technical concern in such a succinct way.
After asking Lil more questions about her “space issue”, we determined that her fear was that I would position the bed on an angle in the playroom, much like we have the bed arranged in her bedroom. Once I explained that the daybed goes along the wall and wouldn’t eat into her playspace, she was amenable to the idea. “Okay, mama, let’s go pick out some fun bedding now…..”
