Young but not childish

Stella Rosato

• Last Updated: November 07. 2009 11:06AM UAE / November 7. 2009 7:06AM GMT

There was a time when decorating a child’s bedroom was a fairly simple affair: gender-specific colours, accessories depicting the heroes of Mattel and Marvel – Barbie, Spiderman and their ilk – coupled with jazzed up flat-pack furniture that was fun, functional but very rarely stylish.

But somehow, the 21st-century child’s bedroom has, well, grown up. Today’s toddler is just as likely to graduate from a Bellini sleigh cot into a carved queen-sized version of it (complete with 400-thread count sheets and tasteful, carefully co-ordinated accessories) as scramble into a pine bunk bed amid the folds of a cheery poly-cotton duvet. Far from being a place where the door is kept firmly shut to avert the eyes of visitors from acres of colour-clashing plastic detritus, their progeny’s wittily engineered personal space is as likely to be as much a source of pride for some doting parents as their Poggenpohl kitchens.

And it’s not just at the designer end of the market that pastels and primary have become passé. A display window at Zara Home currently features black and cream toile de jouy bedding and cashmere blankets in muted shades of grey and oatmeal from its children’s range, to enable parents to create mini-me versions of their own stylish boudoirs.

“Having had children in my mid-twenties and again in my late thirties, I’ve seen the transition first-hand,” says Suzanne Phillips, a Dubai mother of three. “My eldest child had a simple cot from Mothercare and insipid blue and lemon accessories – there really was little choice and I didn’t think too much about it.”

However, when it came to decorating a bedroom for her third child, now three, the picture had changed dramatically: “Through internet shopping I found the choice was enormous, with furniture that was simply scaled-down from adult designs, and fabulous accessories that could really reflect my own personal style.” Phillips says she is also inspired by retailers such as The White Company, which pull together fabrics and bed linen for children that are every bit as high quality as the adult ranges – yet won’t break the bank.

In fact, children’s interiors have become such an integral part of the home interiors story that “youth” lines are the fastest growing sector of the market – outstripping demand for new products in any other room in house according to a recent report in the industry magazine Furniture Today. The report also states that it’s not just the parents who are driving the decision to buy more grown-up pieces for their children’s rooms: the style sensibilities of children and teenagers are being increasingly shaped by popular home-improvement shows, teen magazines, and the rooms that feature in the TV homes of their young idols such as Hannah Montana.

“By the time the child turns seven or eight, we’re seeing that they really want something with a more sophisticated design – and parents are only too willing to oblige them,” says Gillian Lordari, a Dubai-based interior designer. “The licensed [branded] accessories are definitely on the wane and, while little girls still love pink, it’s not too girly. They love the more vibrant shades that say ‘This is not a toddler look’.”

On moving to the UAE four years ago, the Dutch expatriates Annemarie and Ben Boenk-Retera looked for the funky children’s interiors they were used to seeing in The Netherlands – and found a gaping hole in the market.

They decided to fill it and, with two other partners, have opened JustKidding, a 1,200-square-metre space in Dubai’s Al Quoz district that offers everything from flooring to finishing touches. To inspire a rethink of the traditional nursery, 20 hip room sets feature sophisticated colour schemes and furniture from northern Europe’s leading design companies.

“We wanted a completely different atmosphere from the malls; something a little edgy,” says Annnemarie Boenk-Retera, “and both the expatriate and local community embraced it from the beginning.”

According to Boenk-Retera, their typical customer is extremely knowledgeable: “Even those just expecting their first child know the brands. They also know exactly what they want and don’t want to settle for less.” Although many customers are willing to invest Dh6,000 or even more in cribs from renowned design houses such as Stokke, JustKidding is very focused on price, insists Boenk-Retera. “It’s easy for retailers to feature just the most expensive items to make an impression but in this climate you really need to keep an eye on cost.”

With this in mind, the partners are starting to design their own lines of beautifully crafted nursery furniture, which includes offbeat items such as freestanding cupboards fashioned into the silhouette of a Dutch canal house – soon to be joined by a barjeel (wind tower) version – costing around Dh2,000 and mini baroque-style chairs, which clients can have custom-made from a range of fabrics.

One of the biggest design trends, according to JustKidding, is the feature wall – with graphics from designers such as Inke selling extremely well. Made from 1970s vintage wallpaper, the giant silhouettes of animals and trees (from Dh215) create instant impact – and couldn’t be further away from naïve nursery rhyme-style transfers and murals. Ikea too has reinvented the wall sticker with funky flowers (Dh39) which, along with psychedelic pillow covers by Cilla Ramnek (Dh29), are designed to bring a retro flavour to a pre-teen room.

“There definitely seems to be a renewed interest in wall art,” agrees Fiona MacKenzie, a Dubai-based artist. MacKenzie’s clients include hotels, banks and upmarket shops but nothing makes her happier than her private commissions to transform children’s rooms into fantasy worlds. “I especially love the feeling of horizon lines and creating the illusion of looking 10 or 20 kilometres into the distance. I’m transported to the scenes I paint, such as lakes or a beach myself, and get real pleasure out of giving children such a different dimension in their own space.”

MacKenzie says that even when her clients want the more traditional children’s themes – such as animals or nautical – for their children’s rooms, they’re increasingly seeking more of an adult aesthetic. The Dubai-based interior designer, Julia Dempster, who commissioned MacKenzie to paint a Nantucket-style mural for her three-year-old son Miro, points out, “When you’re investing in a professional mural you want something that your child will be happy with for several years and can grow with.”

Having originally planned a jungle theme, Dempster followed the advice of her feng shui consultant and instead opted for blue and waves. And she even ordered a boat-style bed from the UK for an eye-watering Dh18,000 – a decision she regretted. “It arrived flat-packed and was nowhere near as good quality as the website suggested. I think I could have commissioned one locally that would have been far superior and, of course, a fraction of the price.”

That’s exactly what MacKenzie is doing for her latest project, an African savannah-style mural in a room for which she has also designed a bed complete with a thatched roof and a balcony. “There are a lot of good craftsmen here and if you are able to direct them well, you can achieve some great bespoke work for children’s rooms,” she says.

For those who don’t have budgets of the Dh5,000 it costs for a couple of square metres of personalised art, it’s the smaller details that are making the difference. JustKidding’s room sets turn any notion of traditional décor on its head with details ranging from Tord Boontje’s cascading floral paper lampshades to witty, wall-mounted furry animal heads and shocking pink cuckoo clocks.

Many of these accessories were not designed specifically for children’s rooms and smart, budget-conscious parents are following suit. At Ikea they sidestep the “children’s” area with its garish plastics and fabrics, choosing pieces such as the clever Maskros pendant lamp (Dh475) – a sphere of paper flowers designed by Marcus Arvonen – or the chic Kristaller chandelier (Dh199) to hang over the cot rather than the dining table.

In Keeping up with the Kids, an in-depth report on the children’s interiors market for 2010, the trend consultancy Trendcurve predicts an important overlap between what children wear and how they want their rooms decorated. Carolyn Hollands of the Dubai home accessories store, Hollands & Burton, agrees: “As in fashion, children’s fabrics and wall covering ranges are currently about junior or smaller versions of grown-up styles – and as children grow so quickly it does make sense to invest in more timeless interiors.”

Hollands heeded her own advice when furnishing her children’s rooms and also involved them in the process – within limits. “I selected schemes, keeping in mind their colour preferences, and then asked for their opinion. My choices did not include Ben 10 or Barbie but, because they were involved, they were happy with the final result.” Most importantly, she feels, parents must remember that their child’s room is not a museum: “They need to have fun items in there too, such as funky pillows or an odd chair.”

This growing up of the children’s room and the need for an “odd” chair has not been lost on the manufacturers of classic designs. In 1995 Fritz Hansen launched a mini-sized version of Arne Jacobsen’s famous Series 7 chair, swiftly followed by Vitra with a junior-sized Panton chair – both intended to add even more style to the space of the discerning tween. Last year Philippe Starck designed Lou Lou Ghost; a scaled-down version of his celebrated Louis Ghost chair for Kartell, it’s priced at parent-friendly Dh432.

This year Starck and Kartell collaborated on a special “50th birthday” edition in transparent pink plastic with a very familiar face etched on its backrest: none other than Barbie. But if you or your daughter want one, you’ll need to be patient; there’s a worldwide waiting list for it.