When it comes to decorating your little bundle of joy's bedroom a personal touch is always the best policy
Decorating your child's room can be a lot of fun, though of course, your vision and their vision of the perfect room will likely be a little at odds. But what sets decorating a room apart from other such collaborative efforts as picking out clothes or cooking is – circumstances allowing – the collaboration’s permanence: meals are eaten; clothes are grown out of, but rooms are grown into.
This may be one of those things you do with your son or daughter as a small child of which something persists, every day, well into their adolescence. A project with the potential to unfold over weeks, months and even years, with a constant filial back-and-forth of the most interesting nature.
Because really, the decorating of a small child’s room is the process of letting their imaginations run free within the boundaries of possibility and good taste. On the one hand, they are unique and limitlessly idiosyncratic. On the other, they are constrained in the same way as everyone else. Mediating between these two truths is essential to helping them fit into the world, and in this way, helping your child decorate their room is a microcosm of parenting.
To this end, we’ve put together a list of services and products which emphasise personalisation.
1. Duvet Covers
Personalised duvet covers are an interesting one. In some sense, given the average child’s aversion to bedtime, one would not want a personalised duvet cover to be stimulative in any way; soporific is the watchword. Think smiling moons and head-cradling clouds.
Alas, your children’s disregard for functionality will be an on-going theme throughout the co-decorating process. The design of the duvet cover, in their eyes, should facilitate play, as should the walls, ceiling, carpet, wardrobe and windows. Children want decorations that resonate with their most joyful state, thus everything is subordinate to the mood of play.
This is one of the occasions where you must exercise a little control. Talk with your child. Find out what things they associate with rest and relaxation. Then, make the final decision.
2. Personalised Paints
Colour is something of which there is almost endless variation and the latest innovations in paint-mixing tech mean that virtually any colour is a possibility. The idea is that you bring in a found or personal object, the colour of which has personal resonance, and they’ll produce a paint of that exact shade.
It’s worth remembering that the paint you’ll end up with will be monochrome and that if you choose an object whose blends and shadings you admire, you’ll likely end up disappointed. Unfortunately, this does mean that a lot of natural objects aren’t the best choices, although they would be many people’s first thought.
Don’t be too put off, however. Many of the objects we adore in childhood are monochromatic: think of books, toys or cartoon characters. In this way, personalised paints can really help bring the world of fiction into reality – a very magical thing, indeed.
3. Personalised Photo Wallpaper
This is a great option for taking personalisation to the max. Photo wallpaper, as the name suggests, is wallpaper upon which a photographic image is printed. Photo wallpaper is available, generally speaking, in one of two styles: wet adhesive and soft adhesive. Wet adhesive paper tends to be embossed, rough to the touch, and dull to the eye. This makes it suitable for more earthily-toned photos, especially pattern or nature designs that might be accentuated by the rough, woodchip-like embossing effect. Think twig and stick collages and swirls of autumn leaves – marvellous.
The self-adhesive paper is flat and glossy; it’s much more suitable for traditional portrait or landscape photos. This is probably the way to go if you want the look and feel of a traditionally printed photograph.
Photo wallpaper provides a lot of opportunities for making a room truly magical, but with great power comes great responsibility. To avoid parental gaffes, and ward off the Kevin-esque eye-rolling of the future, avoid picking out a photo that’s quintessentially childhood. Although it’s tempting to pick a shot of their first steps or day in the park, by the time they hit their teens, they’re going to find this obnoxiously saccharine and further evidence that you’re irredeemably un-cool.
We recommend going with something timeless. In terms of aesthetics, children are often drawn to rudimentary images of what will become their passions later in life. It’s not quite so literal as a future-geologist being drawn to rocks, but something of the nature of that effect is there. For this reason, it’s a great idea to mood board, go out taking snaps, and generally bond over images. You’ll eventually find what it is they’re interested in.
