Add Pizzazz To Kids' Rooms

Kids grow up so fast! Just yesterday you were blissfully preparing a nursery for their anticipated infant and in what seems like overnight, your teen-ager wants a more ‘grown-up’ room along with the car keys. To keep pace with the life stages of growing children can seem expensive and daunting, but a few simple decorating adjustments will refresh their rooms easily and at low cost.

For starters, get the best quality furniture you can afford, and consider the many varieties of "convertible" furniture now available. For example, there are cribs that will convert to youth beds by removing the side rails as babies grow into tots. These beds often will serve children from infancy until they start school.

Another way to keep pace with a growing child's attention is by adding and changing area rugs. Even in a home with wall-to-wall carpeting, rugs in children's rugs serve many important purposes. They add shape to the décor, whether they're floral area rugs in little girls' rooms or rugs that resemble cars and trains for boys. Area rugs also add color to children's rooms, from girlish pink rugs to boyish blue rugs and every color in between.

What's more, educational children's rugs can help little ones learn numbers, letters, colors, animals, and lots more. Letting a child select an area rug (with Mom's or Dad's guidance of course) can be one of the first "grown-up" decisions a youngster makes for his or her personal living space.

Another important aspect of decorating a child's room is to put the decoration at the child's level. Today there are many easily applied murals and decals that can liven up a wall. The good news about these additions is that they're typically pre-pasted, so they are easily applied with water and a sponge, and just as easily removed when the child has outgrown them. They're also printed on vinyl-coated paper, which makes them easy to clean and safe to be around children.

Some of these easily applied wall murals come in chalkboard varieties, which make it easy to encourage a child's creativity. It is also possible today to purchase and apply chalkboard paint to a closet door or a wall section, although this is a more permanent solution.

As children continue to grow, smart parents allow their boys and girls to take greater responsibility for decorating their bedrooms. Parents are right to set certain boundaries, such as budgets and limits on outlandish color combinations. Even the latter can be negotiated, however, by allowing the child to paint a portion of one wall with the colors that he or she desires. Living with a set of garish colors for a few days either will encourage the child to consider another combination, or it will unleash an avant-garde artist. Either way, parents have to be prepared for a change.

In the end, change is what decorating a child's room is all about. Every day is an education for a child, from infancy through adolescence and beyond. The more a child's bedroom encourages him or her to explore and learn about the world, the more effective their learning will be.