Allergy-Proof Your Child's Bedroom

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This bedroom for Kenny Madden, who suffers from asthma, is free of materials that will collect dust or harbor mold. To liven up what could have been a sterile environment, interior designer Shelley Black commissioned an artist to create a mural using paint designed to inhibit mold. Window shades, which are preferable to heavy blinds or curtains, are capped with an easy-to-clean wooden valance. Photos By Povy Kendal Atchison

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Three years ago, as twelve-year-old Kenny Madden’s asthma attacks grew worse, doctors warned that unless his exposure to the dust mites and mold aggravating his illness could be reduced, Kenny’s lungs would be permanently scarred. As it was, they were functioning at only 80 percent. Once scarred, there would be little chance for improvement.

The place to start, doctors told Kenny’s mother, Karen, was in the bedroom, where the average individual spends 30 to 40 percent of his or her time. Because Kenny was a typical adolescent, Karen figured the time he spent in his room was closer to 50 percent and would likely increase.

What she didn’t know was just how significantly his bedroom contributed to Kenny’s illness. Not only was his room in the basement, but he slept on a waterbed—both breeding grounds for mold. Clearly, the waterbed would have to go, and Kenny would need to move upstairs.

That was the easy part. More difficult, Karen feared, would be designing a room a teenaged boy would feel good about.

“The doctor gave me a booklet,” Karen recalls, “that said here are some things you can do to help control allergens. The room in this picture looked like a hospital room. No carpet, no curtains, no books. It looked really bleak.”

As would Kenny’s, or so Karen assumed, until she met Shelley Black, a Denver interior designer who specializes in environmental design.

In the room that would be Kenny’s new bedroom, Black pulled up the old carpet and took down the window coverings. The popcorn ceiling was plastered so it could be easily washed, and a fresh coat of paint designed to inhibit mold was applied to the walls. Instead of a wood floor, which requires cleansers and wax to maintain, Black installed Formica laminate, which can be washed with water. She had wood cornices built for the windows and hung blinds designed to allow sunlight inside.

For bedding, Black used 100 percent cotton sheets and a cotton comforter with an anti- microbial liner. She sheathed the mattress and pillows with dust-impermeable covers. Then, with the basics covered, Black turned to decor.

“Because we couldn’t have stuffed toys or even fabric on the windows, we had to do something decorative on the wall. Otherwise, the room would be too sterile,” she explains. “I had an artist come in and paint a mural of a construction site that has a lot of depth to it.”

Today, Kenny’s asthma attacks come infrequently and his lungs are functioning at full capacity. Meanwhile, Karen learned an important lesson about environmental health, one specialists say even parents of healthy children should heed. “Children are one of the most susceptible groups [to environmental illness] because their systems are not yet fully developed,” says Peggy Wolff, an environmental health counselor who also suffers from multiple chemical sensitivities. “The younger the children, the more susceptible they tend to be. The bedroom is the most important room in the house for children because they spend so many hours there. It’s also important because the liver, which is the organ designed to detoxify the system, works best while the body is at rest or asleep. It’s really important that that room be as environmentally clean as possible so the child’s liver is getting rid of whatever toxins the child has been exposed to.”

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