Kids' rooms: decorating on the cheap

Decorating your kids' room should be done in such a way that they feel safe, comfortable and happy to be there. Much like your own room, your child’s bedroom needs to be a haven for them; somewhere they can relax, be themselves and sleep peacefully and restfully. Decoration is key!

Colour in the kids room

When it comes to decoration, colour is very important when decorating your kid’s room. While you want the colours to be cheerful, you want to avoid colours that are too bright or harsh (neon colors, for example). Large doses of bright, vivid color make it difficult to concentrate and to sleep.

This is not to say that if your 10-year-old daughter’s favorite color is lime green, she can’t have lime green in the color scheme of her room. It would just be better to decorate your child’s room using it as an accent colour; say on pillows, drawer pulls, or as one of the colors in the bed set and/or curtains.

If you are having trouble deciding which colours go together, you can get lots of ideas from home decorating magazines, home improvement stores or by using the old-fashioned color wheel.

As for the ‘best’ colors for children’s rooms, yellows, blues, greens, pinks and neutrals or pastels. Colours to avoid: black, gray, neon colors and too much orange.

Storage in the kids room

Legos and Barbie and puzzle pieces…oh, my! The best toys for children are those that encourage creativity and imagination, but toys such as these usually come in pieces…lots and lots of little pieces. What to do?

Storage for toys, hair accessories, art supplies, sports equipment and all things ‘children’ is surprisingly cheap and easy. And you don’t have to trade cheap and easy for cute and stylish when decorating your kid’s room.

The key, however, to storage, is organization. When organising your children’s toys and belongings for storage, you need to do the following:

• Sort toys and other belongings into like piles (puzzles, art supplies, building blocks, etc.)
• Throw away anything broken or that cannot be used due to missing pieces
• Donate anything no longer used (but in useable condition)

Once the sorting is done, it’s time to put things in order. Colour-coordinated storage bins to go with the room’s décor are as close as the nearest dollar store or discount store. You can also use inexpensive wooden crates (painted or stained), laundry baskets, wicker baskets, printed boxes and even soft luggage.

When incorporating storage units into the decorating scheme of your kids' room…think ‘easy’ and ‘accessible’. Larger storage units should not have a lid and everything should be easily accessible. The easier it is to put things away, the easier it will be to get your children in the habit of doing so.

Bed sets and such

It’s oh, so tempting to your kids' room in total and complete Disney Princesses, dinosaurs, race cars or whatever they are into at the time.

But try to be strong; try to avoid making this costly mistake. Instead of covering the walls, choosing curtains, a bed set and even rugs in one motif, allow your children to select a bed set or curtains or posters featuring their favorite thing.

From there, build the rest of the décor around the colors in whatever they’ve chosen. This way you won’t have so much to get rid of when they outgrow the décor.