This is a collaborative post with Tenstickers but words and images are my own.
There are some people that love decorating, but I am definitely not one of those people. I find painting walls is so boring and I can think of a thousand things I’d rather be doing that heaving furniture about or going shopping for carpets and curtains. For me, decorating is a massive chore and a total pain.
Redecorating your child’s bedroom is something that I would personally aim to do as little as possible, but if they’ve outgrown their nursery decor, or maybe you’ve moved house or had a renovation like we did and have to start from scratch, then here are some tips for creating a child’s bedroom that won’t require redecorating until – hopefully – they’re old enough to do it themselves.
1. Go for neutral colours
I admit that this one I have mostly failed at; my children chose their own paint colours and while one has a soft blue, the other has a bright pink room (although in this case we managed to keep it to a feature wall).
However if the idea of re-painting in a few years makes you sweat then the best idea is to go for light, neutral colours and then use bright accessories and soft furnishings like rugs and curtains to brighten it up and bring colour and fun.
2. Keep the themes to the little extras
All kids go through stages of loving things one minute, and then the next they’re bored of it and have moved on to something completely different.
Paw Patrol wallpaper is probably a bad idea unless you want to have to strip it when they decided that they’ve outgrown it and only want Spiderman now.
Items like new bedding, curtains or a lampshade can change the look of their room completely.
Retailers these days have a great selection; no matter what their favourite cartoon character, pop star or TV show there will be bedding to match, so it is usually quite easy for you and your child to find something they really like, and it won’t be an expensive chore to change it when they decide they are no longer into it.
3. Use wall stickers
If they desperately want a themed room, then wall stickers are a great compromise.
They’re fairly inexpensive, easy to apply and can be removed without damaging the paintwork. Personalised stickers for walls are really cool and fairly inexpensive.
An alternative is to have framed prints and posters which you can change and alternate as tastes dictate.
4. Avoid light carpets
Replacing carpets is not only expensive but a huge pain as it means moving all the furniture out, so if you’re going to put down new carpet then be sensible. Kids spill; it’s unavoidable and it doesn’t matter what kind of parent you are, or what kind of rules you set.
A bleach cleanable carpet with flecks mean that any spillages or stains can be cleaned up, or at the very least will be less noticeable.
Use rugs to protect their carpet while they’re young and ESPECIALLY if they do any kind of colouring or crafts in their room or – god forbid – happen to like slime. That stuff doesn’t come out.
Even better, hard flooring is tough wearing and slime-proof. You can add kid-friendly vinyl rugs to add a bit of colour.
5. Skip the toddler furniture phase completely
Toddler beds and cute teeny tiny wardrobes might be be fine for the first few years of your child’s life, but they will outgrow that bed quite quickly and with the kids themselves, their clothes grow.
By the time they start school you are going to need somewhere to store their expanding collection of clothes including their school uniform and unless you want to have two loads of washing every day, you are going to need a lot of that. A pocket-sized wardrobe that only comes up to your shoulders just won’t cut the mustard for very long.
Save yourself from having to buy everything twice by moving them straight from their infant crib to a suitable single bed with a decent mattress, getting a full sized wardrobe and a proper chest of drawers.
6. Future Plan
If you just have the one child but are planning to have more and it’s likely that siblings will end up sharing, or perhaps they have their own bedrooms but you think they might want sleepovers in the future, then bunk beds might be the way to go.
Even if they don’t use the top bunk for several years, it’ll be nice when they’re older.
You can make sure you can save yourself future expenditure by investing in new or preloved solid wood pieces, which can be rubbed down and repainted if the theme of the room changes in the future.