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Children And Interior Design

Kelly Wearstler on the Child's Play challenge.

Okay, children and interior design are two things I claim to know a little bit about.

This week's design challenge definitely had its obstacles, which, unfortunately, are not uncommon in the real world of interior design: a less than desirable budget, no initial client meeting, plenty of questions and fewer answers, and ultimately, the design curveball of learning the "clients" were unavailable for their client meetings because they were still in elementary school.

You have to be prepared to expect the unexpected in almost any profession, interior design being no exception. Design programs are not written in stone (which could be quite chic) and the vertiginous whims of a client are your marching orders. In addition to a fickle client, value engineering, material selection debacles, scope changes, time frame and fabrication, and even shifts in the global market can affect your job unexpectedly. This happens all the time, so get used to it.

I really liked that the designers had this particular challenge, including finding out that only a single bed would help carry the room, because quite often the challenge you least appreciate at the time is the challenge that results in some of your finest work.


Problem-solving means thinking on your feet, not reaching for the most creative excuse. I think if the designers had known that they would be designing a children's room from the outset, they might have dug a little deeper, and the resulting rooms might have made our decision to send one designer home that much more difficult.

However, as it was, although the obstacles ultimately were John's undoing, his wasn't the only room that didn't make the cut. It was just the only room that wasn't finished. And not making a design deadline? A big no-no.

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