Kidtropolis fantasy kids rooms
Based in Vienna, Virginia, Kidtropolis designs and builds out amazing fantasy children's rooms. Seen above, the Magic Tree House and Carousel Room. If Richie Rich were real, I bet he'd be a client!Kidtropolis (Thanks, Bloggy!)
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On one hand:
Imaginative, charming, and skillfully executed, and I'm glad that some artists and craftsmen are being employed making these things. My own sister paints murals and has gotten commissions for kids' room walls.
On the other:
Give me a fooking break. Little Amelia or Harcourt Willingham III will grow out of themes of this splendid opulence in short order. They'll be embarrassed by the little princess / sailor theme and wish to hell for a room where they can hang posters.
I can't help but cringe at the deep-pocket vanity behind these settings.
OTOH, if a million bucks fell in my lap, I'd commission these folks to decorate and equip "child life" centers in hospitals . . . play rooms where very sick kids hang out when they're on chemo or such.
For some reason, I find the side-by-side carousel cribs to be very creepy.
Like, in one crib will be a beautiful, happy baby, and in the other will be its horrifyingly mutated sibling.
Both of them will have telekinetic powers.
virginia iz spelt rongly
The Magical Tree House room looks like a basement playroom, not a bedroom (at least judging from the height and placement of the window. Cool if there's a number of kids in the family -- it's kind of an ersatz back yard.
The carousel cribs though are just wrong. Proof that expectant mothers should not be allowed to decorate (or permit decorators to)...too many hormones running rampant!
I want them to come build ME a giant tree fort for my bed. :)
#2: Even worse would be for both babies to appear to be cute and beautiful. That would make it a lot harder to know who the evil one is.
* * *
If we were living in a jetpack future, that room would have a closet with a robot clown living in it, and an automatic changing module that you just drop the kiddo in when he has a four-alarm Superfund diaper blowout situation.
because no child is too young to have impressed in them the importance of a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. after all, a child's imagination today is much harder to evoke today than it was yesteryear, thus becoming a luxury
virginia iz spelt rongly
Fixed, but it didn't trigger my spell check. When did 'virgina' become a word?
Pretty interesting and neat, but a waste of money after the first engagement with the enemy.
#9: That's what they call the place the pernis go in during seks!
Stefan
I'm 51 and you'll have to pry my fairy princess bedroom from my cold, dead hands. We need more crazy people decorating and less Pottery Barn.
I don't want to know...
@Stefan, your OTOH idea is great!
I actually was dead set against pretty princesses as a little girl. I wanted He-Man stuff.
NOW, on the other hand, my secret shame is pixies. Cute little butterfly-winged pixies wearing clever leaf and flower dresses.
But I also have a crush on Conan, so just goes to show you that you don't grow out of some things.
I find the carousel bed to be a little too girly. At least for my tastes.
When my son was 6 he wanted to decorate his room with hanging vines a la "Where The Wild Things Are". My wife spent many hours cutting stencils and supervising while he painted. It actually came out kind of cool and he was very proud of his handiwork. Alas, that only lasted until he was 9 or 10 when he thought it was too babyish and we had to paint over everything lest his buddies from school should come over and see it. He wanted to do a whole Cubs baseball theme with more of Mom's custom-made stencils but having learned our lesson we convinced him to let us paint everything white and put up as many posters as he liked - not a bad decision considering that the Cubs posters had to all come down to make room for rock band and swim suit model posters 3 years later.
Oh I have a friend who makes furniture like that. Her etsy shop is empty right now, but you can contact her at http://cottonskye.etsy.com if you're curious.
If I still lived in a dorm, I would totally make my bed look like a treehouse now.
That would have been a dream come true for me as a kid. And for me, as an adult (in my own, ever-changing motif). It's exciting to make personal hidey-holes and hangouts in different shapes and heights. It's thrilling to see & feel things in a new way. OK, these cost money and are about carousels? Imagine using found parts and less emotionally-freighted motifs. Is that ok?
Forget the kids, I want a steampunk themed bedroom right now.
Hmmm... mixed feelings. I DO like the sense of using space in ways that aren't expected or predictable.
I don't exactly like that it's a source of profit (hence conspicuous consumption).
However, I suppose there's something to be said for the fact that somewhere, somebody get's to be relatively well-paid for being whimsical, artistic and imaginative.
On the whole I'm for it, but would prefer that people do the work themselves, with their kids. Everyone would get more out of it, and I suspect the kids would be less willing to become the sort of child who demands constant stimulation, since they'd recognize that tossing out the old playroom represented a lot of work gone to pot. Or so I'd hope...
Lanval
If, as James Joyce said, "Pornographic art is any expression that inspires desire in the observer to possess the object", then this is kiddie pr0n for sure.
Kids like everything. Give them some old newspapers to chew on and you won't have to buy them a stupid fantasy clubhouse bedroom.
#23: Newspapers, eh? Hmmm, I'm thinking organic vitamin-enriched newspapers printed in bright primary colors. Yeah, we could make a mint selling those to yuppie mammas who'd feel guilty letting little Tielyr or Vyroneekkah chew on regular old newspapers.
What a nightmare. You're supposed to use your imagination to make something something else. That's half the fun of childhood. The other half is doing stupid stuff and figuring out, say, gravity by jumping off the garage. Plus, while you spent six weeks in traction afterwards, you got jell-o all the time. Yay!
wow. I'd say it'll all be downhill from there.
I really like the giant block letter doors for the cabinets in the carousel room. What a cool idea! I think I'll be stealing it when we do up my nephew's room in a few years. My brother in law and I are already talking about making him an AT-AT bed like was featured here recently. Or possibly an AT-AT treehouse.
#28: I didn't even notice those were drawers/cabinet doors on first glance. Having scrolled down, I must say: cool, but.. They aren't in order! How could anyone look at that room day after day after day with all of those numbers and letters all mixed up? At least the drawers you could fix - even spell things with maybe - but the cabinet doors... Oh the horror!
Besides that, I don't get the hostility toward this idea. Are y'all really shocked that rich people pay skilled craftsmen to produce interesting kid's bedrooms? Take advantage of their innovation and spin it into ideas of your own. I really don't see the harm in keeping good cabinetmakers and carpenters employed.