10 design details that made our kids' room work

Daylight · Natural materials · Floor play · Texture · Prints · Personal items · Lighting · Reading nook · Hidden storage · Plants

I get asked about my kids' room setup often. Not because it is magazine-worthy, but because it works. As an architect, I think about spaces differently, and I have spent years testing what helps two small boys play independently without the room descending into chaos. This is what I have landed on: 10 design details that balance sensory richness with practical calm.

When you hear the word sensory, it probably makes you think of engaging the five senses. But sensory design can also be about familiarity. It is about creating a grounding space that minimises overwhelm and makes room for creativity. The welcome by-product of a well thought-out space is relaxation. If you have ever spent a whole day on screens, you know that sensory de-stimulation is as valuable for adults as it is for children.

1. Daylight first, everything else second

The most basic requirement, and the one people get wrong most often. I see a lot of homes where the basement becomes the designated playroom. I understand the logic: contain the mess downstairs. But daylight changes everything.

The way light moves across a room during the day is dynamic. It creates shadow play. It makes fine motor tasks easier because children can clearly see what they are doing, whether that is stacking two pieces of Duplo carefully together or threading beads. When choosing where play happens in your home, prioritise the room with the best natural light. Not the room with the most space.

2. Natural materials as counterbalance

In the age of dopamine decor and the resurgence of bold colour, natural materials are the counterbalance. They are muted notes: grounding and organic. In our room we balance bright colour pops with wood, linen, and stone.

Intense tones work better when they have something quiet to sit against. And natural materials engage touch and smell too. A wooden stacking toy feels different from a plastic one. That difference matters more than we think.

3. Play on the floor

The floor is where the real work happens. Low tables, floor cushions, and a wipeable mat turn any room into a proper play surface. I think of the floor as the main stage. Everything else supports it.

This is part of why our Huske mats are textured but without pattern. They provide a tactile base without adding visual noise. When children can spread out on a clean, contained surface, they stay longer and play deeper.

4. Texture and dimension

Similar to natural materials, but I think of texture more broadly. It is about layers and dimension. We have a Ferm Living Kids quilted play mat hung on the wall, which counteracts the shiny glass frames of the posters. Our Studio Roof 3D sculptures add another layer.

The wooden framing on my son's bed creates a kind of front and back of stage to his bunk. Combined with the daylight, there is a constant shifting quality to the room. All of this is to say that no one sense ever works in isolation. Touch, light, depth, and surface all talk to each other.

5. Prints that do not talk down

When I was a child, I was captivated by an abstract print in my aunt's room at my grandmother's house. I can still picture it in my mind's eye. I think that painting was one of the driving forces behind my interest in design and architecture.

Prints in a children's room do not need to be literal. Although the Duplo posters my boys have are on the literal side, the prints on their bedsheets and soft furnishings are monotone and abstract. They cannot grow out of them. It is a more sustainable approach because nothing goes out of date.

I do not think artwork in a kids' room needs to be juvenile or age-appropriate in the traditional sense. In our home the artwork could be placed in any room. I like prints that do not talk down. Inspiration can come from far beyond a particular developmental stage. Rotate them every now and then to keep things fresh.

6. Personal artifacts

The kitchen, the bathroom, the living room: from a child's perspective, none of these feel like theirs. The play room is the one space in the house that reflects them.

Over the summer I spontaneously started making shapes out of my kids' scratched and scraped Duplo pieces. Without overthinking it, I made a little build book they could follow. Printed it through a local photo book service. They were really excited, especially my younger son.

I do not think it was about the Duplo. It was that I was documenting something they love. Showing them I see what they are interested in, in my own way.

Some of the other personal items in their room: a Swiss-made wooden frog, a Brio dog that only gets a periodic turn around the apartment when younger kids visit, and my husband's little pig figurine that he had when he was a boy. These things are not decorative in the curated Instagram sense. They are about presence: the child's presence in the room, or the parent's presence in the child's world. It gives a sense of grounding.

7. Layered lighting

There are three light sources at night in my boys' room. The overhead is for when they are doing an emergency nighttime play session before bed: all lights blazing. Then each of them has a reading light for the calmer stage. And finally, a dimmable warm light beside my son's bed. It stays on all night at its dimmest setting.

Lighting has stages, like the evening itself. Dimmable sources let the room shift from active to restful without anyone flicking a switch and suddenly it is dark. Three layers is enough: task light, reading light, night light.

8. A reading nook (sort of)

A reading nook does not have to be fully enclosed. The area under my kid's bed works. So does the bunk bed with balustrading, which becomes a nighttime reading spot for my youngest.

The key ingredients are soft furnishings and a sense of enclosure. I added wooden frames to our Ikea Kura bed partly for safety, partly for that cocoon feeling.

The blue panel at the end of my son's single bed was a Feng Shui instinct. With the door opening right past his bed, I wanted him to feel enclosed, not exposed. We have oversized cushions everywhere, up to five in their room at any given time. They are futons, floor seats, backrests against harder furniture. Versatile.

9. Hidden storage

When I chose my son's beds, I knew I wanted under-bed storage for Lego. The La Redoute Yann bed delivered: lots of little compartments on hinges, plus a pull-out drawer. Each toy category has a home. They know where to find things, and when they are old enough, they know where to put them away.

It takes almost no time to make the room look tidy because most toys are hidden but still accessible. The room stays calm and ordered even when it is full of things. An easy-to-manage room is a room that gets used well.

10. Plants (work in progress)

Indoor plants purify the air and add a touch of nature. Children can learn about care and growth from tending them. In our house, this one is still aspirational. We will get there.

I am a systems thinker, so it helps me to break down what appears to be working. But designing a play space is also instinctive. Most of these choices came from paying attention to how our children actually use the room, not from a manual. The common thread is simplicity: reduce the noise, increase the quality of what remains, and make the practical side invisible.

If you are working on a play space and wondering where to start, I would say daylight and storage. Get those two right and everything else falls into place more easily. A Huske mat helps with the floor play side of things, but honestly, even a clear floor with good light will do more than a Pinterest setup in a dim basement.

Kate