Kid’s room decorating ideas, kid’s room layout and bedroom colors for kids should be driven by one guiding theme: Fun.
Friends and clients ask me all the time, what exactly makes for a great kid’s room? And, more specifically, what are some really great kid’s room decorating ideas?
My answer is always: go for the FUN and the ideas will come!
Organize your kid’s room decorating ideas around the following four elements and you’ll add function and style to the equation and end up with winning kids’ rooms.
COLOR: Choosing bedroom colors for kids is easy. Let them pick. Expect their choices to be brighter, sharper, wilder than yours would be.
My daughter chose bright orange and yellow for her bedroom colors and it was an intuitively smart choice for a smaller north facing bedroom with minimal natural light from one small window. The warm colors brightened the space and, while they did pull the walls and ceiling in, they gave the room a secure, cozy feeling that made the space feel welcoming. Leave it to kids!
You can select three or four additional hues related to your kid’s original paint selections to add interest and complexity. Use them as accent paint colors and when choosing accessories.
Don’t forget to include the ceiling as another surface to bring to life with color.
STORAGE: Funny thing about storage. No matter how much you have, you always fill it up. Kid’s room storage can be tricky. Kid’s have so much stuff!!
How about toy boxes that double as toys. Do you have a young knight who could use a castle with battlements he can hide behind? He can drop the drawbridge door to load his playthings, making clean up fun. Fun! There’s that word again.
A Doll House toy box is another fun idea. Make a simple gabled roof with 1/4″ plywood and paint siding, doors and windows with shutters on the sides. Do you have a pirate, soccer player, farmer or ballet dancer? You get the picture.
Plastic pull-out containers that fit under beds or at the bottom of closets can be found at any store that sells household goods. They’re great for smaller kid’s rooms. Bookshelves that are end-table height (22-26 inches or 56-66 cm) double as play surfaces and provide storage at a height kids can really use. I found awesome tiered hanging baskets for clothing and miscellaneous stuff at Ikea.
SPACE and SCALE: The best kids’ room decorating ideas celebrate space.
A giant empty space in the middle of a Living Room would signal that something is missing from the composition. In a kid’s room it’s a gift. I try to not clutter up a kid’s room so much that there’s no room to roll around on the floor with the puppy, or build a LEGO city or make a feast out of modeling clay. Make sure there’s space to play.
And, no matter how spacious your child’s room, they’ll feel more comfortable and confident if you bring the scale down to their perspective and needs. I talked about end-table height bookshelves that they can access easily. If your kid’s room has a high ceiling, consider painting it a darker color to make it feel closer. You can install a “picture rail” trim down two feet from a high ceiling to create a feeling of a child scaled room. Hang pictures and other art lower than you would in other rooms. After all, it is their room.
CREATIVITY: Imagination is more important than knowledge, a wise man once said. So give your kids ample opportunity to create.
I like sliding doors with blackboard material and chalk so kids can draw to their hearts’ content–and, then start over the next day.
Modular furniture can keep a room flexible to accommodate different activities…and, the kids can move it around to create their own layouts. Bulletin boards, mop boards, space for posters and personal artwork… it’s all good.
No matter how large or how small the space, the best kid’s room decorating idea that I leave with you is to make your child’s room conducive to creativity. Creativity can be messy though, so consider linoleum tiles that are easily wiped down. Also washable and paintable wallpapers and sharper, saturated colors that don’t easily show dirt and wear.
I hope these ideas inspire you…that they stimulate your creativity to come up with your own kid’s room decorating ideas.
