MAKING SPACES: Bright, cheerful and full of style, these three children’s rooms are made for lives in motion

Kids’ rooms are more than just a place to store stuff and sleep at night. From 2 to 13 and beyond, it’s a creative work in progress, constantly being re-imagined. The crib makes way for twin beds or one even bigger. A place for pre-school bedtime stories and time-outs becomes the only place a teenager can lock everyone out. Desks with laptops quickly replace changing tables and diapers. The room’s “look” and identity evolve into a true collaboration between parent and child with every passing year—teaching compromise, responsibility and a healthy respect for privacy and privileges.
Early in the game, parents who understand the importance that their child’s room plays in teaching these lessons work hard to create special environments like the ones shown here.
Mod Mix
Chloe Stoller, age 13, has a definite idea of what she likes. Even though painting the walls and picking out the carpet for her corner bedroom in the restored, mid-20th century house in East Lakeshore was not an option, Chloe did have choices. She picked out the furry zebra fabric for her curtains as well as the classic ‘60s Marimekko poppy-print duvet cover. Her mom’s late-’80s black dining table is now her desk. The pair of flame-red Bertoia chairs, like the Ida Kohlmeyer print, are family possessions that pre-date her birth in 1992, but look great in her room. Chloe has had the Keith Haring rocker since she was 2 and the white lamp has occupied that same bedroom
since 1958. It’s all in the mix.
Whimsy inwonderland
Greer Anderson’s Uptown room was, until December 2004, a large, rather plain guest room. One short week before her baby brother arrived, her mom, Liz, a jewelry designer, decided to make it a fabulous “big girl” room, perfect for Greer’s favorite activities: reading, drawing and dancing. Unable to narrow down her top four color picks, Liz left the painters with a diagram for spacing the stripes with instructions not to put the red and green next to each other as she headed off to have the baby. The result is a room her mom hopes 2-year-old Greer will live happily in the moment, and where animals (and baby brothers) are always welcome.
Spaghetti Western
Not quite out of diapers and still sleeping in his crib, 2-year-old Arthur Fort actually has two rooms of his own. He’s photographed here in his cowboy bedroom located Uptown. His other room is in his parent’s historic property in Fairhope, Ala. Mom Vesta de Yampert Fort says the eclectic mix of pieces here can easily be turned into a girl’s room or a guest room, adding that she’s never had the luxury of having a “nursery,” preferring the versatility the beds lend to the room’s sleeping porch style.