The designer’s major contribution, once the child has helped determine color and placement, is to include convertibility in the design, both to make the room’s furnishing’s adaptable to the changing needs of a growing child and to reduce future expenses.
One way is to use modular furniture that can be broken down into small components and then stacked, flipped over or otherwise rearranged. Another is to find new uses for things. Using his consultative technique, Torrice has constructed model rooms based on the changing needs of a girl age six to a young woman of 16.
The six-year-old’s room has modular work stations around the perimeter – for art, math, tea parties, plants and science – and a movable arts and crafts island on wheels. The bed, supported by round storage canisters, is in the corner where the child placed it.
The lights are on a track and can move laterally and up and down. They are deliberately low, as is the dado (the painted, lower section of the wall), to bring the light down to the child’s level.
The closet is “the other room in the room.” The door comes off and is replaced by a cloth curtain, which Torrice suggests can double as a puppet theatre. The overhead shelf is reinforced and becomes a hideaway loft. Down below is storage space accessible to small hands.
In the 16-year-old’s room, the wrap-around stations are stacked into a bookcase. The plastic cylinders holding up the bed become side tables. The dado and the lights are raised to raise the visual height of the room. The only new items are paint for the walls, dye for the mats and a frame and brass headboard on the bed. The bed linens are reversible.
The closet loft is now storage. The vanity in the closet is made from the bed’s cylinders and some wood from the loft. The arts and crafts cart now houses a hair dryer and curlers.
