In My World: Designing Living & Learning Environments for the Young

Your child's room is more than just a place for sleeping . . . A treasury of innovative design ideas for creating environments in which children learn as they grow

From America's foremost communicator on designing supportive home environments for kids, here is a design treasury that no parent or professional designer will want to be without. All but a few of the 130 striking full-color photos depict actual kids rooms, not studio setups, that demonstrate workable solutions to design challenges that arise from today's lifestyles. From space-savers that eliminate the squeeze in tight quarters to home computer stations that adapt to growing bodies, from nurturing nests for newborns to teen retreats that express fledgling maturity, here are quick-change, minimal-expense settings that keep up with a child's physical, mental, and emotional development.

Focuses on stimulating ways to encourage kid's special interests—transforming wasted space under stairs into a play nook; recasting the attic and upper section of a closet as an intriguing hideaway; using walls for 3-D display and interactive learning

• Features child-welcoming decor for residential kitchens, bathrooms, family, and play areas
• Taps the latest research and includes insights and suggestions from a variety of experts—from leading psychologists' ideas on room features that help bridge the divide in shared custody, to an architect's tips on how to enliven allergy-free settings

Ro Logrippo's internationally syndicated column, "In My Room," is a continuing source of ideas and inspiration for parents and design professionals interested in creating supportive home environments for infants, young children, and teenagers. Now, in In My World, Ms. Logrippo shares the fruits of nearly a decade of researching, writing, and consulting about living and learning environments for the young.

Part design treasury, part design guide, this stunningly illustrated book provides hundreds of design ideas while it describes a dynamic approach to designing for children that was developed by the author's late partner, legendary children's designer Antonio Torrice.

Central to that approach is the concept of interactive design—the process by which adults and children join forces to design interiors that encourage a child's special interests and emerging sense of style, yet which can be inexpensively and easily adapted to a child's changing tastes, interests, and needs. As a consequence, throughout In My World the emphasis is on creating spaces that are playful without playing on a single theme, educational without being didactic, supportive without being overbearing.

In writing In My World, Ro Logrippo drew upon the work of leading specialists from a wide range of related disciplines whose insights and suggestions interlace the text. For instance: A clinical psychologist specializing in photo therapy explains how photographic displays can enhance the feeling of safety and family cohesiveness. An expert in language development explains the major learning styles that must be considered before designing an environment. Two prominent psychologists specializing in the effects of divorce on children describe room features that can help bridge the divide in shared custody. An architect specializing in allergy-free design shares his ideas for safely enlivening rooms. And a bath and safety design expert provides many practical and imaginative design ideas for bathrooms that capitalize on safety without compromising on aesthetics.

In My World is a rich source of ideas and guidance on creating supportive environments in which children of all ages flourish physically, intellectually, and emotionally, and where they can develop a positive sense of self that will sustain them through the challenges of adulthood.

RO LOGRIPPO is an award-winning design journalist who writes the internationally syndicated "In My Room" column devoted exclusively to children's home environments. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, the column now appears in 200 newspapers. She is also owner/director of Living & Learning Environments, a San Francisco Bay Area design communications and consulting firm, which she founded with the legendary late children's designer Tony Torrice. Ms. Logrippo also authored, along with Tony Torrice, the award-winning In My Room: Designing For and With Children.