Where to start when decorating your child’s room
My daughter’s room is tiny, it measures approximately 2.5m X 3m and is bursting at the seams. We are aiming towards a high bed so that we can increase the floor space at some point but will need to save up for it.
The last time I decorated her room was just before she was born, I chose neutral colours: cream carpets and curtains, caramel paint and mixture of wood and white finished furniture. I didn’t want to make it too babyish so that I would have to paint it in a couple years time. However, it has now been over six years and it is rather dark, looks tired and has lost its way.
Where to start when decorating?
When my in-laws passed away a few years ago we inherited a lot of their things. Last week I ran out of bedding and found an old duvet cover in the airing cupbaord. I always thought that it was my Mother in laws, but upon my husband seeing it, it turned out to have been his, from when he was little. After a quick look on eBay, I worked out that it is in fact a Retro 60s Duvet cover. It may not be to everyone’s liking.
Originally, I had the whole colour scheme picked out, a red and white feature wall, white walls and red accessories, but when I learned about the duvet cover I became a bit nostalgic and decided to use it as the basis for my colour scheme, so decided to go with teal. Thanks to a friend, I moved away from doing a feature wall as the fireplace is a feature enough in itself.
I’m not an interior decorator!
Last weekend she was away with family so we took the opportunity to surprise her. We didn’t do anything that amazing but I think the end result is fabulous and most importantly she loved it. To make the room seem bigger we decided to paint the walls white, I know it’s not that inspiring but the thought behind it is that she can update change her room easily by simply changing the accessories, bedding and curtains.
We cleared out about two bags of her toys. She is just starting to notice some things missing.
Shiny new balls!
We thought we would make the furniture appear more ‘sophisticated’ by peeling off the sticker and simply changing the knobs. We affectionately call these disco balls as they refract light beautifully onto the wardrobe doors. You’d never know the wardrobe is an IKEA special.
Simply changing the light fitting to a Teal Pineapple Pendant Shade, made the world of difference and it gives off an amazing pattern on the ceiling at night. Husband did tut when he first saw the Teal Shade, but now agrees it is perfect.
The ring top curtains are cheap and cheerful from Argos in what they call Lagoon.
I bought some new bedding to compliment the duvet cover including sheets and a fuzzy throw from BHS. The duvet is from The Bedding Company and fits the cover perfectly, unlike her last duvet.
But my absolute favourite bit is the wall sticker that I had made Freeky Deeky Decals. One of my daughter’s all time favourite stories is ‘I love you this much’ and every night we say ‘I love you to the moon and back’ before lights out. I think it adds the perfect amount of interest to the otherwise rather plain colour scheme.
The last finishing touch came a few days later. I was inspired by Little Valley Home, which I believe is based in the US, but for the life of me I couldn’t source the fairy lights.
But thanks to a friend on twitter, I was able to get some from Kiki’s Boutique and managed to track down a set of 10 Floral Miniature Chinese Lanterns via Twitter. They add a lovely warm glow to the room at night.
In future, once we get the high bed we will be able to create an area for socializing which will include a Teal Fold Out Chair/Chair Bed.
It’s amazing what a few simple changes can do to the overall feel of the room. It seems twice as big now.
So, what do you think?
When I was planning on redecorating my daughters room a few weeks ago I was going to go with white with red accents (pillows, curtains, bedding) so I chose this delightfully bold cushion from the India collection from Victoria Crossman Kids. I was hoping to give my daughters a more slightly more sophisticated grown up room.
