Children's rooms are made of memories that will be fondly remembered for life. No matter how old your kids, designing and decorating bedrooms for your children offers you a chance to show them how much you care. Doing up your child’s room can end up as a fun filled family project that the kids could heartily participate in.
A child's room is a space where his or her personality and interests can really come to the fore. Involving your children in the process of decorating offers you a great opportunity to bond with them. Planning the décor for your children’s room can be confusing at times, what with the myriad options available these days. This article is a pointer for all parents on the basics that go into creating child room decor – one that is safe, comfortable and appealing.
Understanding the Basics
Your child will go through drastic changes in his or her tastes and mindset over a fairly short period of time. When you come up with ideas for decorating children’s rooms, it is best to stick to some basics to accommodate his or her likes and dislikes. With a little thought and planning, you can design a room for your children that, with some simple changes over the years, will see them into their teen years.
The best strategy to use when you're just beginning to decorate a child’s room is to keep in mind what the room will be used for. Most children use their bedrooms to play games, read, listen to music, wrestle, and display or hide prized possessions, daydream or just go to be alone sometimes. Once you are equipped with the essential information, then you can go about how to dividing the space in your child's room.
It is a good idea to talk to your children before you start decorating their bedroom. Build your décor around activities and fantasies they enjoy, their favorite color, personality and interests. That way you will make them feel comfortable, happy, and safe. Most children want 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. Here are some basic details that you should consider before you get you started.
Lighting
Your child’s room should include both task lighting for homework and reading as well as soothing light for quieter times. A good central ceiling light is useful for general illumination. A nightlight is very important if your child is not comfortable in the dark, so he or she can find the way to the bathroom at night. Older kids will want to have fun lighting but always be safety conscious and choose lights, which are suitable for the age of the child.
 lighting |  Windows |
Furniture
Choose furniture from stores that make products just for kids. Kids furniture is mostly plastic, making it durable, colorful and easy to clean. If you are furnishing the room with a desk, which is an essential for decorating children’s rooms, ensure that the desk has a comfortable chair with good support. Pick a desk that your child can use into his teen years. It will provide a place to do homework and will impart the message that the work done at the desk is important. To create more space, add beanbags and large oversized cushions instead of chairs. Then pile them on top of each other. For the all-important sleepovers, buy foldaway beds that can be pulled down as and when required.
 Walls and Flooring |  Furniture |
Storage
Storage is one of the most important elements in a child's room, so make it a priority. There are some innovative ways to keep the clutter concealed. You can use large decorative wicker baskets, plastic see-through containers, and closets that contain plenty of shelving and racks. It is a good idea to put up shelving above the desk to hold dictionaries and your child's trophies and collectibles so he can look up at them for inspiration. Use every possible space for storage. When it comes to choosing beds for your child's bedroom, make sure they have drawers underneath.
Windows
Keep window treatments simple while dressing windows. Instead of long draperies, use shades, blinds and shorter curtains. The fabric should be versatile, easy to wash and maintain. You could use the same fabric on other items in the room like pillows, quilts, lampshades, bed ruffles, etc.
Walls and Flooring
When it comes to decorating the walls, consider hanging your child's paintings. By displaying your children's artwork, you will encourage your child’s interests. You can also use wallpaper to add color and texture. You can paint clouds and stars along the top edges of the walls. It is wise to make the walls of children's rooms washable. A stain on gloss finish paint is easier to remove. If your child loves bright colors, limit the use of the b color to only one wall. You can paint the lower half of the walls in the play area with blackboard paint. This will allow your child to spend hours scribbling on the walls sans parental chiding. You can also hang a real blackboard on the wall or put one on a colorful easel.
The flooring in the children’s bedroom, especially in the play area must be carefully chosen. It would be ideal to have something soft such as cork or rubber tiles instead of hard wooden flooring with carpets. Rubber tiles come in many designs and patterns and are easy to clean. Rubber tiles will cushion a child's fall when the playing gets a bit rough. If your child likes arts and crafts or making models, you will need to create a space that has an easily washable floor. When the kids grow, they will want to establish an identity of their own, apart from their family. The bedrooms will be a place where they can ‘mark’ their territory by plastering the walls with posters of their music idols and rearranging the furniture.
Room Themes
A tip for a quick makeover for a child’s room is to base the décor on themes. Dolls, airplanes, ballet shoes and pirates make great themes for a child. While girls may prefer a theme like starry night, angels, rainbows, unicorns and a bedroom for a princess or underwater scenery, boys would settle for a firehouse fun room, baseball, outer space, race cars, airplanes, trains, jungle motifs, wizards and dragons, and dinosaurs.
- When the child is small, make sure that pillows, quilts, comforters, stuffed toys and other soft products are removed from the crib. These can tangle or trap the child. The slats in the crib should be no more than 2-3/8" apart. Slats placed too far apart may trap an infant's head or allow its body to slip through.
- Furniture should be checked for cracked, peeling paint. All surfaces should be covered with lead-free paint that's safe for nursery furniture. Lead paint poses a serious health risk. All joints and parts of furniture should fit tightly - and the wood must be smooth and splinter-free.
- When decorating the beddings, the mattress should fit snugly with no more than two finger width between the edge of the mattress and the bedside. A square cornered mattress works best and provides the highest level of safety.
- Cover all outlets to prevent an electrical shock. Keep electrical cords out of child’s reach by tucking them behind a piece of furniture when possible. Blind cords can pose a strangulation hazard to children. Window screens cannot support the weight of a child; so keep windows locked and keep children away from open windows.
- Furniture, even wide dressers can tip over. Secure furniture to the wall to prevent tipping. lucid
With these pointers, you can get going on a decorating project for your children’s room. Provide a safe and comfortable area for your child, one that he or she can identify with.
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