FOR MORE EYE CANDY AND GREAT DECORATING IDEAS FOR GIRLS, SEE THE FOLLOWING NEW ARTICLES:
ROOMS FOR GIRLS
WHIMSICAL CHILDREN’S ROOMS
AND FOR IDEAS IN GIRLS ROOMS USING LAMPS & RUGS, CLICK HERE.
As a part of our series on appealing to our all of senses in decorating, we have been focusing first on our sense of sight. While we are stimulating our thinking on this topic, I wanted to include a quick post on creating bedrooms with visual interest for children. As a mom of two of them, I can say there is no more fun than creating a bedroom for girlie girls! My daughters are teenagers now, but they still love doing their rooms.
As I have said before, children’s rooms should be magical places where they begin to learn about taste and style. Now, of course, all of that must be interpreted through the eyes of a child — what they consider tasteful and what you might love could possibly be two different things! But it is possible to merge the two and shape their sense of style in a room that oozes creativity and imagination, but doesn’t make you want to keep the door shut. Taste and whimsy are the perfect combination for a child’s room.
Children love color, detail and fantasy, so this is the room to go crazy with fun ideas!
These are darling 8 x 10 wall cards, frame them or hang them from ribbons and painted clothes pins for a fun look that teaches numbers and birds at the same time.
Growth charts are always wonderful for children’s rooms! These are extra nice, personalized and printed on canvas. Or the pink daisy one is laminated and hangs from a ribbon. You could always make your own and laminate it!
Just like adults, kids need lamps that say Ta Da! and not yawn! Target (the lamp on the right) has some fun kids lamps at a more reasonable price. However, you can make or embellish them yourself! If you are not terribly artistic, you can buy self-adhesive wallies like those in the above picture (they are like pre-pasted wallpaper) and stick them on objects like lampshades, furniture or walls to create something wonderful! This is a great way to involve children in room decor, place pencil marks where the wallies go and let them stick ’em down!
Let no detail be missed. Bunny curtain rods. Most precious! The little visual details really make a difference.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on children’s rooms, although what little girl wouldn’t like a bunny bed to go with her bunny curtain rods? Why not? For the lamp, you could paint subtle stripes in pale pink on a white wood lamp and and add some fancy ruffle trim to a plain shade. Details, it is all in the details.
Make every accessory eye candy for your little ones. Pay attention to color and pattern. Color and pattern can make ordinary accessories like bulletin boards all the more special. You can paint bulletin boards, or cover them with fabric to embellish inexpensive ones.
When you do spend some money on accessories, make sure they are timeless so they can grow with your child. Or go a more inexpensive route and find cute throw rugs through Homegoods, Target or IKEA. Then you can just replace them when unavoidable “accidents” occur!
I prefer to keep my children’s bedding classic in detail but big on fun! Lively colors, fun youthful patterns and layers of coordinating sheets and blankets look good even if your child doesn’t make her bed!
One of my favorite things to do in little girl rooms is give them grown up furniture but painted in little girl style. A coat of creamy paint, new sparkly pink glass knobs for a little bling, or a few different colors on a piece can really grow with her into young adulthood.
If you want your daughter to have a say in the room, as she rightly should, but are afraid of what she will choose, make it easy on both of you and give her choices you have pre-approved. The old “do you want the pink one or the yellow one?” concept! Let her choose the wall color from out of one of the fabrics and find other ways for her to be involved in making good choices. Her sense of taste will begin to be shaped by involvement in decorating, so do what you can to help foster enjoyment in the process.
Most of all, have fun in creating the room! She won’t be little for long. Trust me on that one if you are still knee deep in toys. My oldest is going to back to college on Saturday. Sniff!
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