Decorating 3 Year Old's Bedroom

woohoo_postingid

Hi,

I want to decorate my 3 year old son's bedroom but don't want it to cost the earth and I'm not the most "artistic" of people :rotfl:

At the moment, there is white wallpaper on the walls which has a slight raised pattern on it - Not unpleasant, just boring. I'm thinking of simply painting the wallpaper as this would be cheaper than re-papering and also means I won't have to do it again in 6 months when he decides Thomas the Tank Engine is no longer his favourite. But what colour? Should I paint walls different colours? Where is the best place to get the paint from? Are there any other ways to brighten up the room?

I also plan to invest in some new furniture for his room. Any thoughts on where to get this from would also be much appreciated.

Ta

penguine

My daughter's room has wallpaper with a slight raised pattern. We have painted over it a couple of times and it looks fine.

I personally prefer Dulux paints and if you go to their website you can get them to send you swatches of the colours you like. One thing to remember is the tone of the colour should be chosen depending on the amount of natural light the room gets. If the windows are east or north facing it gets less natural light so it will look better with a warm tone. If the windows are south or west facing you'll get more natural light and a cooler tone may make it feel nicer when it's very bright and sunny. You can choose, for example, different blues which are either warm or cool shades to get the right effect.

When my daughter was almost a year old, I bought her adult sized furniture from Argos -- some of the cheap pine stuff that you can paint whatever colour you want. It was a false economy as I spent ages putting it together then painting it and I didn't know I needed to use something to cover up the knots in the wood -- the resin has now seeped through the wood and looks awful but I really don't want to do it over. Plus hinges on the doors of the wardrobe don't stay on properly and the bottoms of the drawers are now sagging. Plus the wood is so lightweight it doesn't make a solid sound when you close the doors so it "sounds" cheap to me now as well as looking cheap!

So when I recently bought her a full size bed I went for a good quality, solid, pricier one from an online company specialising in children's furniture (aspace). I wanted a bed that was really durable than I could envisage still using (ie in a spare bedroom) in 20 years time when my daughter's grown up and left home. I bought an underbed drawer to go with it which is great for storing spare bedding, dressing up costumes, toys etc but can also hold a mattress for a guest bed when she's older and ready to have a friend sleep over.

I have also bought some of our furniture from a charity shop which sells 2nd hand furniture -- I check the shop windows regularly for good quality solid wood furniture. It can always be painted to suit whatever room it's going into (if I ever find the time that is). Though I have spent about £100 each for a couple of pieces of furniture that I really like, it still works out cheaper than the unfinished pine stuff I bought from Argos and I don't have to put it together!

MrsFraggle

Painting the wallpaper sounds like a good idea, in houses where I've lived before I've always regretted removing wallpaper as usually half the plaster falls off too!

With regards to furniture, I've always found furniture from Ikea to be sturdy and of good quality.

I agree with penguine, go for adult sized bed and furniture, makes more sense in the long run!

TomsMom

Thomas the Tank is his favourite at the moment - does he have a character duvet and curtains? What about picking out one (or two) colours from the duvet for your walls to tie it together.

What about those Stick Arounds that go on the wall, easily removed when you want a change. Or can you get Thomas pictures/posters. I'd steer clear of borders as it's not easy to change those and they don't look good painted over.

Gangstabird

I am just about to decorate my sons bedroom and I reckon the cheapest way is to stay with white and use really bright accessories to brighten it up. Bright rug/toy baskets. Curtains & bedspread. Spray any old photo frames you have the same colour and look for stuff in charity shops that can be sprayed. I am the spray queen at the moment and if something can be sprayed - it's mine.

I am also having the floorboards replaced at a cost of £130 pounds for the wood. Upstairs is always baking but if this hadn't been this cheap, I would have gone for laminate in there, carpets get trashed.

clairehi

Ebay is a great source of second hand furniture.

For kids rooms I would suggest you look out for modern (ie not antique) pine furniture. there is lots available, and it does not hold its value/is not very fashionable so you can pick up items like bedside tables, chests of drawers, bookcases in very good condition for £20-30. "orange" varnished pine may not be everyones taste but I think its fine for a kids room.

I have completely furnished both of my boys' rooms with ebay finds and hand me down items from family, except for the beds and mattresses which we bought new.

TaBunny

A great way to make interesting patterns is to put a couple of elastic bands around a roller and then roll another colour paint over the top of your base colour you could make it look like seaweed in the sea or something like that it's a really cool effect