Kids bedroom's - where do I start?

Well DH and I have saved our butts off and have gotten ridden of all our debt so we are now doing things around the house. So I've decided to start with the kids rooms as I have never done the whole set up the nursery/bedroom thing.

So I have a 3 year old DD and 1 year old DS and I want a room that is girly/boy that will suit them for a few years (we are planning on being in this house for 5 years).

I don't have an artistic bone in my body but I really want to do this. So what have you done in your kids rooms? What tips do you have for me? Where do I start?

I'm thinking a fresh coat of paint, new curtains with lace and decorations. I really have no idea, LOL!!

Thanks Dan.

Do they share a room?

No they have their own room. So I'll be doing both of them up.

im both girls rooms ive bought some cheap canvases and some nice material to cover them, i just use a staple gun, cheap and easy, the best thing is you can easily change the material as they get older and change likes etc.. (there hung on the wall)
im going to buy some wall decals too, but there more exxy

The fresh coat of paint and curtains is a great start. You could just go neutral with the paint colors then decorate around it.
I have just got the Bambini Pronto new catalogue and they have beautiful wall decals that are generic and would suit up to an older age.
Good thing about wall decals, as they are easily changeable and will not ruin the walls.
Do you have good craft markets near you? They quite often are great at room decorations for kids bedrooms, I saw a painting that was of a ballerina and another one of a a cup cake, perfect for a girls room.
For a boy you could a color scheme like blue and red and dress up the room with pictures. The market also had great designs for a boys room.
If you are in Melbourne, the Flemington Market is fantastic for that sort of stuff.
Have fun..well done on getting rid of your debts :dance:

For DD's room i got a nice timber white bed frame, some nice matching timbre drawers

those removable stickers, some nice girly curtains, a rug, and $8 canvases from kmart. I used commando sticker things so that i dont have to drill holes in the wall.

PM me your email addy if you want, I can take pics tonight and show you.

a neautral base, so say a nice stoen colour.
white = dirty quickly =annpoying
we just did teh kids rooms with a stoen colour wall, then one colour featur wall. we chose green shades, so cody got dark green adn teh girls got this pale teal green.
then they have a timber beds and i just made romans, i wouldn't go lace as it gets dusty = asthma. and it dates easily
so if you want it looking mondern, maybe some good block out blinds with a nice material curtain over the top as decoration, non functional.

then get nice linen, always makes a room look good, and some fun painting for teh walls, or storage boxes the kids can show off fav toys, this will grow with them so def last 5 years.
if you go white boxes hanging on walls with boxes in them then added storage for lkittle toys colouring stuff
also i like a line of rope suspended against a wall with pegs then they can peg up their artworks from school and its easy to change..
anyquestions just ask
we haev just finished teh house here ready fro sale lol

What about light shade, or lamps too. We want to put up some floating shelves in our kids rooms too for those special little things I want to display for them, but don't really want them playing with! In DD's room I got a beautiful little mirror in the shape of a heart with a flower boarder. She absolutely adores it! I am also going to get her some crystals and chimes to hang in her window. In DS's room I have made a cushioned area with some big pillows and little cushions for him, he loves it and I often find him sitting there or falling into the pillows, lol! I have gotten a cheapo rug for each of their rooms too, and then just some nice bedding.

Just subscribing as I am looking at doing the same thing

What fabulous ideas!!! I absolutley love the string to hang up their artwork (I had no idea what I was going to do with it all). I'm going to go with neutral walls and decorate. I love that idea. I didn't think of the kids out growing wall colour. I'm getting their names cut in wood to hand on their doors.

I'm going to go to spotlight/lincraft to buy some canvases and material. This never occured to me. Oh I'm so excited!!! What kind of canvases do I buy? Am I looking for ones like the blank canvas board that artists use?? DS is going to be cars/transport because he got a track mat for his birthday. DD is probably going to be a flower/butterfly theme.

It's the curtains that are going to be hard. Both of their rooms get all day sun. So I'm thinking a thick block out roller blind in a neutral colour and then the decorative curtain strips down each side of a bright colour. Thinking pink/purple/yellow for DD and red/blue for DS. Do you think that these strips of material need to sunblock out too? Would a roller blind be warm enough in winter? They have verticals at the moment and they are just terrible.

i get the canveses from reget shop, go low etc.. as they are cheaper!

Kawasuki with the non functional curtain material so you mean the full length of the window or a strip down each side?

Olive that was exactly what I was thinking. I saw some when I was there today. Their rooms are really quite small so I am loving these ideas.

Is there anything I need to avoid with small rooms that will make them look smaller?? Can I do anything to give the illusion of a bigger room??

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Kawasuki with the non functional curtain material so you mean the full length of the window or a strip down each side?



Is there anything I need to avoid with small rooms that will make them look smaller?? Can I do anything to give the illusion of a bigger room??

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yep thats them. they just hang to teh side to look pretty lol
if teh windows are a standard size, you can get from lincraft a double blind roller system, its blockout and then you roll the block out up adn it leavs a uv mesh there. so keeps it cool :D they were only around 90-100 for a regular window i think.

to prevent a room looking small, keep it light so pastels for teh majority and try to group things so you dont haev bits everywhere to make it look cluttered.

a contrasting wall should be the oen furthest away from the door and also painting the cornice will give the illusion the walls go higher as well.

I think to make a room look bigger they say to use a mirror too dont they, I am sure I heard/read that somewhere

Oh I'm so excited ladies I just had to pop on and share. Today I made my first purchases :). I have the stuff for Will's room. I got him three canvases one car, plane and boat (found them on a throw out sale - extra woohoo) and a matching art board. I have found his room stickers on ebay. It is a funky race track. I'm not sure if the canvas prints and race track will match though. I have a small bookcase in Liv's room which I'm going to paint either red, blue or green depending on what suits.
Livvy I found her stickers on ebay (but I have to fight for them - aarrrgghh!!!). She is going to have a tree branch with flowers coming out from the corner and then butterflies flying from the tree around the wall. On the other wall she is going to have three canvases (same sale as will's) one a butterfly, one flower and one pattern. And I got her a butterfly cushion.
They are both having the same kind of thing for the windows. It's going to be a neutral colour sun block out roller blind with a rod of sheer and curtain material for decoration over the top. I can't get the dual ones as they will take up too much room sadly. I'm not sure what colour curtains I'm going to get yet. I'll decide that when I have all my bits and pieces together and then take them to the curtain shop.

My problem is what colour paint. The walls, doors and ceiling are a creamy colour and I don't want to change that as it is the same all though the house and it would look really odd. So what colour do you think I can paint the walls. The carpet is a light green. I was thinking about a light mint green and then putting purple curtains in Liv's room and a bright green in Will's. What do you think???

You could get the kids to help you decorate a canvas for themselves - a room decoration & activity for the kids all in one LOL! Get some finger paints and let them go nuts or help DS to do a handprint or footprint. Kind of personalises it a bit.

Great idea darl. Another idea I hadn't thought of was getting the kids to help with the canvas prints. I love doing craft stuff with the kids. Lucky you gave me another idea because DH hates the canvas prints I got for Will :(.

Hey Liviam sounds great what you have done, I was thinking about the paint and why not just do a feature wall in each childs bedroom??

Another place to check for wall decals is DH gate, its like chinese ebay, dont let that turn you off I have made purchases from there before its not a problem and its safe, just like our ebay check the sellers feedback. You will find the decals on there for really cheap, sometimes in bulk then you could just resell the ones you dont want - just a thought.

with DDs room we went with plain walls, a fancy pants wall decal. we also bought a simple wrought iron single bed from ikea and got the ikea canopy net thingy with dots. we are also hunting around for some lovely sheer but fun curtains to go over some dark blockout blinds we are putting in.

I also reckon that a really nice light fitting can really ramp up a room and make it special IYKWIM.

How exciting Dan!!! Bummer about the canvas' - I saw the coolest thing the other day - basically a person took photos of their kids artwork - 9 of them and then they made them really small and put them all on one print and framed it! Looked way cool - will link you if I can find it again!

As for the green - could you just do a feature wall??? I think the mint green and a brighter green would be great! I also saw some (not cheap :S) but gorgeous mobiles at Adairs kids the other day - a big butterfly one and I think there is a boys one too that is cars?? They have wall stickers as well if you miss out on the ebay ones! Good luck babe!

ETA: Hopefully this LINK is ok - that is a big scale of the artwork I was talking about! The one I saw was smaller but same principle!

Oh Tan that is absolutely gorgeoues!! I'm off to adairs to check their stuff out - woohoo!!! Even better is it is all curtesy of the tax man :)