Decorating your kids room can be one of the most fun home decorating projects you’ll find. Kids room decor should be about imagination and creativity; the sky … or the jungle, a castle, the sea or any of a hundred other realms of imagination … really is the limit!
Try to get your child involved in the project as much as possible, letting them help steer your selection of a theme, colors and design elements. To get your kids room decorating project started, we have assembled a number of ideas and tips to help inspire you.
Picking a Theme
What are your child’s interests? Begin by looking at your child’s favorite books and artwork for ideas. You know what your son or daughter likes to pretend play the most, so use that to get inspiration for your theme.
Then look in decorating magazines books and online to find photos and ideas on how to bring your theme to life. A good theme for your kids’ room will also help direct your choice of colors, patterns and decorating elements.
Always remember safety is an important part of any kids’ room decor. If you child is a restless sleeper, bunk beds may not be the best choice. Never use decorating elements that could cause your child to choke or sustain injuries.
Choosing a Color Scheme
Start by choosing the background color you’ll use to paint the walls and ceiling, your flooring material and borders. Choosing a primary fabric and pattern will help guide your efforts.
Choose fabrics, wallpaper and wallpaper border patterns to help reinforce your theme and color scheme. You will want to select a main print or pattern to set the overall tone of your kids’ room.
Select your accessories, fabrics, wall art and other design elements to coordinate and with the primary fabric pattern and colors.
By selecting complementary colors for all design elements, you can bring together all of the design elements that help support your theme.
It’s best to select one a common background color, even when using different prints in one room. You can select prints and patterns in different size scales, like a wallpaper border with large hearts and perhaps the same or a similar pattern with smaller hearts to use in fabrics or curtains for instance.
Creating affordable framed art is easy if you simply use artwork your child has created him or herself, or by clipping pictures from magazines or books.
Choosing a Focal Point and Design Elements
You’ll want to select a main focal point for your kids’ room decor. Often time, this may be the bed, but you could also use a wall mural or a display shelf as the main point of interest. Your focal point reinforces and sets the theme you have chosen.
Really use your imagination when planning and selecting decorative elements. If your son loves baseball, use team pennants on a wall or display an autographed baseball on the display shelf. You might have a wall mural of his favorite ballpark or player at bat!
Of course, you’ll also want to find bedding that coordinates with the theme and color palette. Hearts, flowers and dolls in pinks, purples and greens work well in most girls’ room color schemes, while red, yellow or blue tend to work well in a boy’s room.
Boys Room Themes
Boys play and pretend actively, often pretending to be grown up men, so themes like building, cars, the circus or other occupations can make good options.
Boys also tend to love the outdoors, animals and the sea.
Fire House Theme
Is your little boy intrigued with fire trucks and likes pretending to be a firefighter? Then maybe a fire house theme, complete with wooden fire truck bed is the right theme.
You could use red as the primary color, adding a fire truck pattern for wallpaper borders. White, yellow or blue will work well for coordinating colors.
A fire pole might make an interesting design element and adds a great play center. A fire captain’s helmet or fire hose could also work to add to your theme.
Animal Theme
Most boys love animals. If your son loves dogs, you will find a lot of great dog patterns for bedding, fabrics and wallpaper borders. Whether he loves German Shepherds, Collies or Labrador Retrievers, a dog room theme will provide plenty of imaginative options.
Maybe he’s more interested in bugs, jungle cats and big game animals or dinosaurs? What ever animal category he likes can make a great theme for your boys’ room.
Animals make an easy theme since you can use stuffed animals and artwork with out spending big bucks.
Castle Theme
Most boys love to pretend being the knight in shining armor. Faux paint, a nice wall mural and a valance for the window treatment can transform your boys’ room into a castle.
You could also decorate his bunk bed to look like a guard tower or put a knight in armor in a corner of the bedroom to give this theme an imaginative touch.
Nautical Theme
Sail boats, tug boats or racing boats are another source of imagination and pretend play for many boys. A ship’s bell, anchor or sailing ship wheel could make the perfect main pattern for your boy’s room nautical theme.
Blue is a natural primary color choice with this theme, while beige can bring a feeling of beach sand into the color scheme. A ship in a bottle would make a great accessory for his display shelf.
Girls Room Themes
Girls will often want to play house, dolls, be a princess or dress up. Hearts, flowers and horses can also be good girls’ room themes.
If your little girl, love Barbie dolls, that could be a great theme. Or, if horses are her thing, look for wallpaper patterns, fabrics and other design elements that could support a horse theme in her room.
Pastels, pinks, purples and other bright colors are popular choices for any girls’ room. An elaborate doll house, a vanity with mirror for make up or a tea table, chairs and tea set for her dolls to have a nice tea party can all make great options for a focal point in your girls room decor, letting you even mix themes a bit if desired, since dolls and princesses can go together!
Princess Theme
If your daughter is like my five-year-old girl, she probably loves the Disney princesses. This can make a great theme, complete with her favorite princess characters and accessories.
Girls love a canopy bed and you can use sheer fabrics to bring color and a touch of whimsy into her bedroom. Pillows and bedding are easy to do with a princess theme; you’ll find plenty of good patterns, fabrics and wallpaper borders.
Barbie Doll Theme
Barbie doll collections are another biggie with girls. If she loves Barbie, then this could be a natural theme for her room. You can get a Barbie living room set, a Barbie bed, make up desk with mirror and all the accoutrements for her Barbie room theme.
This is another theme that can be extended easily, since she may have other favorite dolls as well. Make a display shelf unit the focal point to display all her favorite dolls.
Hearts Theme
Hearts are a wonderful pattern to use in a girls room. If your daughter wants a hearts theme, start by picking a pattern and her favorite color. You could also combine this with other patterns like butterflies or lady bugs to mix things up a little.
Flowers Theme
Flowers are another great source of inspiration for your girls’ room theme. Whether she loves a particular type of flower, like daisies, roses or lilies, you can find any number of patterns, fabrics and wallpapers from which to choose. Color options are also wide open with a flowers theme.
Use white bedroom furniture and stencil her favorite flowers to add color and create your flowers theme. A lovely flower vase could feature some paper machete or other type of faux flowers your girl can craft herself for display.
For a retro look from the seventies, you could go with a bright flower pattern. If she likes a more muted color scheme, then pastel colors and appropriate flower pattern may be the right look.
