This week’s subscriber is renovating a 100+ year old Victorian house in Scotland and she is about to decorate the children’s bedrooms. We want the rooms to feel appropriate for a toddler and a four-year-old now, without needing to repaint or re-theme as soon as they start school. 

Here’s the framework →

1. The room has to work for longer than the age of the child.

Most mistakes in kids’ rooms fall into two camps:

Both result in rework within two years.

Children outgrow themes quickly but not spaces. A Victorian house has bones and character that existed long before your child’s bedroom and will endure long after. Make design decisions that respect that timeline.

2. Treat the architecture as the adult in the room.

Victorian proportions do most of the heavy lifting for you.

High ceilings, large windows, skirtings, architraves: these are inherently elegant. The job is not to hide them under childish décor but to let them form the visual backbone of the room.

This means your base moves should be quiet, tonal and well-scaled. Anything louder should be the exception, not the rule.

3. Use paint to soften, not shout.

Paint is where people tend to either lose confidence or overcompensate. Bright primaries, themed feature walls, graphic murals: all of these age instantly because they serve the child now, not the room over time. These choices never age well.

Instead, use warm neutrals, dusty hues or softened colours drawn from nature. These are forgiving, timeless and visually compatible with the architectural context of the property. Warm stone, soft grey, muted sage, ochres and terracotta would be a good place to start. These colours look like they belong in the house rather than decoration for a birthday party.

4. Stop thinking in themes; start thinking in layers.

Themes date. Layers grow.

A child’s bedroom has three layers:

Base Layer: walls, flooring, skirting, joinery
Secondary Layer: rugs, curtains, lighting, furniture
Personal. Layer: bedding, toys, art, posters, collections

Only the third layer should feel age-specific. This is where dinosaurs, rainbows, dolls and rockets can make an appearance. That layer can change annually without requiring a professional.

The first layer should not be touched for a decade unless you decide to. The second layer every three to five years. The third layer evolves organically through birthday gifts that were never on the list.

5. Storage is not optional.

Victorian homes were not built around toy storage, school bags, art projects, puzzles, musical instruments and endless books. You need to retrofit that requirement.

A sensible set-up includes:

Good storage is responsible for most of the perceived calm in children’s rooms. Bad storage is responsible for the floordrobe.

6. Lighting should have more than one job.

You need a ceiling light, but you also need at least one task light and ideally a low-level reading light. Harsh overhead light kills atmosphere and makes bedtime unpleasant. Layered lighting allows the room to move from daytime to nighttime without sensory overwhelm.

Pendant lights in Victorian homes work well if the ceiling height allows. Use fabric shades or diffusers to soften glare. Wall lights are excellent if the room layout is fixed; lamps are better if it isn’t.

7. Furniture should scale with the child

Invest in furniture that will work across stages. A bed with a headboard that doesn’t look juvenile. A desk that can adjust or start small and grow. A wardrobe that has a rail low enough for small hands and shelf space above for future use. Design enables independence.

Avoid novelty furniture. It is the design equivalent of novelty t-shirts: fun for one photograph and then better kept behind closed doors.

8. Honour the house, then the child, then the trends.

Controversial, I know. Hear me out. 

The correct order of priorities in a period property is:

Most people invert these and end up repainting in eighteen months.

When you design for the house first, the room always looks coherent even when strewn with toys. When you design for the child first, the room feels temporary even when immaculately tidy.

For both rooms, the starting point should be:

The result will be: modern for children, timeless for you - and not in conflict with resale or future flexibility.