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10/15/2008 02:47 PM

Cookie Magazine Showhouse Offers Up Tips For Kid-Friendly Spaces

By: Jill Scott

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If you have kids you know every room is their room. And instead of trying to deal with the clutter and chaos, Cookie Magazine is helping families embrace it – by hosting a show-house in a New York City apartment.

"We have taken this family home and turned it into a whimsical, very livable space for a family," explained Cookie Magazine Editor-in-Chief Pilar Guzman.

With the help of four designers, the staff at Cookie is proving that every room can be a multi-tasking space with kids and design in mind.

Over the next two weekends the public is invited to come on over and feel right at home. You will find high-style with soft edges, kid-friendly fabrics and storage solutions galore.

In the master bedroom, for example, you can see how a headboard can beautifully turn the bedroom into a livable play room.

"We have a bed frame that's actually a shelving unit, a bedside stand, headboard, as well as shelves behind that actually house collections of toys," said Guzman. "So you have a bed that not only separates a space, partitions a space because it's in the middle of the room, but also has really ingenious storage solutions."

The children's' rooms offer their own design solutions – from the nursery filled with tactile things, to the older child's room perfect for storing and displaying toys collections and books can be done without creating a mess.

The entire house is a rotating gallery, where children's art is always on display.

"We have magnetic panels where you can rotate the reams of art that come through each week," said Guzman. "And upstairs, we actually have a place where you can clip the art on the wall. So there's this idea of celebrating the kids art, but it's also very impermanent."

To seek inspiration or ask for help with your design dilemmas, you can visit the Cookie Living Show House this weekend and next at 2 River Terrace in Battery Park City. It's open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a .m. to 5 p.m. and it's free to the public.

For a list of details and activities that will take place during the event, go to: cookieliving.com.