Early in her career, Jo Gick dreaded designing children’s rooms for builders’ model homes. Now the Chandler interior designer, with a national following from her appearance on NBC’s recent crafting show “Making It,” says designing for kids is her favorite thing to do.

In fact, NBCUniversal’s Bluprint — a streaming service for crafters — is airing six episodes of a new show, “Rooming Up!” starring Gick, who helps tweens and teens turn their little-kid rooms into polished, big-kid spaces.

When she was growing up, Gick admits, she obsessed over designing her own room. She really fell in love with kids design when she was dreaming up nurseries and bedrooms for her own creative son and daughter — 6-year-old Doran and 9-year-old Marin. Gick says she gets to indulge her love of bold color and whimsy when designing for kids.

“Kids are so much more open to ideas. They don’t have preconceived notions” of what a designer should do, explains Gick, who has created feature walls covered in old LPs and cassette tapes, hung swinging chairs from ceilings and created climbing walls and life-sized murals in stylish, modern bedrooms kids adore. “I can be a lot more colorful. I can do more off-the-wall stuff that I couldn’t do in a living room or a dining room.”

In her experience, families often spend the fewest resources on designing bedrooms. But the spaces are so important, she says. Make a space kids love, where there’s a place for all their cherished stuff, and they will retreat to it and even keep it neat. After all, good design helps kids get and stay organized. “You have to give them places to put their stuff away,” Gick explains. “No one wants to live in all that clutter.”

Families often have trouble transitioning from baby and toddler years to bigger-kid rooms. Done right, Gick says, it’s possible to keep the same basic elements and update a room as a child grows.

“I try to design (a nursery) so you can plop in a twin bed and it’s not babyish — it’s still cool,” says Gick, who still works with lots of local clients on home design, and recently finished designing Civic Market — a hip coffee shop/restaurant, retail space and salon in downtown Chandler.

Gick also fell in love with TV during her “Making It” stint, in which she was a finalist. Because of the show, a few things have changed, including the Bluprint gig, having her own publicist and an upcoming feature on her house and design style in HGTV magazine. A maker at heart, Gick is full of ideas — from a crafting show she does on YouTube with her daughter (Marin has an enviable crafting space of her own) to championing creative spaces for kids.

“My goal would be to have my own show designing kids spaces — nurseries, play rooms, kids bedrooms — and my own line of kids decor,” she says.

Jo Gick’s tips for well-designed kids spaces:

1. Start with a color scheme. Gick typically starts a design once she’s identified the color palette. It can stem from a favorite color, a fun wallpaper design or a rug that fits a kid’s style.
2. Use grounding colors. Working with lots of color can turn into a mess if you don’t know what you’re doing, Gick concedes. Grounding colors — navy, gray, black or lots of white — will help balance the space and help bold colors pop in a good way.
3. Bring the child’s interests into the room. “I love to showcase their toys,” says Gick, who uses toys as decor. Decorative pillows, artwork and accessories — which can be easily updated — are another way to pay tribute to a child’s current obsessions.
4. Utilize baskets. Gick likes large floor baskets from Homegoods or Ikea for loose items like stuffed animals.
5. Give every item a place. Good design is about helping kids get organized. “You have to give them places to put their stuff away,” Gick explains.
6. Commit to letting go. Staying organized means committing to purging junk, forgotten toys and clothes kids have outgrown. Gick recommends doing this with your children about every three months so the space stays welcoming and they learn from the process.
7. Create cozy spaces. Gick likes to design places where kids can read and hang out in their room beyond sitting on their bed. Bedrooms should be comforting retreats.
8. Get creative. Gick loves feature walls. She sometimes uses sophisticated wallpaper, creative paint or removable decals so the room can grow with the child.
9. Cool closets. Organized closets help kids keep their rooms clean. Gick makes them appealing with brightly painted closet doors (her son’s room features a custom slider) or by creating storage space with freestanding Ikea cabinets with pretty hardware (Marin has gloss white cabinets with matte gold handles).
10. Visit JoGick.com for more design inspiration and to see pieces she creates in her Etsy store. You can stream her show “Rooming Up!” starting April 15 at mybluprint.com

Common mistakes when designing kids rooms:

Shopping in the kids section. Don’t spend a fortune on kid-size furniture children quickly outgrow. Look for classic pieces anywhere, including modern dressers and whimsical nightstands that can grow with the child.

Painting the whole room one color. Painting an entire room in lavender will look tired in a few years. Try a feature wall or walls and use grounding colors to make them pop.

Kara G. Morrison is the editor of Raising Arizona Kids and the mother of Sofia (6). Reach her at kara(at)rakmagazine.com