Creating a bedroom for three kids

When creating a bedroom for three children, you must remeber to provide function, create a spacious arrangement, and find a style that works for all personalities.

If you have only one bedroom for three children to share, you will need to be very creative in order to fulfill all of their needs. In addition, you will want the room to be attractive. Here are some ideas you can use to achieve both goals.

Function: Every child in the room will need room to sleep and to store their belongings. Depending upon their ages and personalities, they will also need space where they can be alone. A loft bed is an excellent piece of furniture as it is essentially a self-contained mini room within the room. You can purchase a loft bed that contains a desk and dresser under it, or attached to it. Some loft beds also have open space underneath. By adding a fabric tent-like skirt to the bottom of the bed, your child will have a private spot to be alone when necessary. Another style of furniture that you can buy with multiple functions is platform beds with drawers underneath.

Floor plan: Fitting three beds into a room and still having floor space left over is quite a challenge. For a long narrow room, you can line up the bed/dresser combos three in a row as if in a dormitory. For a square shaped room, you might arrange a bed on each wall creating a U shaped configuration. For children of different age ranges, you may want to put the two children closest in age together, and separate the older child who might have different sleep patterns, or requires more privacy. For a very small bedroom, you can use a full-size/twin combination bunk bed putting the two youngest children in one bed, and the oldest child in the other. Try to find one where the bottom full sized-bed converts into a couch to provide extra floor space. You can pair the bunk bed combo with armoires that have drawer space should you run out of room in the closets.

Style: Your most difficult task in designing a room for three children is creating a room theme or design upon which they all can agree. For children in the same age range, or the rare case of triplets, you can make a play on three, using cartoon and TV themes that have three characters.

For girls: A theme that will work well is 'Disney Princess', with each girl choosing between Snow White, Cinderella, and Princess Jasmine Bedding. If you would like something timeless and generic, you can also do a flower theme. For example, paint a mural on the wall including large roses, tulips, and sunflowers. Then purchase one child rose covered bedding, another tulip bedding, and the third sunflower bedding. This way each child's area will coordinate while still expressing her unique personality.

Boys: You can create a Three Musketeers room by making a crest with each child's name upon it and hanging over each bed. Paint a castle and knights mural on a wall or fill the room with movie posters from the different versions of the Three Musketeers movies. For small children, you can purchase licensed Disney bedroom decor from the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy version of the movie. For a generic theme, you can create a transportation bedroom, with one child choosing trains, another child choosing planes, and the third child choosing automobiles.