Is anyone pleased that school has started?   Should I even ask? ~grin~

When you catch your breath from all the activity that surrounds "getting ready for back to school", you may want to consider re-doing your child's room.   So this month we'll explore a much asked question. How do I decorate my kid's room?   Hope you find some helpful information!   By children, I mean the baby to grade school crowd. Next month we'll tackle the pre-teen to teen arena.

When my first child was born, we spent a huge amount of money decorating her room. It was lovely. What a MISTAKE that was! Before she was nine months old, my husband was transferred and I had to start all over again. And again, then again, as he moved up the corporate ladder. So...let me make some suggestions here. If you even remotely suspect you may be moving, for whatever reason, keep to some basics and save yourself a lot of grief...not to mention money!

Another consideration: that sweet precious baby is going to GROW! At some point, that cute baby-look will become too "cutesy" for your growing toddler. With these considerations in mind, let's look at some practical, but very appealing looks for children.

First things first, and that means color. Pale greens, yellows, or cremes are a good place to start.
If you are stuck on pink or blue, that's okay too. Keep it pale and you can add lots of accents in deeper colors.

For our example room, I'm working with a pale yellow on the walls. A peel and stick wallpaper border with several colors in the palette of your choice is an excellent idea for an easy change later. Let's use a border with sage, yellow, blue, and lavender. Put the border at the ceiling level if there is no crown molding, and also at about 36" from the floor level. Using the colors from the border, shop for all the neat crib linens, throw pillows, lamps and shades, and dressers you will need. An existing dresser can be painted and stenciled to match the paper. Or a nice wood dresser can be decorated with cut outs from the border paper or hand painted in designs that coordinate. A rocking chair is a must. Trust me! Make pillows and a seat cushion for the rocker in the same color palette. Perhaps a sage and white check. If you can't sew, use pillow cases to cover inexpensive pillows and the seat cover. Cut to fit and hand stitch velcro for easy closing. Easy to take off and wash, too! Lavender and blue solid colors for the pillows.

One critical element is a quality crib. This is where you should invest your money. A safe, good crib is a must. The linens can be changed to suit the seasons, or your mood, and stitching a duvet cover or three, for your baby's main coverlet allows for quick changing and washing. I also suggest plain white fitted crib sheets as you'll find yourself mixing and matching anyway. Better to toss a plain white sheet that won't come clean, than being frustrated over a sheet that matches ten other things and needs to be tossed!

Your choice of a crib is purely up to your taste. Pristine white, light wood, dark wood, it really does not matter. If you already have a good crib and it happens to be oak, don't feel that you have to have an oak dresser and rocker to match. Mix and match is "in", and if you like white for a rocker, go for it! If you are pleased, your baby will be!

So now we have pale yellow walls, a border paper with lavender, blue, sage, and yellow. (Make it balloons for this example), a white painted dresser with balloons on the drawers, a white rocker, and coordinating linens and pillows in checks, plaids, florals or whatever looks good to you. And one oak crib.

What next? How about a painted or stenciled white picket fence in the area of the lower border paper? By making the top of the pickets ABOVE the border paper, the border serves as the top rail of the fence! Colorful! By changing the peel and stick border to something more to your growing baby's taste, or yours, the look remains timeless...until he or she reaches a certain age and announces that the fence has to go!

Now add inexpensive framed posters of hot air balloons, colorful flowers, cute teddy bears, and you have wall decor that stimulates your baby's brain. Since babies focus longer on "eyes", draw in black "eyes" on the balloons on the poster! Try a smiley face poster on the ceiling above the crib, firmly attached of course. With Quality Childrens Rugs, coverlets, a shelf or two of baby decor, and any other special things you have for your little one, you will have created a darling, pleasing, and practical room! The colors are up to you. I chose a soft, cool color combination with the yellow walls for sunshine and warmth.

As your little cherub grows, change the posters, border paper, and add sponged clouds to the wall around the crib or youth bed. See how the room "grows" with the child? By four or so, I promise you that your child will have become firmly attached to some character or another. And I can also tell you that someone will have a border paper in that current popular theme. Whether it is Barbie, Mickey Mouse, or Pooh, this basic room can be adapted to please the new taste. Again, border papers are easily obtained and by using the peel and stick type, are quickly changed. So are the posters and the fabrics used for pillows and coverlets. Sheets are very handy here, as the popular characters always show up on sheets!

By school age, your child may decide that yellow is not the color that trips their trigger. A simple solution is to repaint the room down to the fence border paper. The yellow behind the pickets will not be so obtrusive as to overpower the new wall color. Add some grass with long, easy brush strokes and the yellow becomes just a nice warm glow. My grandson likes blue, my granddaughter likes pink (not very creative but there is still time!) and either would work well with the above suggestion in our example room.

With simple changes like this, you have a constantly "growing" room, without spending a fortune!
Please note that the fabrics, colors, etc., are meant to convey an idea only. You may prefer a less sophisticated look which is fine! I used what appealed to me for a child's room, leaving out the more "baby-ish" look that gets old so fast. Hopefully, you get the inspiration to choose colors and designs that work for YOU!