Extreme Kids Rooms: Why Do Parents Do It?
Why are parents willing to go to extremes when it comes to their kids?
May 17, 2011 -- They are the rooms ABC's hit reality show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is made of.
The ship and sword-laden pirate bedrooms for boys. The dream-like princess rooms for girls.
The room transformations that make even the youngest of the show's participants jump up and down, scream and cry just like their parents.
These types of over-the-top, extreme bedrooms for kids are no longer just the stuff of made-for- television dramas or an episode right out of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
From Los Angeles to New York, and in between, extreme kids rooms are quickly becoming the norm, popping up in design showrooms and real-life homes across the country.
Minneapolis-based interior designer Steve Kuhl gave "Good Morning America" a peek inside just one of the many kid-friendly, dream spaces he has created, a $60,000 pirate bedroom complete with a rope bridge, crow's nest and a secret compartment for hiding.
PHOTOS: Ahoy, Mateys! Child's Pirate-Ship Bedroom
Kuhl's fellow Minneapolis-based interior designer, Kelly Thyen, recalled the time she was brought to turn one family's construction mess into their child's bedroom.
It was a job request that did not just mean a quick paint job or installing a child-sized bed.
The $15,000 custom mural? Check.
A $8,600 custom made sofa? Check.
One $3,500 loft hide-away? Check.
The entire cost of redecorating the room? $76,000.
"The idea for the mural came from the roof line of the home," Thyen, of the children's design studio Wiggles N Giggles, told "GMA" anchor Lara Spencer. "And there is a space that is not a flat wall that looked like the hull of a ship, so the idea sprung from there."