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THE GREAT INDOORS: Mona Ross Berman talks family-friendly design
Designer Mona Ross Berman has her finger on what it means to design for growing families. Recently, we sat down with her to chat about what it takes to satisfy parents and tots alike.
THE GREAT INDOORS: Mona Ross Berman talks family-friendly design
Reporter Meg Augustin takes you inside some of Philly's most fab dwellings to showcase our city's unique grasp on design and architecture.
When your home is just your own, the sky’s the limit with what you can do with décor. Buy white couches, streamlined metal work and take the doors off your kitchen cabinets. But when you have kids, decorating can take a different turn. Suddenly, you have to consider how your child fits into your space by childproofing cabinets, minimizing sharp edges and putting up baby gates. There’s nothing like a bunch of toys, baby bottles and constant spillage that’ll force you to rethink your fabrics, furniture and room usage.
Designer Mona Ross Berman (pictured), hailing from nearby Chestnut Hill, has her finger on what it means to design for growing families. Recently, we sat down with her to chat about what it takes to satisfy parents and tots alike.
City Paper: Do you have children of your own? If so, how does this aid in your design philosophy?
Mona Ross Berman: Yes, I have a one-and-a-half-year-old and a four-and-a-half-year-old. Having 
children, particularly young children, influences how I think about space significantly. My design philosophy is to create spaces that are not only beautiful and unique but also highly functional. Every project I work on has a certain commitment to “form” (how a space looks) and a commitment to “function” (how it gets used). When children are going to be in and use the space, often function trumps form, but I still need to find a way to make it beautiful and “grown up” enough for the adults. I am always asking myself ‘will this room work for this family?’ and ‘are there materials I can use to make it function optimally and be forgiving but also still look beautiful?’
CP: How do you have to design differently for families with kids?
MRB: I work with a lot of families so I have learned a lot of tricks to help make spaces as kid-appealing and kid-proof as possible, while also making them beautiful and interesting so the parents are happy, as well. For example, we are very lucky because we currently live in a design world that’s full of lots of materials — fabrics, furniture, etc. — that are pretty kid-friendly. For example, there are hundreds of beautiful outdoor fabrics that have come out in recent years that I have access to and that many designers, myself included, use as indoor fabrics because of their durability and imperviousness to spills and stains. I also think that a lot of parents make the mistake of not investing in spaces because they have kids. I encourage them instead to invest in quality pieces that can be refinished or reupholstered when needed. It’s somewhat counterintuitive but higher quality pieces will take wear-and-tear better and will be more forgiving over time and when your kids grow up you only have to “freshen” up the room, not do a major overhaul. It’s also a more “green” solution to design because you are not just throwing out junky furniture after five years; you are reinvesting in it and using all or most of it for many years.
CP: What are the challenges and the benefits in designing for kids?
MRB: I mainly design for kids when it’s a child’s room, a nursery, a playroom, or a family room. Those are the spaces that children not only use the most but also that allow for a bit more fun in terms of the design. I love designing children’s rooms because generally the grownups don’t take those spaces too seriously and that allows everyone to have a bit more fun in the planning. I generally approach a child’s room in a more sophisticated way than what you typically see. I like these rooms to look like a child’s space, but not something that is pandering to them. For example, rather than put characters on the walls, I’ll put fun patterns and colors in the room that just don’t work in other “grown up” rooms.
CP: Tell me about a time you designed for a family for kids and what design principles you used.
MRB: One project that comes to mind is a duplex apartment on the Upper West Side of New York. By New York standards, this is a very big apartment, but it is still a home where the children were going to really be in and use each and every room, so everything we designed had that in mind. For example, their living room also functioned as their family room and is the only television watching space in the apartment. We chose two very comfortable but also durable small sofas. We used a very high-quality dark-slate gray velvet on the sofas because we knew it would hide a multitude of sins — spilled sippy cups, peanut butter covered hands, etc. We also used an ottoman instead of a coffee table — a nod to the family room aspect of the space -— so the kids and parents could put up their feet and relax. The ottoman also conveniently has a tray that can be placed on top for drinks and hors d’oeuvres when the parents host a cocktail party.
CP: Do you have any tips for families with kids looking to redecorate?
MRB: First, invest! Don’t wait to make your home all you want it to be. Find places and storage solutions for all of those toys scattered around and buy furniture that you’d like to live with for a long time. Second, don’t pander. Just because a house is full of children doesn’t mean it needs to look like a romper room. A home can be fun, kid-friendly, inviting and sophisticated all at the same time. And third, get the name of a good upholstery and carpet cleaner and put them on “speed dial.” When the inevitable accident happens, you want to be armed with a strategy for how to take care of it quickly. It will give you peace of mind and allow your home, family and friends to bring you more joy — which is all that really matters in the end.
(megan.augustin@citypaper.net)
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