Laura Fenton's Recent Articles
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This Is the One Hard-to-Find Product You Probably Didn’t Know IKEA Makes
It's less than $50 and a dinner time savior for kids!
Aug 27, 2022
14 Clever Ways to Make a Shared Kids Room Work, According to the Parents Who’ve Done It
Good ideas that might get you thinking about the possibilities in YOUR house!
Aug 17, 2022
This Boy’s Room Celebrates Black Joy In Style
Cookbook author and writer Nicole Taylor on designing a kids room that’s packed with style and meaning.
May 25, 2022
Portable, Battery-Powered Lights Are the Best Thing to Happen to Kids’ Rooms
Get light where you need it, when you need it - no cords required.
May 19, 2022
The Secrets of Scandinavian Family Homes
How to get that chic, cozy, yet clutter-controlled comfort in your own home.
May 18, 2022
14 Clever Ways to Take Your Kid’s Bunk Bed to the Next Level
Amazing accessories that are available to outfit your bunk beds, from zipper sheets to battery powered lamps.
May 11, 2022
3 Designer Nurseries That Anyone Can Recreate in Their Homes
These three nurseries — with three totally different styles — hit that sweet spot between dream room and reality.
Mar 31, 2022
A Family of Five Transforms a Rental NYC Apartment into a Beautiful Home
And how they live their best lives in NYC.
Feb 15, 2022
Before and After: A Blah Basement Turns into a Whimsical Playroom with These 10 Designer Tips
Design entrepreneur Elizabeth Rees shares her tips for transforming a dingy basement into a beautiful playroom.
Jan 25, 2022
5 Tips for Creating Great Kids’ Rooms from a Design Editor
And tips on navigating decorating kid's rooms!
Jan 4, 2022
Before and After: A Heavy, Wood-Paneled Family Room Becomes an Airy Playroom for Kids
Karri Bowen-Poole of Project Playroom transformed a former den into a bright and airy space for open-ended play.
Jan 11, 2022
The Biggest Lighting Mistake Homeowners Make — and How to Fix It
If you’ve ever sat in a waiting room under the harsh glow of a fluorescent fixture, then you likely know the power of a bad light bulb.
Nov 4, 2021
Two Pro Playroom Designers Spill Their Secrets for Creating Awesome Kids’ Spaces
From open-play floor plans to wall murals to genius storage solutions, these designers tell us everything we've wanted to know about creating an epic playroom.
Nov 15, 2021
West Elm Kids Is Celebrating Black Voices In the Best Way
Quilts with rustic farm scenes to a snuggly science-themed kids chair — these new launches have it all.
Oct 12, 2021
This Family’s Renovated 1960s Home is Full of Surprises — Including a Secret Bookcase Door
See how this UK family brings magic to daily life through their stunning home.
Oct 4, 2021
10 Clever Tips for Shopping for Window Treatments, According to a Design Pro
Window treatments can make or break a space — especially in kids' rooms. Here's what to look for.
Sep 23, 2021
12 Cribs That Designer Parents Swear By
For many Cubby readers, there’s a good chance you’ve already bought your first crib, but for those who are on the cusp of parenthood or who are in the market for a new baby bed, this guide will tell you everything you need to know about buying a crib today.A crib is a critical decision in your baby’s nursery because it is the anchor piece of furniture in the room, says Emma Beryl, an interior designer based in New York and New Orleans.
Jul 24, 2021
9 Design Rules for Timeless (Yet Special!) Kids’ Rooms, According to Julia Marcum
This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! If I could have anyone as my phone-a-friend for advice about decorating my kid’s room, Julia Marcum, of Chris Loves Julia would be high on the list.
Jul 13, 2021
The Kid Trend You’re Seeing EVERYWHERE Is Popular for a Reason
This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! Four years ago, when I was covering home design for a parenting magazine, I noticed a do-it-yourself trend of parents building simple, house-shaped bed frames for their kids. They were so cute that we included them in the magazine along with instructions for how you might make your own.
Jul 16, 2021
The 10 Best Playrooms Designers Have Ever Created
This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! When I was a kid, I can’t remember having any friends who had their own playroom. Kids in my suburb typically played in their rooms (or outside!); if you were lucky, your parents might have ceded you the basement as a rec room.
Jul 8, 2021
11 Designers on the Best Kids’ Rooms They’ve Ever Designed
This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. There’s a particular art to designing children’s rooms: They have to satisfy not only the paying client (mom and dad), but also the rooms’ pint-sized inhabitants.
Jun 11, 2021
This Michigan Photographer’s Family Home Has Charm, Character—and an Instagram-Famous Bathroom
Name: Emily Berger-Crawford, husband Chris Crawford, daughter Edie, dog Lilly, and cats Chester and CharlieLocation: East English Village in Detroit, MichiganSize: 1,650 square feetEmily Berger-Crawford says that an old house was an all-but inevitable conclusion for her family. Growing up, Emily lived in a 1890s Victorian that her parents lovingly filled with antiques. Then when she and her husband Chris Crawford moved back home to Detroit, old houses were what was available to buy.
Jan 28, 2021
How to Get Your Kids Excited About Old Toys
In my house, we’ve been hearing a lot of complaints from our son lately that his toys are “boring” (and this is after the influx of new Christmas gifts!). Despite the fact that he hasn’t played inside at a friends house in going on ten months, he seems to have a photographic memory of his friends’ supposedly superior toy collections.
Jan 21, 2021
7 Ideas for Easy Origami Ornaments To Make This Weekend
This year won’t be the one I finally get to see the Natural History Museum’s origami tree, but I was still eager to read about this year’s theme. The museum is calling the 2020 tree ‘Cranes and Colors,” and it features 1,000 paper cranes as a symbol of peace and good wishes as the city continues to face the COVID-19 crisis.When I reached out to the museum to request photos of this year’s tree, I learned a little more about the origami tree tradition.
Dec 16, 2020
This Buenos Aires Home Has Some of the Best Bookshelves We’ve Seen Yet
Name: Tomás, Martina, Nina, and Florián Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Size: 1,800 square feet Tomás is an architect and Martina is a decorator, so of course the home they share in Buenos Aires with their two children, Nina, 7, and Florián, 4, is stunning. But it didn’t always look this way: When the couple first found this apartment, it had been neglected for years and it needed a full remodel, which gave the creative couple the opportunity to make it their own.
Dec 9, 2020
The Most Fun Activity Books for Kids of All Ages
This year sales of activity books have taken off like never before thanks to all the time that kids are spending at home. It makes sense: They’re a great alternative to screentime or plain old coloring books, and with most priced under $20, they’re an affordable form of entertainment too. Cubby gathered a list of our favorite picks and tapped the expertise of a couple activity book authors, Erin Jang, the author of You, Me, We!
Dec 9, 2020
2020 Is the Year of the Hike
For my family, the Year of the Hike started on New Year’s Day. After having been cooped up for the winter break, my husband, son, and I bundled up and headed out for a walk in the woods on January 1st, despite the frigid temperatures. Up until then, longer walks had been a bit much for our son, but at almost 4 1/2 he was able to tackle two miles.They were not fast miles, but they were just the thing to cure an energetic boy of his wiggles and two weary parents of their cabin fever.
Nov 24, 2020
Organization Is the Secret to Fitting a Family Business and 3 Kids into 1,200 Square Feet
Name: Amber and Chris Earl, owners of EARL (@earl_home); their daughters, Giavanni, 4, and Copen, 3; and son, Guy, 1Location: North Hollywood, CaliforniaObserving a house evolve over time is a specific kind of pleasure: It’s like watching a young person grow up. You can see how a home stretches, adapts, and evolves to the lives that are being lived within. A visit to Amber and Chris Earl’s two-bedroom home in North Hollywood shows a house that has found its stride.
Nov 18, 2020
One Family, 1,000 Toys, Two Bedrooms, and Space to Work & Play
“I love the way I’ve set up the house! I love our living room so much. That’s where we spend most of our time together: It feels super cozy.” Name: Caroline and Jason Rodrigues, owners of @shopmercimilo; their daughter, Milo, 5; and Caroline’s children, Cailin, 14, and Darren, 16, who live there part of the timeLocation: Glendale, CaliforinaImagine if your child had a never-ending stream of toys showing up in your home.
Nov 4, 2020
3 Fun Fall Projects from Our New Favorite Craft Book
Handmade Charlotte is one of the OG craft blogs. Founder Rachel Faucett started blogging in 2009 when she launched an Etsy shop selling handmade kids clothing. “I wanted to connect with other creatives and showcase thoughtful design for children,” says Rachel. A decade later, the Etsy shop is long gone, but her blog is the destination for kid fun.
Oct 28, 2020
Over-the-Top Halloween Decorations—No Crafting Required
Halloween is Apartment Therapy Tour Editor Adrienne Breaux’s favorite holiday. Our New Orleans-based editor jokes that it’s practically mandatory to decorate for the holiday. In fact, Adrienne put her Halloween decorations up before Labor Day this year (and made a convincing case for why you should put yours up early too). While we missed the boat for the early-bird decor, there are a ton of ideas to steal from Adrienne’s stylish, colorful, and downright joyful home.
Oct 22, 2020
This IKEA Chair Has Become My School-at-Home Savior
One night while visiting my parents a few years back, my dad hauled an old chair up from the basement for my son. This was a chair I’d sat in for hundreds of family meals as a child; it had then made its way through some younger cousins and gotten a custom paint job along the way. Not a high chair and not a full-sized chair, this was a seat designed specifically for a little kid. My son loved it.
Oct 15, 2020