Ideas, Hints and Tips for Choosing Children's Bedroom Schemes

More than any other room, I get the most queries about children's bedrooms - must be the company I keep ! (A sign of a certain age bracket...the 1st houses are done....the hen nights and weddings slowing down ...time to join in the school run rather than the rat race !) So I thought what I would do over the next few weeks would be to come up with some ideas, hints and tips that would hopefully be a start at helping with these queries ..I say over the next few weeks I thought of this 3 weeks ago and it was my priority for Monday this week - its now Thursday and its dark outside !

So, first off a few thought provokers :

1. Think about how quickly they change their mind on favourite toys and how quickly they grow out of clothes ? The same could happen if your scheme is too focused. Choose an adaptable base. Go for neutrals, especially for carpets and probably the majority of the walls using your accessories to provide the 'story'. One wall of feature wallpaper or colour is easily enough updated without incurring a massive cost when all of a sudden your 4 year old declares that princesses are for babies ! (I daren't mention Hannah Montana !) Having a neutral base enables the room to grow with the child or change its function without too much upheaval, emotional or financial !
2. Think storage, storage, storage - Its Father Christmas, Birthday's, hand-me-downs etc etc they seem to be magpies when it comes to 'stuff'. Priority should be easy to use i.e. can you throw in toys from the middle of the room enabling a full room clear up during the time it takes for them to come up with the excuses as to why they couldn't possibly help you tidy up the mess that they have created because their belly button hurts / their teddy bear has not cleaned its teeth properly / they are listening to the nee nor going past / they are busy practicing their yoga tree ? The slide in fabric drawers are a fantastic option, a sort of easy-aim toy filing system. Never under estimate the amount of storage you'll need and always have some under-bed-on-wheels-boxes ...if nothing else it removes the option of them hiding under there when they are supposed to be getting in the bath !
3. If the child is old enough to speak they are probably old enough to have an opinion - you need to choose whether you are going to go along with it or 'tweak it' but remember if you have asked their opinion they will remember their answer. This could then go a few ways, they'll either stick to their guns until the end of time, probably when the answer didn't meet with your approval or change their minds on a daily basis....in our current building site I asked Small1 what colour he would like the bathroom to be ? Blue! The look on his face when the bath was delivered ..."but its white Mummy I'm having a blue bathroom"... Manage their expectations, if yours are anything like Small1 the whole world will get told the plans, rather like birthday parties ! Let them know that if they have asked for blue that there will be some bits that are blue but some bits that are other colours too !
4. Try not to be too precious about it - after all it is 'their space' and when they insist on lining up a row of dolls in order of 'which-doll-is-best-friend-with-which' rather than your 'predetermined-colour-co-ordinated-height-order' you may just have to learn to live with it! This said, there are some practical times when you need to stick to your guns ...when they decide that the dress-up clothes stand "needs" to be within arms reach of the bed so they can jump out of the PJ's into the Spiderman outfit before you've had chance to realise, then refusing to take it off to go to school / granny's / Tesco's ! All I'm saying is choose your battles wisely.
5. Choose where you spend and where you save - if you are reading this you are probably quite house proud (or my Mum, not saying that she isn't house proud too) - and yes its one of those great rooms to work on, you can really get your teeth into co-ordinating this that and the other ...before you know it you can spend a couple of hundred quid on 'matching accessories'...your 2 year old will really appreciate the £8 you spend on the light switch cover that has a car on it because it will clearly be him that can reach up the 5 foot to switch the light on and off ...however, you will really appreciate the extra investment that you made getting the curtains black-out lined, meaning that you get the extra sleep in the mornings when the clocks change ! (I know the blackout lining will cost more than £8 but all the £8's add up scarily quickly !)

So, now we've covered a few ground rules what do you actually put in the rooms....well that's next on my To Do List ...and I'll get back to you right after I've re-ordered the Thomas the Tank Engine Trains into numerical order!!....first up ...Girls Rooms....