7 Tips for Decorating Your Child's Room
7 Tips for Decorating Your Child's Room By Liz Hekimian-Williams
If you're not sure where to start or how best to tackle updating
your child's bedroom, you're not alone. In a lot of families,
the baby nursery takes a lot of planning and decorating time but
there's often less thought and energy put into decorating the
same child's room as they grow older.
It's common for baby toys and furniture like diaper disposals,
rattles, pull toys and cribs to get removed, but other things
often seem to stay around for quite a bit longer than the
growing child might wish. For instance a wall paper border with
prints more suitable for your baby or younger child's room, may
not be as enjoyed by your now older child (or teen?!).
Here are a few tips to help you get started with decorating your
child's room. The best part about this is that your child can
help you do it this time around, unlike when they were yet to be
born or an infant. So this can be a fun project you can do
together!
1. Select a new color to paint the walls, a color that your
child likes. If you have a strong objection to it, though,
negotiate with perhaps a lighter version of that color, or
limiting their color choice to only one wall. (Or, encourage
them to put up some nice posters and wall hangings to lessen
their color's impact!)
2. Mood lighting! Kids of all ages enjoy mood lighting of one
sort or another. Together, select either a night light, a small
novelty lamp with a low wattage bulb, or an interesting colored
or black light bulb lamp. Other lighting effects kids enjoy
include disco lights, statues or flowers with light effects, and
glow in the dark items.
3. Bedspreads. Get rid of baby blankets and exchange for
favorite cartoon throws or bed covers. When they're teenagers,
they might enjoy more sports or frilly, or even more adult taste
bed coverings.
4. Personalize something for their bureaus or their walls, with
their names and/or photographs. Photos can be made into a
collage. Engraved names in stones or personalized acrostic poem
name prints are fun kid's room additions. Acrostic poem name
prints make great keepsakes and can be updated every few years.
They use the letters of your child's name to start off
self-esteem enhancing phrases that tell about your child's
unique traits, interests and characteristics at that stage of
their life.
5. Create a comfort zone area in the room, for cuddling up cozy
and reading. Think about using big pillows, plush or inflatable
chairs, anything your child might enjoy to sit on and relaxing
in. You'll also want to conveniently have some books placed
within their arm's reach. You might also want to place some
music equipment by that area for them to enjoy. And if there's
room, try to add an additional seating space for you to enjoy
with them, reading or listening to music with your child, or
simply chatting together. If you have a teenager, they'll likely
want to have another seating space for you or their friends to
use.
6. Together with your child, agree upon a wall paper border that
you can use to decorate their room with. This idea can be in
addition to or used instead of painting their room. Adding or
changing a wall paper border can be a very simple and quick way
to change the look and feel of your child's room.
7. And... here's an interesting idea my daughter suggested when
I asked her for suggestions about decorating a child's room ...
( I simply had to share this intriguing idea with you!) She
said, "tell them to get an extra thick room door so you don't
hear your kids fighting!"
Can you tell that she shares her room with her sister and
something about the noise level in their room at times?!
Hmmm... maybe she's got a good idea there after all!