Decorating
There’s a Big Payoff When You Get Your Kids Involved in Decorating Decisions
By
Sep 12, 2005, 22:25

(ARA) - When they were babies you could get away with pretty much any decorating scheme you wanted in your son or daughter’s room. Maybe you had fish and duckies on the walls or baby animals and ABCs. The look probably worked when your child was a toddler too, but once they’re in preschool it’s time to make a change.
By the age of 4, kids have already developed a solid set of likes and dislikes for everything from shapes and colors to cartoon characters, people and pets. So parents, it’s in your best interest to involve your “little person” in any and all decisions that will affect their space.

A good place to start is by deciding on a color scheme. If your son, for example, tells you blue and green are his favorite colors, or your daughter says she likes pink and purple, ask which color they want for the walls and plan on getting bedsheets, pillows and other decorations in the other color.

Next pick a theme, keeping in mind that you want the room to grow with your child, so the decorations you chose should be easily removable when the child outgrows the look. Mobiles, stuffed animals and cutouts or murals that attach to the walls when you put a little water or removable paste on their backs are good options.

Popular themes for little boys’ rooms include space, cars, sports and fire trucks. To achieve these looks, a good place to start is with a comforter and matching pillowcases. You may also want to look for giant cutouts that fit the theme, like race cars, fire trucks, baseballs or soccer balls that can be attached to the wall. For a space look, you may want to hang a planet mobile above the bed and attach glow-in-the-dark stars, moons and planets to the walls. If you’re son is a “jock, in training” you can even bring in sporting equipment that can serve not only as decorations but inspiration. Preschool girls love butterflies, princesses, ponies and Hello Kitty. It’ll be easy to find an appropriately themed comforter since these themes are so universal. Other accents that work well include pillows with frilled edges, dolls and stuffed animals.

Or perhaps you’d like to go with a look inspired by the new movie, “Madagascar,” and recreate an animal gathering place in your child’s room. An easy way to achieve this look is to get a camoflauge colored bedspread and tan or green pillowcases and hang cargo nets from the ceiling for your child’s stuffed animals to “live” in. A new wall mural from Décor Place will really help make the look come alive. “The Gathering Place” is an image of elephants, zebras, giraffes and other jungle animals gathered around a watering hole. You can get it customized to fit any sized space that’s at least 4 by 6 feet wide. For more information about the “Gathering Place” or to get a look at dozens of other wall murals available for children’s rooms, log on to www.decorplace.com and click on custom murals. In addition to an online catalog, you’ll find pricing information and directions for hanging murals there.

Once you get “the look” you want established, you can turn your attention to storage options. Preschoolers are old enough to clean their own rooms. Make it easy for them by providing convenient storage solutions. There should be easily accessible containers, such as boxes, bins or baskets, they can put small toys in; and a bigger box for the rockets, fire trucks, ponies and dolls. The bookcase in their room should be short enough for them to reach the top shelf.

In the long run, involving your child in the decorating process will pay huge dividends. Not only will they take pride in ownership, but because it’s a look they helped create, they’ll actually want to keep it clean.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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