My daughter turned 8 recently and I decided it was time to spruce up her room. When she moved from the nursery to her "big girl" room at age 3, I decorated it in a garden theme. Five years later, the carpet was stained, the walls were marked, and the quilt my mom had made for her was looking too juvenile.
I didn't want to make any major changes other than replacing the carpet with wood laminate flooring (a great choice for kids' rooms). I asked Grandma to help me create a more mature quilt, replaced the dingy blinds with crisp white ones, and my husband put in the new floor. I was happy to stop right there. Then, one day while we were at a furniture store, my daughter saw a girl's room vignette decked out in a tropical motif. "I want this for my room, Mom!" she exclaimed. I thought about it and realized she never had a say in her room's theme before. I had chosen the decor before. It's time for us collaborate, I decided. From "Cottage Garden" to "A Day at the Beach," it is!
When you want to change your child's room theme, decide first if the existing wall color will still work. If it does, it will save you time and money. In our case, we thought we could make Hannah's purple walls go beachy, so they stayed. I kept the purple color in mind when we shopped for fabric and accessories. If you need to change the wall color, it's a good way to establish the mood of the room.
The bed is usually the focal point of a bedroom so this is the area you may want to spend the majority of your budget. Consider changing the layout of the bed. Get creative with the headboard - for a garden theme, use an actual garden trellis. For a sports theme, use baseball bats, old skateboards or tennis court netting. You can find great themed bedspreads at all the department stores, but if you have a skilled seamstress in your family like I do, see if they'll help you make a quilt. You can handpick every square of fabric, which makes the finished product really unique and special.
There's a thin line between cute and cheesy. For the beach theme, I didn't want it to look like a luau exploded in her room. By making some of the touches subtle, you can add sophistication and keep things from getting overdone. I could've gone with window valances made out of raffia but it was too over the top for me. Hannah and I talked about what comes to mind when we think about "beach" and "tropical." One thing that popped up is a striped beach umbrella. I found great striped beach umbrella fabric online (making sure one of the stripes was purple to tie into the wall color) and my mom made window treatments. We used silver grommets and nylon rope to tie them on a simple white rod. Window treatments are a great opportunity for creativity. For my daughter's garden theme, I used birdhouse sconces bought from a catalogue and ran inexpensive white tulle across her two windows. To top it off, I attached girls' butterfly hair clips to the netting. For a boy's safari room, use the same netting and attach fake bugs to it!
I found a cute hula monkey lamp at my favorite discount department store (you know, the one with the red bulls eye) but instead of snatching up all the accessories that went with it, I kept my eyes open for more interesting options. I went on eBay and found three wall prints of... yes ; you guessed it, a hula monkey. I used white frames found on clearance, and for under $30 Hannah has three pieces of original artwork in her room.
Don't just shop in the children's section of your local store - you can find great accessories everywhere.
I've used old-fashioned mailboxes (under $10 at the home improvement store) to use as wall hooks, baskets from the garden department to store small toys, woven bags to hold books, and a white wood border fence to make a faux wall garden.
A treasure trove of themed accessories can also be found at your local crafts and fabric stores. One of my favorites is wallpaper cutouts. You can get them to go with any theme - fairies, bugs, sports equipment, you name it. They go on easily and come off easily when you're ready to change things. I traded in Hannah's existing dragonflies for palm trees.
If you've got the time and elbow grease, nothing adds architectural interest to a room like crown molding, chair rails and beadboard. Another quick way to get a detailed look is to replace the outlet covers with ones that match the theme.
If you let people know you're redecorating, they become your personal shoppers!My friend was so excited when she spied a pair of pineapple throw pillows that were perfect for our tropical paradise.
