A Basic Barnyard Layout

A good and simple way to start out painting the room is to think of three colours: blue, green, and red. Blue for the skies, green for the fields of grass, and red for the barns and buildings. An easy first step is to pick a nice, bright green and paint the entire bottom half of the walls with this colour. You can get wavy and wild as this will be the rolling hills of this little farm. After you have that complete, do the upper half in a brilliant sky blue. You know have the landscape complete.

Get Artistic With The Rest

Depending upon your level of artistry you can then begin to fill in the details. Place some white clouds in the sky. Draw a big red barn on one of the larger walls and colour it in a rustic red. Then have fun with the animals. You can choose to paint the animals by hand, use stencils, or buy some large decal animals. Place some fun little scenes around the walls to pump up your child’s imagination.

You can go as simple or extravagant with the barnyard theme as you want. You can find a bed with animal designs, or even add some fun toys for barnyard prompts. Your child may outgrow this room when he or she gets a little older, but have fun with it now while they are little. They’ll be older before you know it and wanting to paint their walls black and hang up pictures of teen idols. Take the time you have now to make their room a fun place where they want to spend time and play. Have fun!

Chalkboard Paint Wall

Do you find yourself reminding your kids over and over not to draw on the walls? If so, you may be able to get some rest. You can make a whole wall that is dedicated to nothing except doodling and drawing. Most paint stores have blackboard or chalkboard paint. You can put a few coats of this up and turn a wall into a huge canvas for creative expressions. Once this paint dries it works just like the chalkboards you remember from school. Stock up on some sidewalk chalk and a few erasers and your little artist will stay busy for hours while the rest of your walls stay safe.

Furniture and Decorations

Remember this bedroom is all about creativity. Here is a risky, but rewarding idea. Take your child shopping and ask them what they want to buy. Give them some artistic freedom. Of course you will be the final judge when it comes to design, but try to let them make some colourful, fun decisions. Be sure to have a lot of varied colours, patterns and designs in the room. You may want to set up a small art station with all of their supplies so they can create whenever the mood hits.

Giving your kids an art-themed room will help them express themselves and learn how to apply and nurture the creative spirit that all children are born with. Some fun little extras that you can add to the design are the oversized crayons that you can pick up at most chain stores. You can use these as piggy banks or for general storage of art supplies. Keep the design fun, colourful, and inspiring. You never know you may have the next Rembrandt on your hands.

What Sport Do They Like Best?

You may have a little athlete that excels in a few sports. If so, you can incorporate several types of sports into the bedroom design, but it is important to try and pick one that is the dominant theme. For this example we’ll use baseball as the dominant sport theme. Talk to your child about doing a baseball themed room and get some ideas from them. A good tip is to ask them to come up with three to five words or phrases that sum up what they like best about baseball. An example list might look like this.

1. Their favourite player/team
2. Balls
3. Bats
4. Gloves
5. Summer-Time

Design Around These 5 Words

Once you have five good words, get to work. Start off by picking colours. In this example, your child’s favourite team was the number one pick. Find out the team’s home colours, if you don’t already know them, and begin painting the room in those colours. Choose the primary colour as the main color for the walls, and use the secondary colour for trims, doors and furnishings. This step alone will do wonders for the bedroom.

Work Down The List

Once you have the colours on the wall, start adding the extras. There are some cool life-sized player decals available online at stores, like FatHead, that can go up on the walls. You can also order team logos, or you can paint one by hand if you have the skill. A baseball bat rack can be easily attached to the wall. Put some team memorabilia and some books on a bookshelf and use baseball mitts as the book ends.

You can let yours and your child’s imagination run wild on this project. Start off basic and add as you go. There is so much sports memorabilia available, so you should have no problems finding the right extras to add to the room. A favourite for most kids is to get a jersey with their name on the back of it. Buy two, one for them to wear, and one to display in their room in a shadow box. You’ll love the reaction that you get from your child and they will love the effort and time spent together with you on the project. Have fun together!

PLAY +, an Italian furniture line has focused on “…the conviction that an environment for children should not be considered merely a ‘backdrop’ to a series of activities…but, rather, a protagonist in the construction of the identity of each child…” (ZPZ Partners, www.playpiu.it). They include everything from chairs to hiding spots for growing minds.

The designers’ strategies are aimed at fortifying the learning of essential functions in the child, and most importantly, doing this in a way that engages the child. In other words, your tiny tot has fun while learning.

Armed with these visual and conceptual pointers, inspiration can be drawn from these designers while implementing two of the things the modern parent can’t overlook: accessibility and budget.

IKEA, not surprisingly, offers some interesting additions for children of all ages.  Kids love swinging and hanging off things, and the joy from playing with gravity is something most adults can remember even years after they’ve outgrown the tire swings!  IKEA offers two hanging seats – an obvious luxury in a child’s world – to expand the child’s motor skills while being, well, just plain fun. The EKKORE (light grey polyester) swing provides some privacy, while the IKEA PS SWINGA (blue weaving) is recommended for older children, and has a more sleek design perfect even for little fashionistas. (ikea.com)

Rocking chairs also improve motor skills and general coordination. So, if your little one isn’t tempted by a swinging seat, the bear themed rocking chair from Kids Chair World (kidschairworld.com) should pique their interest! The chair even comes with a detachable cushion secured with Velcro.  Kids Chair World also offers the standard rocking chair by Kidkraft in bright red, adding exciting vibrancy to any child’s bedroom.

When it comes to covering the floor, why not combine practicality with fun? This 100% wool soccer rug from A Kids Corner (akidscorner.com) includes finger puppets, goal nets and a mini soccer ball that promotes interaction while developing hand-eye coordination.

Even simple furniture additions like coat hangers can be made more interesting and eye-catching.  A deer coat hanger from IKEA also serves the purpose of introducing a young child to new shapes and curves as well as the concept of asymmetry.

Finally, organization shouldn’t be overlooked when creating an original space.  A toy treasure chest from IKEA (ikea.com) is a roomy storage solution with a soft felt lock the little hands will need to unhook to open.  The book case carousel by Guidecraft (allchildrensfurniture.com) can be fully spun for easier access to books and its novel shape and rotating concept are another way to add pizzazz to the every day necessities.

Finally, for the DIY savvy parents there’s a way to literally transform a room into an interactive experience.  Dornob (dornob.com) recently featured an indoor tree house that is inarguably the coolest room a kid could have, and the best part (aside from the actual tree house) is that your child can help make it, picking and painting the colours onto the walls.

Finding something creative within each furniture piece will keep a child interested in the item longer, making it a wonderful investment both for the pocketbook and the mind!