The Genius Small Bedroom Trick That Works for Kids & Adults

Nancy Mitchell
Nancy Mitchell
As a former Senior Writer at Apartment Therapy, Nancy split her time among looking at beautiful pictures, writing about design, and photographing stylish apartments in and around NYC.
updated Oct 14, 2020
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Children reading on a bed with green storage drawers, jungle wallpaper, and a woven pendant light.
(Image credit: Milk Decoration)

Although children may not take up much space with their physical persons, they sure do have a lot of stuff. So storage is a primary consideration when it comes to kids’ rooms. These spaces may not be very large, but the key to creating storage in them is clever built-ins of all shapes and sizes.

Above: This beautiful green loft bed in a room from Milk Decoration incorporates drawers, a bookcase, and a set of stairs for easy access.

(Image credit: Home Design Board)

I can’t get over how cozy this little loft bed from Home Design Board is — but thanks to the cabinets underneath, it’s also practical, too.

In this Paris home from The Socialite Family, the built-in loft spaces form a bed on one side, and a cozy reading nook/play space on the other. The wood slats are a great way to keep your kids from falling out of bed without constricting the space too much.

This built-in bunkbed from The Socialite Family provides a great deal of scope for the imagination—and a great deal of storage, too.

(Image credit: Avenue)

There’s no loft bed in this girl’s room from Avenue, but there are plenty of built-ins, including a wardrobe, bookshelves, drawers, and a space-saving desk.

(Image credit: Decoratualma)

All of the spaces above feature built-ins, but this little room, from Decoratualma, shows how you can make the same design principles work even if you’re renting (or just don’t have the budget for built-ins). Here, a half-height loft bed has plenty of storage underneath, dramatically increasing the floor area left open for play.

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Everything is built in in this kids’ room from Architectural Digest: the beds, the storage underneath, and the desks, too. It’s all wonderfully efficient, particularly the drawers that function as a ladder.

This loft bed from Elle Decoration has built-in storage underneath, the bottom level of which functions as a step to help you climb into bed.

This little loft from HGTV has storage above and below, plus a curtain you can pull over the bed for added coziness.

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