How to Create a Scandi Playroom and Kids' Room
Scandinavian design has always taken children seriously. Not in a way that means miniaturising adult aesthetics, or filling a room with primary colours and cartoon characters, but in a way that respects the intelligence of children and the importance of the environments they grow up in. A well-designed kids' room in the Scandi tradition is one that stimulates imagination, encourages independence, and grows with the child rather than being outgrown within a year or two.
It also, perhaps more practically, manages to be a room that parents can spend time in without finding it visually exhausting. That balance — genuinely child-centred without sacrificing considered design — is what the Scandi approach does better than any other.
Design for the Child, Not the Instagram Feed
The most important principle in a Scandi kids' room is that it should work for the child who lives in it. That means storage at the right height, furniture scaled to be genuinely useful, and a space that encourages play, creativity, and rest in equal measure.
Resist the temptation to design a room that looks beautiful in photographs but doesn't function well as a place to play, sleep, and grow. The best Scandi kids' rooms are the ones that children actually want to be in — and that remains the case for years, not months.
Choose Furniture That Lasts
The Scandinavian furniture tradition produces children's pieces with the same commitment to quality and longevity as its adult counterparts. A well-made kids' bed, a solid timber desk, a good chair — these are pieces that can last through childhood and beyond, adapting as the child grows rather than being replaced every few years.
Carl Hansen & Søn produce children's furniture with the same craft and material honesty as their iconic adult pieces. Simple, beautifully made, and designed to stand the test of time — both literally and aesthetically. A children's chair or stool from Carl Hansen is something a child can grow up with and keep into adulthood.
HAY bring a more playful, colourful energy to children's furniture and accessories — pieces that are fun and genuinely child-friendly without resorting to the garish or the disposable. Their approach to children's design reflects the same considered thinking as their adult range, just with a lighter touch and a broader palette.
Audo Copenhagen's quieter, more contemplative aesthetic works well in an older child's room — a teenager's space that needs to feel grown-up and personal without losing the warmth of the home around it.
For seating in a playroom, HAY's Mags Soft sofa is hard to beat. Its modular format means it can be configured to suit the space, and with no hard edges anywhere it is genuinely safe and comfortable for children to pile onto, roll around on, and use exactly as children use furniture — without ceremony or caution. Covered in durable, easy-clean fabrics and available in a wide range of colours, it brings the same considered Scandi design thinking to the playroom as HAY bring to every other room in the house.
Get the Storage Right
Storage is even more critical in a kids' room than anywhere else in the house. Children accumulate things at an extraordinary rate, and without a system that works — and that a child can actually use independently — the room will be in permanent chaos.
String Furniture's wall-mounted shelving is one of the best storage solutions available for a kids' room. It can be configured at child height from the outset and reconfigured as the child grows — raising shelves, adding a desk surface, incorporating more storage as needs change. Crucially, it requires no specialist tools or expertise to reorganise; shelves slot in and out with ease, meaning the storage can be adapted in an afternoon as a child's needs shift from toys to books to a proper study setup. It's robust, endlessly adaptable, and brings a warmth and lightness to the room that a solid wall of MDF cabinetry never achieves.
Montana's modular system works equally well — low units that a young child can access independently, built upward as the room evolves. In a range of colours that can be chosen to suit the character of the room, Montana storage can anchor a kids' space without dominating it.
The key principle is accessibility. Storage that a child can use without adult help — low shelves, open bins, simple hooks at the right height — encourages independence and makes tidying up a realistic expectation rather than a daily battle.
Think About the Floor
Children spend more time on the floor than adults do, which makes the floor one of the most important surfaces in the room. It needs to be warm, comfortable, and robust enough to handle years of play.
A timber floor with a generous rug is the natural Scandi solution — the timber is easy to keep clean, and the rug provides the softness and warmth that a play space needs. Choose a rug in a natural material — wool or cotton — that can handle the wear and be washed when needed. Go large enough that it covers the main play area properly, and choose a pattern or texture that is interesting without being overwhelming.
For a very young child, a thicker pile rug or a foam play mat in a neutral tone provides a softer surface for sitting and playing on the floor. As the child grows and floor play becomes less central, it can be replaced with something flatter and more considered.
Choose Colours with Care
Scandi kids' rooms tend toward a palette that is calm and considered rather than loud and stimulating. Soft, muted tones — pale sage, dusty rose, warm grey, a gentle ochre — bring colour into the room without overwhelming it. White or off-white walls give flexibility and make the room feel light and spacious.
This doesn't mean the room should feel adult or sterile. Children respond to colour and warmth, and a kids' room should feel genuinely welcoming and full of personality. The difference is in the quality of the colour choices — muted rather than saturated, considered rather than accidental.
Let the child have a say as they get older. A teenager who has chosen the colour of their Montana shelving or the print on their wall is more invested in their space, and more likely to keep it in good order.
Light it Well
A kids' room needs to do several things with its lighting: bright enough for play and homework, warm and dim enough for winding down at bedtime, and safe throughout. Layered lighting — an overhead fitting, a desk lamp, a bedside light — gives the flexibility to shift the mood of the room across the day.
Louis Poulsen produce children's lighting with the same quality of light as their adult range — warm, glareless, and beautifully designed. A simple pendant above the play area and a small bedside lamp that a child can operate independently are the two most important fittings in the room.
A dimmer on the main light is particularly valuable in a kids' room — the ability to drop the light level in the hour before bed helps the transition to sleep considerably, for children and parents alike.
Make Space for Creativity
A Scandi kids' room is designed to encourage creativity and independent play — not to contain it. A dedicated area for drawing, making, and creating gives children the freedom to express themselves without the whole room being sacrificed to the mess that creativity inevitably generates.
A simple desk and chair at the right height, a roll of paper fixed to the wall, open shelves within reach for art materials — these modest provisions make a significant difference to how a child uses their room. As the child grows, the same desk becomes a homework space and eventually a workspace — a piece of furniture that earns its place for a decade or more.
Bring the Outdoors In
Children have an instinctive connection to the natural world that good design can reinforce rather than replace. Natural materials throughout the room — timber furniture, cotton bedding, a wool rug — give children a tactile relationship with honest materials from an early age.
A plant or two, a collection of stones or shells on a shelf, a print of the natural world on the wall — these small gestures connect a child's room to the world outside it. Becky Innes creates calming, nature-inspired artwork that works beautifully in a kids' room — prints with a quiet, contemplative quality that bring the natural world in without being childish or condescending.
What to Avoid
Themed rooms. A room themed around a film or a character will be loved intensely for approximately six months and then quietly resented for the next six years. Invest in pieces that are good in themselves and let the child's interests express themselves through the things they bring into the room.
Too much stuff. Children's rooms accumulate clutter faster than any other space in the house. Build in generous storage from the outset, edit regularly, and resist the impulse to keep everything. A room with space to play in is more valuable than one full of toys.
Poor quality furniture. Children are hard on their belongings. Cheap furniture that doesn't survive childhood is false economy — a well-made piece that lasts twenty years is almost always a better investment than three cheap ones replaced every few years.
Adult aesthetics imposed on a child's space. A child's room should feel like theirs — full of their character, their interests, and their personality. The Scandi approach provides the framework; the child fills it in.
The Brands to Know
Carl Hansen & Søn — beautifully crafted children's furniture built to last a childhood and beyond HAY — playful, considered children's furniture and accessories with genuine Scandi character Audo Copenhagen — quieter, more grown-up pieces for older children and teenagers String Furniture — wall-mounted shelving that adapts as the child grows Montana — modular storage in child-friendly configurations and a great range of colours Louis Poulsen — warm, considered lighting for play, study, and sleep Becky Innes — calming, nature-inspired artwork that grows with the child
Browse our full children's collection at innes.co.uk, or visit our showroom in Hessle, near Hull, to see the pieces in person.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age can a child move from a cot to a bed? Most children are ready to move to a bed between the ages of two and three, though every child is different. A low bed frame — which the Scandi tradition favours in any case — makes the transition easier and safer, as children can get in and out independently without risk of falling. Some families use a floor-level mattress initially before moving to a low frame.
How do I design a room that works for two children sharing? The key is giving each child a defined, personal space within the shared room — their own bed, their own storage, their own small area that feels like theirs. Bunk beds are the most space-efficient solution for a shared room; choose one built from solid timber that will last the full period of use. String Furniture's shelving can be configured to create a visual division between two areas without the need for a physical partition.
How do I manage the transition from a playroom to a teenager's room? Gradually, and with the teenager's involvement. The best Scandi kids' rooms are designed with this transition in mind from the outset — furniture that is good enough to keep, storage that adapts, and a palette that is calm enough to grow into rather than out of. Montana shelving reconfigured, a desk that has always been there, a bed that has always been right — the room evolves rather than being replaced wholesale.
What's the best way to manage toy storage? Accessible, visible, and simple. Open bins or baskets on low shelves that a child can reach independently work far better than lidded boxes or high shelving that requires adult help. Rotate toys periodically — keeping some in storage and swapping them out — to keep the room manageable and maintain the child's interest in what's available. Edit regularly and donate what is no longer used.
How do I make a small kids' room feel bigger? Keep the floor as clear as possible — wall-mounted storage rather than freestanding units makes a significant difference. Choose a light palette for walls and bedding. A loft bed frees up the floor area beneath for a desk or play space. And resist the temptation to fill every corner — a small room with space to move around in is more valuable than one that is fully furnished but impossible to play in.