I've built another maker, using MDF this time. It'll be ideal to test out the different fabrics and padding, that I intend to use.
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I'm looking for kids, parents, and child care professionals, designers, to work with me to develop the idea of the sleep friendly bed further. Constructive criticism without sugarcoating is one of the most helpful tools any designer could have. I'd love to hear your opinions, insights or concerns about this little project. Please get in touch!
How to get the cozy feel?The whole idea is that the beds will be warm and soft and cozy, but how can we achieve this? The beds are made out of MDF boards, so they are solid and I thought covering the wood with some form of padding and a soft, fluffy material on top should do the trick and give us surroundings which would be warm and soft and cozy. There are obvious factors that we need to think around. It has to be child-compatible. it should be durable, cleanable and ideally not made out of asbestos. I paid a visit to a local shop where they sell fabric by the metre and picked up a few samples. I had green, yellow and blue felt and red fleece. The fleece is definitely feels warmer and softer, but I can see use for the felt too. Covering the whole bed with these sort of fabrics could give us the desired 'cozy' feel, but I need to undertake some tests in terms of their durability and cleanability. Another important aspect of material choice, that we aim to achieve a fairly high degree of customisability, and we think the use of velcro could be beneficial here. I bought velcro stripes, they are also available by the metre. It sticks to the felt but not to the fleece. I'm off to the workshop to build a new maker out of MDF this time and start experimenting with the fabrics. The idea is that before sleeping time, ideally 30-60 mins before, we retrieve to our sleep friendly bed and go through a bedtime routine which helps the child to unwind after a long and eventful day. We provide a transitional period from being hyped up and alert, to feel relaxed and calm. The whole bed is designed to help and encourage this transition. It provides a shelter-like, cozy, snuggle up area with soft and warm walls.
We can pick a book from the built in bookshelves and cuddle up to read it. The child on some level is isolated from the rest of the room and from all it’s stimulus. We can keep pyjamas, nightgowns, teddy bears, bottles, snacks in other dedicated shelves, compartments under the sleeping area, thus we can encourage our child to go through the stages and step-by-step finish his/her day and get ready to sleep. Every bed needs some form of light to read before sleeping and to protect from monsters during the night. Researchers are saying that the colour blue helps with sleeping while green is great for calming down and relax. A few battery operated LED colour changing lights seem to fit our little concept quite well. In order to be able to test out different concepts and ideas, I decided to build a makett out of foam board. Perfect material to visualise what we drew out on paper. sketchesWe aimed to use curves instead of corners wherever it seemed possible and safe. We really liked our little makett and it really helped to work out certain features we wished to incorporate into this bed. Underneath, there is plenty of room with great access. even grown-ups can get in with relative ease. There is space to install shelves, little compartments, bottle holders, and similar practical items. We can create an ideal environment for a healthy bedtime routine. We can cuddle up with our daughter to read a story, her pyjamas could be kept there, she can have her comforter toy in a safe little compartment in there, etc. Before sleeping time, she can retrieve there to unwind and get ready for sleeping. makettRecently, I bought a bed for my son. He wanted a 'magic bed with slide and a playhouse'. We found a used one on facebook and quickly bought it as it was almost everything he wanted. A quick coat of paint done the trick and my son now had his 'magic' bed. He was happy, I was happy, Everybody was happy. Of course, once the bed had been assembled and introduced to the house, my daughter wanted one too. Somehow I'm not surprised. So I looked into how I could copy the existing bed for her. I started to figure out what materials I would need and what would be the ideal process to build another one of these magical beds.
Needless to say, that it didn't take long for my daughter to come up with her own ideas on how to change the design to her taste. The more we played with the idea, the more I realised the potential in these high sleeper beds. Digging through all sort of websites for ideas which sell children's beds, fantasy beds, customisable beds led to a few realisations. First of all, the available beds on the market can be divided into two groups. The plain ones, or classic ones, with a simple, neutral design and the fantasy ones, which are beside being a bed, are also a firetruck or spaceship or princess carriage. I found them either not engaging enough or too stimulating. We wanted my daughter's bed to be cozy and warm, 'magical' enough so it's inviting, welcoming, engaging, but not too stimulating. We wanted her to actually unwind and sleep in the bed and not to put out imaginary fires or travel through space. After careful thinking and a few sketches we came up with the idea of a sleep friendly high sleeper bed, which provides room under the bed for a cozy snuggle up unwinding area, while the upper bit helps to fall and stay asleep. |
Andrew,
I started this blog to gather my thoughts together and to create a place where I can follow the development of the ideas. I'd love to read your thoughts, ideas, comments and suggestions! ArchivesCategories |