Decorating a child鈥檚 room is so much fun. Here, you find the freedom to play with whimsical themes and colours, and create an imaginative space that your child will be happy to call his or her own. Although it鈥檚 tempting to think back to what you would have wanted when you were that age, perhaps your child has different interests.
Pay attention to what sparks their imagination, what characters they relate to in books or on TV and what themes they return to when playing solo or with friends.
Paint is such a versatile medium that you can reproduce any theme, any mood, simply by rolling colour onto a wall. And there are many easy-to-apply paint finishes that will boost the room鈥檚 character even more.
Stripes can be any size and provide a variety of looks, whether you apply them vertically or horizontally. Two crayon-coloured stripes touching each other placed one or two feet apart over a quiet background is youthful and full of energy.
For a peaceful mood appropriate for a nursery, try wide horizontal stripes in soft shades of green or violet. A single horizontal stripe set at about three feet above the floor is the perfect height for a young child to line up favourite motifs with stickers or stamps.
A nine-year-old with a fascination for medieval knights was the inspiration for the bedroom shown here. Stripes are useful for lining up other patterns or placing motifs as added decoration.
Here, we chose yellow and green stripes. The yellow is the base coat. The wall was then divided into 12 vertical stripes, marked off with a pencil. Low-tack painter鈥檚 tape was used to mask off the outside edges of each of the stripes to be painted green. These stripes will look fatter than the other stripes.
It鈥檚 helpful to use tape to mark an X on the stripes not to be painted. The green stripes are applied as a glaze, one part paint to one part glazing liquid. Apply the glaze with a kitchen sponge and wash the colour onto the stripes, creating a cloudy effect.
To develop the medieval theme, we looked up ancestral shields, simplified them and made our own stencils cut from Mylar.
The stencils were placed at intervals alternating between stripes. Use grey and black acrylic paint or silver metallic paint to fill in the stencils.
To finish the walls neatly, a solid green stripe was painted along the upper wall overlapping onto the ceiling. An orange stripe defines the top of the wall.
Decide how far you want to go with a theme. You can stop at the wall finish, or add photos and accessories that continue to build on the mood.
The wide range of colours and patterns available in bed sheets, duvets and curtains always makes a statement. Wood shutters suited this room, along with a cork floor that is comfortable to play on and looks great. An old steamer trunk holds toys and books and doubles as a seat.
