Sweet as rooms

Bedrooms don’t have to follow a fluffy pink-princess theme or a spaceman’s dream galaxy. Remember, edgy styles and gender neutral elements have their place too. Playful, whimsical or edgy, the themes for children’s bedrooms are endless.

Ultimately, the bedroom that works well will cater to your child’s tastes and dreams, while still looking like it’s a room that belongs in your home.

Shapes such as stripes, spots and stars are easy to achieve, and are a useful way of bringing in multiple colours onto a white or coloured wall. Simply use masking tape to map out your chosen image, and paint inside the shape, removing the tape when its dry.

Young friends mean a lot to children, so let your child choose a selection of favourite photos to print out. Buy a series of frames in varying sizes and paint them each in a different hue – or all in the same colour. Insert the photos and she’ll have her own personal gallery wall.

Children love having their names appearing on their wall – it provides a sense of ownership of their space and helps the young ones remember how to spell their names. Cardboard or wooden letters are easy to find, once you have some let your child decide what colours they’d like to paint theirs in. They might also want to paint their own patterns on each letter. When dry, hang each letter on the bedroom wall to spell out their name.

If the room is home to a window seat, build cubbyholes underneath and paint boxes to fit underneath. Label them to suit. Older children could help with this and decide what they want to store where.

Look carefully at your existing furniture – it may seem a bit lacklustre and fail to add anything strongly to the interior. So why not add a coat of paint to give it a new lease of life? It can transform a mundane piece of furniture into a showstopper, bringing a pop of beautiful colour into a plain space.

Try and find some bedlinen that really enhances the wall and décor colours too. Stripes, spots, plain or patterned, it won’t matter – simply keep them in the same colourways and you can always mix and match to suit. Anchor the scheme with a soft rug that feels lovely underfoot.

If you’re conscious of how fast children mature, and don’t want to be repainting a new colour on her walls every few years, opt for a versatile colour that will cater to their younger years and into teenagehood.

Add a statement headboard in a beautiful fabric – try a floral, fauna or a fun, playful print – you can even use the same fabric on lampshades on a bedside table or desk.

Storage is always a necessity in children’s bedrooms, whether they be boxes that slide away under the bed or shelves on the wall or a window seat with drawers underneath. These can blend in beautiful too with a gorgeous hue.

Combine your paint with wallpaper too, A sunny yellow floral print looks gorgeous with yellow painted trims and pale pink bed linen.

Tie in multiple colours to her desk, table, chairs or stools – coat them in a favourite colour, leaving the bottom quarter of each leg free for another colour. Use Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss waterborne enamel for a finish that is easy to wipe clean. Or if you are keen on lots of colours, use Resene testpots.

Rattan or cane furniture is easy to paint and allows for brilliant storage in a bedroom. Apply one or two coats of your chosen Resene colour, ensuring it ties in with the overall paint scheme.

Yellow, white and green is a colour combination that can work for your child as they mature. Not too babyish or childlike, florals can manifest this colour palette on the wallpaper or curtains too, blending in with white or yellow trims.

Or try gentle cornflower blues or rich navy with pretty pops of pink as a contrast.

As kids lie in bed at night dreaming, give them a source of inspiration with a coloured ceiling. If you have a tall enough ladder, mimic the ceiling of a circus top ten, with stripes extending from the centre to the edge of the ceiling. Or apply a pattern your child will love, such as flowers or stars painted in Resene FX Nightlight glow-in-the-dark paint.

Paint the background wall of a bookshop in a bright fuchsia or grass green, tying it in with floor cushions and a bedspread in the room. The rest of the shelves can stay white. This background wall of the shelf can be easily be repainted in a different colour as the years pass.

Vintage plates are a fun, quirky way to bring in colour to a wall. You can easily find them in second-hand shops, and only need one or two coats in your chosen Resene colours – it’s up to you what pattern is applied. Choose one of these colours and find a fabric in the same hue. Paint some corkboard in the same Resene colour for a co-ordinated look. This is a chance to hang inspirational pictures, photos of friends and homework schedules for school.

Wooden or cardboard birdhouses are a cute additional to a bedroom wall too and can be painted in any colourway preferred. Buy ornamental birds to attach as the finishing touch.

For those who are learning how to order their wardrobes, colour can help immensely. Categorise clothes by colouring the front of each drawer, i.e. blue for t-shirts, red for shorts. It will help them take control of getting dressed each day and enable colour to play a role in the order of the room as well as the overall aesthetic of a beautiful space, whatever the theme may be.

January 21, 2021

Visit the Resene Inspiration Gallery online for a huge range of ideas from other kiwi decorators, then visit your Resene ColorShop for all the products and advice you need for your decorating projects.

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