When I get my tax refund, I’m going to buy bunk beds for Tbone and the Weeping Princess. While I’m at it (I recently saw an article about home improvement in which the author postulated that the most dangerous phrases in the world are “While we’re at it…” and “May as well.” Heh.) I’m thinking I may repaint and decorate, as essentially there is no decoration aside from large bright green stripes on the walls.
Of course, I have a very YuGi Oh!-centered boy (6) and a very girly-princess type girl (4) who must both be pleased, so I’m looking for something bright but neutral, if you know what I mean.
Fish, maybe? There are a lot of fish and water designs at the fabric store that I could use for curtains…
I dunno. Any ideas?
And anyone know where I can get inexpensive bunks?
As far as decoration, what about a favorite cartoon character they share, or just a simple pattern using their favorite colors? I’d think with little kids, you wouldn’t have to do much to please them.
Or give 'em each two walls and let 'em go to town. Room might look a little mismatched, but they’d probably adore it.
When I was a little girl, my bedroom’s walls were painted sky-blue. The room had a vaulted ceiling; at regular 8’ ceiling height, there was a border of rainbows. Above that was the classic “clouds” wallpaper, like from Toy Story. The light fixture was a big frosted glass globe that hung from the ceiling, just like the sun in the sky. It was awesome.
The room I was a baby in had a wallpaper mural along one wall… it was of funny cartoon fish. I can never remember the artist’s name, but he did a painting called Chocolate Moose that was popular around 1990. Eisenstein?
When my daughter and my old roomate’s son were 4 and 3 I decorated the room they shared as a coloring book The room was painted white with black line drawings. I had curtains that had fabric pictures of crayons. I even found some crayon sort of christmas lights on a strand that hung across the ceiling as night lights.
I did have plans to let them color them in at some pointm but I am not sure what I was going to let them use so it would be possible to paint over. It worked well for us. It alowed her her fairy princess castle and him a full scale pirate ship ( Boy was that tough to draw). As long as I stayed with bright colors everything else worked in there.
I got a set of bunk beds (the first thing I bought when I moved out of my parents) at Building 19 for about 200 dollars. They are nice, wooden ones with a rail and ladder. I’m not sure they have Building 19’s out in your neck of the woods, though.
I really like those wall cling things, like this. With a neutral color, or using the two-wall suggestion, each child can help choose their own decorations and it’s way easier to modify later, unlike more intense painting techniques.
I re-did my son’s room last year, he was eleven so I was looking for something that would be easy to transition into a teen’s room. We went with white walls and a very dark blue ceiling with a spiderman border at the top of the walls and harry potter clings all over the walls and glow-in-the-dark stars affixed to the ceiling. No real theme, the clings and border are easily removable and the navy curtains and neutral comforter set in blues will be fine as he gets older. I like the light walls with the dark ceiling, there’s a cool color cast effect when the ceiling fixture is on, we used a semi-gloss and it reflects the color onto the walls.
My sister started an interesting tradition with her kids, each child gets to choose new posters and/or wallies to decorate with per birthday. She assigns a reasonable price limit and half the fun is taking them shopping and helping them choose, this last birthday my 9 year old neice decided on a new bed-in-a-bag set and two cutesy pillows and didn’t alter last years wall decor. The year my nephew turned twelve he bought a black light with his birthday money from everyone else and used Mom’s decorating money for cool posters.
Heh. Guilty. No kids. Just a lot of baby-sitting experience with fairly decent kids:). When it’s just a matter of choosing hot dogs or chicken nuggets for dinner, they’re fairly easy to please. I’ve never had to decorate with kids, though.
With my brother, if it was Dukes of Hazzard or Star Wars, we were usually fine.
So many good ideas. This is exactly what happens to me…too many choices, and not enough walls to paint!
I do like the coloring book idea…that seems doable, and then we could incorporate a couple of different items without it getting too busy.
I should mention the incredible dresser that must be accomodated. I bought it at a yardsale–green and blue and handpainted in the most amazing array of flowers and curlicues and dots. If it doesn’t go, I can always give in (heh) and move it into my room, where it will go nicely with MY decor.
Thanks for the ideas!