Plan a children's room
Room dimensions, how many children, and which age band.
How this planner works
- Bed zone = (bed width × bed length) + (bed length × 2 ft) — the mattress footprint plus a two-foot access strip along one side. A bunk bed counts as one footprint serving two children.
- Study zone = 20 sq ft per child where a desk is selected: a 4 ft desk at 2 ft deep plus 3 ft of chair pull-out.
- Wardrobe zone = 4 ft of width per child × 4.5 ft, which is 2 ft of unit depth plus 2.5 ft of opening clearance.
- Play area is a fixed minimum by age band: 25 sq ft for 2–5, 20 for 6–10, 15 for 11–16.
- Balance = room area − the four zones. A negative balance means something has to be shared, stacked or left out.
- Heights are derived from a typical height for the age band — 105, 130 and 160 cm — using the same ergonomic ratios as our ergonomics calculator.
| Age band | Typical height | Chair seat | Desk height | Comfortable reach | Play area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 to 5 years | 105 cm | 27 cm | 47 cm | 121 cm | 25 sq ft |
| 6 to 10 years | 130 cm | 34 cm | 58 cm | 150 cm | 20 sq ft |
| 11 to 16 years | 160 cm | 42 cm | 71 cm | 184 cm | 15 sq ft |
Desk heights are what suits the child now. For built-in joinery, use the 11–16 figure and provide an adjustable chair and a footrest for the years before it fits — raising a fixed desk later means dismantling the unit.
Design and build under one accountable roof
Worked example — one child in an 11 × 10 ft room
| Zone | Arithmetic | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Bed zone, single | (3 × 6.25) + (6.25 × 2) | 31.3 sq ft |
| Study zone | 1 child × 20 | 20 sq ft |
| Wardrobe zone | 4 ft × 4.5 ft | 18 sq ft |
| Play area, 6 to 10 | minimum | 20 sq ft |
| Total needed | sum | 89.3 sq ft |
| Room available | 11 × 10 | 110 sq ft |
| Balance | 110 − 89.3 | +20.8 sq ft spare |
Designing for a moving target
The difficulty with a child's room is that the brief changes completely every four years and the joinery does not. The households that get this right make three decisions at the start. Fixed joinery — wardrobe, desk, storage wall — is built at adult proportions and dressed down for now. Everything age-specific — the bed, the chair, the toy storage, the wall colour — is loose or cheap and expected to be replaced. And the wall behind the desk is left as a pinboard or a paintable surface rather than being finished in something precious.
The second principle is that storage has to be at the child's height to be used. A four-year-old with a wardrobe rail at 5 ft does not hang anything up; the same child with a rail at 2 ft 6 in does. Build the wardrobe full height, put an adjustable low rail in it, and move the rail up as the child grows. It is a ₹900 hardware decision that changes whether the room stays tidy.
On sharing: two children in a standard Mumbai bedroom means a bunk bed, and that is fine — two singles need about 62 sq ft of bed zone against a bunk's 31. What matters is that each child gets their own wardrobe section, their own desk surface and somewhere personal, even if it is one shelf and a pinboard. Rooms where everything is shared generate more arguments than rooms where the storage is divided visibly.
Every constant on this page comes from Greenbox site records — measured drawings, signed BOQs and completion certificates from projects delivered between 2023 and 2026 — rounded to the figures an estimator would actually write down. We publish them so the arithmetic can be audited rather than trusted. Treat the output as a planning figure: accurate enough to brief a landlord, a bank or a family, and not accurate enough to sign a contract against.
What this tool does not cover
- Door and window positions, which in a small room frequently make one of the four zones impossible to place.
- Air conditioner position — an indoor unit blowing directly onto a bunk's upper bed is a common and uncomfortable mistake.
- Bunk bed headroom, which needs at least 30 inches of clear height above the upper mattress.
- Safety items that cost nothing at design stage: anchoring tall units, window restrictors, rounded edges and no glass below 4 ft.
- Loose furniture, mattresses and soft furnishing.
- For the desk in detail, use the study ergonomics calculator; for the bed, the bed size calculator.
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
How big should a kid's room be?+
About 90 square feet of allocated zones for one child — bed with access 31, desk 20, wardrobe 18 and 20 sq ft of clear floor. An 11 × 10 ft room carries that comfortably. Below about 85 sq ft something has to be shared, stacked or left out.
What height should a child's study desk be?+
Forty-seven centimetres at age two to five, 58 at six to ten and 71 at eleven to sixteen. For built-in joinery, build at the oldest figure and supply an adjustable chair and a footrest for the years before it fits — a desk built for an eight-year-old is unusable by eleven.
Can two children share a standard bedroom?+
With a bunk bed, comfortably. Two singles need about 62 sq ft of bed zone against a bunk's 31, which in a standard Mumbai bedroom leaves nothing for desks. Give each child their own wardrobe section and their own desk surface even when the room is shared.
How high should a child's wardrobe rail be?+
Two feet six inches for a small child, so they can actually hang things up. Build the wardrobe full height with an adjustable rail and move it as the child grows. It is a ₹900 hardware decision and it changes whether the room stays tidy.
What safety items should a children's room have?+
Every tall unit anchored to the wall, no glass below four feet, rounded edges at head height, socket covers until about age five, and a window restrictor on any opening above the ground floor. All of them cost nothing if specified at design stage.