For Kids - A Room Of Their Own

       A lot of people these days want to have separate rooms for their children. It is an interesting concept since it inculcates a feeling of independence in the children from the very beginning. If you also share this thinking then this article can be helpful to you. In this article I have given a few pointers that you should keep in mind while decorating your child’s room.

Flooring and painting are the first steps that you should decide on.
For Flooring: Hard wood or wooden laminate flooring, Marble and rubber tiles are good options for your child’s room. Do not use carpeting as in India it is a really bad options for a kids’ room. Carpets are difficult to maintain and can be sheltering dust mites and hence give your child allergies. Area rugs and playmats can make a child’s room safer and more playful.

Rubber tile flooring

I would suggest not to decorate the whole room according to a theme as your child might outgrow the theme and you might still not be ready to redecorate the room. You can have influences from that theme showing in instances. Highlight the theme using accessories like lampshades, curtains, cushions or bedspreads. Also your child will create his or her own theme as they grow up.

Paints: The next step is to decide on paints for the walls. Let us crossover the ‘blue for boys and pink for girls’ threshold. You have to experiment with other colours. Green, dark blue, earthy tones like beige in combination with dark browns can be good choices for boys. For girls, go for pastels like sea green, peach, violet, etc. with flashes of bright colours. For finish, use durable and washable paints. Another good idea is to use stencil borders or painting an image on the wall that your child would not outgrow soon enough.

You can also use IDEAPAINTS, which is “a patent-pending single-coat roller-applied paint that transforms any smooth surface into a high performance dry-erase writing surface.” It is available with Futura Concepts, Dinkar Chellaram(dchellaram@futuraconcepts.net).

Storage is very important for children’s room and is never enough for those toys, clothes and later books. Closed storage as well as open shelves are a must for children’s rooms. Storage can be quite interesting and colourful in a child’s room. Place a wicker basket in a corner for it makes for attractive storage and can be used for keeping the toys and the oddments when a quick cleaning is required. Keep in mind that the furniture and accessories do not have sharp corners and edges. The curtains should not have strings as your child might fancy using it to swing.

Do not over crowd the room with either furniture or accessories. Your child is quite capable of keeping the room looking full with his/her toys and other curios. You can hang the child’s artwork or photographs of the child alone and with various family members on the walls. If possible, place a blackboard for his creative scribbles or a bulletin board so that you can keep the walls neat. Also too many frills can make the room look childish and cluttered.

Do involve your child in various decisions like selecting the room’s colour scheme and choosing furniture. Be experimental and at the same time practical while decorating your child’s room and I am sure you would create a dreamy haven for your little one.