Decorating your Child’s Bedroom
A clash of wills or a team effort?

By Wynn Waggoner, Interior Designer

As parents, we all want to encourage our children’s imagination and promote their self-expression, but when it comes to decorating their bedrooms a clash of wills often occurs. 

I had a friend who decorated her 10-year old son’s bedroom with the help of a designer, rather than collaborating or consulting her son. When the bedroom was finished it was beautiful; just like the rest of her house.  Everything was perfectly coordinated, from the bed to the window treatments.  There was only one problem - her son hated it!

My friend learned the hard way that our children need to have a hand in creating their own space. As an interior designer with more than 30 years of experience, I often have parents ask me to “decorate” their child’s bedroom so it flows with the rest of the house.  I suggest we all work together. By being involved with both parent and child, offering guidance if needed, they now have an opportunity to enrich their relationship through the experience, and for both of them to feel a sense of accomplishment once the room is completed.

Preschool age: Start with color

We begin to learn about colors at a pre-school age and even then, you can engage your young one in their room. Take them with you to the paint store and encourage them to choose 3 of their favorite colors. Now, here’s the important part. Take the samples of these colors home with you. Hold them against the wall in their room and ask them to choose the one they like most. I always recommend looking at paint choices in the particular room where the paint will be used. You can even look at the colors at different times of the day and evening. The lighting definitely makes a difference.  By seeing the color in their space they will begin on a path of visual perception, one that will serve them forever. This same simple process can be used at any age and is an easy way to choose paint for any room.

From this simple engaging process your little one will be able to share their ideas of color and begin to analyze the final product. Did it turn out the way I thought it would? Do I still like it? What else can I put in my room that I will like with the color? As they grow, this process can also grow with them. And I think we never stop changing our surroundings to reflect new interests and ideas influenced by our own personal growth.

Elementary school age: Tie in interests

Let’s look at what we can share with a slightly older child, boy or girl, perhaps in elementary school. I think that by the time one reaches seven, eight, nine and ten they have created relationships that definitely influence them. They also may have had some experience with a hobby. Whatever hobby interest they may have can be used to enhance and stimulate their ideas around the project you are creating together. It might be fun to go to the book store or library together and do a little research on the subject together.

Tweens/teens and adults: Reflecting you

This next process is one that I use today with all my clients. It’s fun and easy and in a moment’s time shows me what they are interested in and what colors, textures and designs they are attracted to. You will know when your child is ready to try this, depending on their development and interest in decorating in general. It is something that you and the whole family can take on together if a major project is on the horizon.

Say you’re now participating with a young teen, say thirteen to fifteen. It’s usually a touchy time for them; lots of confusion about their self-image, being liked at school, being popular, etc. What if, with your help, they were able to create a really cool room that returned accolades from friends and family? Would this boost their self-esteem, I think so. Remember, how you felt when you were that very same age. This is what you do:

1.       LISTEN to their ideas and make sure that this project is something that they want to do, that it’s not just your idea.  This is very important! If they are engaged and want to do it with you, then partner with them and guide them with your questions. Find out what they are most interested in…movies, a favorite actor, a particular sport and or team. Do they have a love of animals, the environment, the stars, the oceans, maps - you get the idea.

2.       Choose up to three of their top interests. Then, together purchase a couple of magazines that relate to each of those topics and a notebook.

3.       Allow them some time alone… now here’s the important part… tell them to flip quickly through the magazines and when something catches their eye that’s the page to mark. They can tear it out put it in the notebook and continue. After they have gone through all the magazines they will have a notebook with up to three sections, each relating to one of their interests.

4.       Take some time together to go through the notebook. You may choose to do this more than once. As you do so, together you will create a roadmap of what the theme of their room could be. And, one theme usually becomes predominant.

5.       Here’s where the fun begins. Each of the pages will have something on it that caught their attention. So you will both begin to distinguish how to create the theme. Will it be with posters, a wall mural, or the type of furniture used?  Will the walls be finished with a texture and or, a mixture of elements, as well as colors? Will they want to be part of the “doing” or is it beyond their (depending on age) capabilities? I recommend that they be involved as much as possible. They may not be painting the walls; for sure they can be part of the paint selection, and all the other selections.

When the project is finished, “interview” them and have them “interview” you. Ask them how the experience was for them. What they liked and didn’t like. What they would do differently next time. What they would recommend for their friends and would they recommend the same kind of experience for their friends? Have fun learning and laughing with them and reveling in the accomplishment you have just shared.  And, above all, take before and after pictures!

Wynn Waggoner is the designer for the Denver Home Show, running March 18-20 at the National Western Complex, Denver, (www.homeshowdenver.com)