|
When it comes to decorating a
child's room, your approach should be different from
decorating an adult bedroom. That's because a child's
bedroom should reflect his or her personality and not
yours.
For kids, their bedroom is
where they play games, read, listen to music, wrestle,
display or hide prized possessions, day-dream, or just go
to be alone sometimes. So try these eight strategies to
help create a space that will make you both happy:
1. Talk to your child. Find
out what activities and fantasies he or she enjoys; what
their favorite color is; and what's unique about their
personality that a theme could be built around. Then work
their interests into a design that will make them feel
comfortable, happy, and safe.
2. Allow your child to
help. Let them have a say about colors, fabrics, and how
they want to display their collectibles. The design should
be flexible enough to accommodate their changing tastes,
needs, and interests.
3. Make the room
multi-functional. Since children use their room for many
activities besides sleeping, it should have several
different zones.
These could include a play
area; a reading area; a space to play with friends that's
equipped with a radio, CD player, and a TV/VCR; a display
area with a wall or corkboard for favorite photos and
artwork; and finally, a place for shelving to display
collectibles, trophies, and other personal items.
4. Make storage a priority.
Containing clutter will be one of your greatest
challenges. Try shelving, large decorative wicker baskets,
plastic see-through containers, and closets that contain
plenty of shelving and racks.
5. Keep window treatments
simple. Avoid long draperies. Shades, blinds, and shorter
curtains are safer choices. The fabric should be
versatile, and patterns should be repeated in other items
in the room, such as in pillows, quilts, lampshades, bed
ruffles, etc.
6. Choose the right
lighting. A child’s room should include both task
lighting for homework and reading, and soothing light for
quieter times. A nightlight is also important if your
child is not comfortable in the dark, and for safety
reasons, so they can find their way to the bathroom at
night.
7. Use wallpaper or paint
to add color and texture. You can apply whimsical borders
along the top edges of the walls, and clouds or stars on
the ceiling.
It might be wise to make
sure the walls of childrens rooms are washable, so if you
are using paint, choose a semi-gloss or gloss finish. Kids
love bright colors, but you should limit any strong color
to only one wall. For example, paint one wall fire-engine
red, and the others a soft peach or pink.
8. Allow your child to
select the design theme. The choices are endless. Here are
just a few: firehouse fun room, starry night, angels,
rainbows, unicorns, baseball, a bedroom for a princess,
underwater scenery, outer space, race cars, airplanes,
trains, jungle motifs, wizards and dragons, and dinosaurs.
You can visit our new Web site for a lot more ideas!
Decorating with your child
offers a great opportunity to display your playful side,
while doing some memorable family bonding. So have fun
with it and remember that even if your child's choice in
themes seems bizarre, there's probably a way to work out a
compromise.
|
