Designing and Decorating a Child’s Bedroom

by: Dave Rowe

When it comes to decorating, your Childs bedroom is one of the areas where you can really have fun with design ideas and if your child is old enough you can involve him in the design process. Although you may have to water down some their ideas to fit within your budget!

The key to designing a pleasing child’s bedroom is to plan ahead. In no time at all your baby will become a toddler and then not long after that he will be starting school and soon become a teenager. So what seemed like a good idea to paint 6foot high murals of ‘Winnie the Pooh characters will not be appropriate when your 10 ten year old brings home his friends from school for the first time.

Getting the basic structure correct at the beginning will save you having to do major changes every time you re-decorate. So this involves getting enough electric sockets and lights setup. If you have the opportunity get dimmer switches fitted and use a combination of main lighting and downlighters so the mood in the bedroom can be varied depending on the activity.

When designing a theme room, it is probably better to decorate one wall with the chosen theme and paint the other three walls with a plain colour, rather than have all four walls wall-papered with the same design not only does this give a feeling of more space but it is also cheaper when you need to re-decorate or change the theme due to your child growing older. Design for fun and keep it practical. Keep decoration simple and easy to look after are the key messages.

Paint needs to be hard wearing and washable, sticky fingers and even worse crayons and pens are the main enemy here. If you include a blackboard at the height of your child and encourage him to use that, it will save many hours washing or painting over your child’s latest Picasso!

On the plain walls you can always use posters and pictures to expand on the required theme.

Storage is probably the major requirement for the bedroom. As children get older they seem to accumulate more and more toys so space under beds or cabin beds should be considered. Take a look around at what your child’s has and you will probably find that you need to fit in:

· A bed.
· A wardrobe.
· A desk and chair.
· A bookshelf
· Storage for toys.
· Storage for out of season clothes i.e. winter or summer.
· An area to display models and prizes from school.

Wardrobes and chest of drawers or dressing tables are also useful. Giving your child a work area such as a desk are also good for encouraging children to do their homework as they grow older. Choose furniture which is also hard wearing and washable. Plain white furniture will work for almost any theme and will last for many years. There are many specialist sites on the web which focus just on children’s furniture such as http://www.furniture-4-kids.co.uk/ are good sites to see a range of different furniture from different suppliers. When the children are toddlers there are many ranges of small tables and chairs which can be purchase relatively cheaply to give your child the feeling of his own special space. When fitting out the inside of his or her wardrobes position the rails near the bottom to encourage them to select their clothes and dress themselves. It also hopefully will help to keep the room tidy. A large toy box is also an excellent way to clear up a mess quickly before bedtime. Shelves for storing books and displaying special toys and also their latest creations they may have made at school are a good idea

When you know what budget and what the basic rules are, ask your child to share their thoughts on what their dream room should look like. In the beginning remind your children that you will not be able to deliver everything they ask for, but that you are sure you will be able to achieve something, which will be satisfactory for you and the child. Try to include:

· Their favourite colours.
· Their favourite hobbies/interests.
· Their favourite objects.
· Their Favourite cartoon or story characters or football teams
· Which one item they would like in their room more than anything else.

Once the theme is decide upon a site such as http://www.Pricerighthome.com contains some superb themed accessories based upon cartoon characters or football teams with curtains duvet covers and wallpapers which will help add the final touches to the perfect room.

By planning at the beginning and involving your child in the design process you will probably find it the most enjoyable room to decorate and also a room which will be easy to decorate in future years as your child’s tastes and needs change.