Room Design: Sharing a room with your child

Hello everyone,

I know five families sharing a one bedroom with their child/or children, not including myself. But I never see these kinds of homes showcased in design magazines. I can not even pull up one image on Google to help me with my own design dilemmas...Not very helpful, as this is an issue for many families. So I decided to show you how I am tackling this problem in my own apartment rental in Brooklyn.
Here is my "Before" picture:

 You can tell who dominates the room...

Looking at the image of our bedroom, you can see there is no separation between our two spaces except the room divider around my son's bed. Notice that I placed his headboard and pillow in the direction of the room divider, rather than toward the window, which allows for some privacy and separation. He can not see me when he lies down and I can not see him when I lie down. Even the smallest amount of privacy helps! This was the first step towards me getting a sense of separation in our room.

Notice the small book light by the books- a must have!!

Next, I made my bed a cozy place that I want to hang out in and on, because it is basically all the space I get on my half of the room! This was a project unto itself and took some planning as it entailed spending some money, and bedding is not cheap. I bought some new sheets and a quilt and matching shams. This might not be an option for everyone right now, but as I do spend so much time in bed, nurturing myself with some new bedding was well worth it! Yes, I truly sleep better in my new sheets! Also having my bed "dressed" helps define my part of the room, the exact effect I was going for.

I then rearranged the furniture and used the dressers as a wall between our spaces. My dresser was an unattractive eyesore, so I painted it a color I thought fitting for the bedroom- Full Moon- it's the palest of pale grey. Painting is also a big project. You have to remove the clothing from the drawers, sand the exterior of the dresser, wipe it clean and then paint several coats, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next. Don't be intimidated, you can find full instructions online. I did this when my son was with his Dad for several days. For me the project was well worth it as my lighter colored dresser helps to open up the space. 

The Two-Dresser-Wall

As winter is coming, I wanted to move my son's bed away from the radiator, so rearranged his room by flipping the placement of his toys and bed. Having the dressers as room dividers proved useful because 1. I was able to organize all his colorful, plastic toys out of sight, behind my dresser! And 2. I could tuck his bed behind his dresser, creating privacy for both of us. I still placed the headboard side of his bed and his pillow facing toward the screen/room divider, which I decided to keep for the time being. It acts as a tall wall behind his bed. I'm thinking about replacing his dresser with an Expedit bookshelf from Ikea. It would allow for more shelving; the books would get off the floor and his trucks would have cubbies to be stored in.

The bench is a sitting space between our "rooms"

Sleep zone behind his dresser

Play zone

His view of my "room" Now it does seem like it's own space.

The last stage of my Bedroom Improvement was to change how the curtains are hung. Rather than having them hang from above the window frame, down towards the floor (see "Before" image- they are too bulky, with wasted fabric) I bought two tension rods and placed them inside the window frame. I cut the curtains shorter so they land at the window ledge and sewed purple fabric (the fabric I happened to already have) inside the curtains as a "black out shade". I still have to finish hemming the curtains up and then Viola! more space around that wall. My do have purple sheets for my bed so elements in the room should tie together nicely.

When hemmed there will be a crisp bottom edge

Our functioning room- me sewing, him playing

I hope you enjoyed my bedroom house tour! Maybe you can take away some helpful tips. I would certainly love to hear about your remedies for similar problems!

All the Best,

XO 

Single Momista