When you undertake the task of decorating a bedroom for small children and toddlers, it might seem a little frustrating. The key though, is to be creative and have fun. Always remember you’re decorating the bedroom for your child though, and not yourself.

Small children are usually very creative and inquisitive. Ask any parent who currently has a small child – and all those with grown children too – and they’ll all tell you the same thing. You can’t curb the child’s creativity and you shouldn’t want to either. Small children and toddlers might decide to try coloring and drawing on walls for example, or in your favorite books and magazines too. This desire the child has for creating artwork anywhere and everywhere may be exasperating for you sometimes, but it’s actually a wonderful theme you can work into the decorating design of their bedroom. Once you do this, you might even find the child stops putting their artwork all over your treasures too!

When you start out to decorate your toddlers bedroom, you’ll want to choose a design and decorating theme which includes plenty of solid and bright primary colors. Buy bedspreads and blankets which have healthy doses of blue, red, green and yellow in them for instance, and do the same with pillows, accessories and throw rugs too. There’s actually plenty of ready made bedroom accents and accessories which already include these colors, and you’ll find your toddler loves having all the bright pretty colors around them in their special room.

The next step is to plan how you’ll decorate the walls. As part of the wall design you’ll want to put something along the lower half of the wall which won’t be destroyed by your toddler’s love of art.

Green and Red Kid’s Chair

Rocking Chair for Kids

An excellent decorating technique for the wall of a toddler’s bedroom is to apply whiteboard material along the bottom part of the wall. Whiteboard material can be purchased at local hardware stores in sheets of 8′x4′ sizes, for as little as $10-$15 per sheet. Simply lay a sheet of this whiteboard material sideways, so that it covers the wall up to 4 feet high, and has a stretch of 8 feet in length.

Install just one piece if you’d like, and surround it with wooden trim that can be used for holding the markers and erasers, and you’ve instantly created a budding artists area right in your child’s bedroom. If you’d rather make sure your small child doesn’t try putting their artwork on the rest of the walls though, then put the whiteboard sheets all the way around the room. This gives them all four walls to draw on at their own height, and leaves the top of all the walls free for you to apply preferred paints, wallpapers, or borders to finish off your designer look.

When using whiteboard for your child’s creative activities, you simply buy a set of colorful whiteboard markers for them to create their artwork with instead of crayons. Be sure to buy them erasers too, so they can create and re-create to their heart’s content.

And don’t forget a critical element of this toddler decorating strategy: Take pictures! Each time you see your child has a new piece of artwork on his wall, be sure to get a picture of it for your own scrapbook and keepsake albums.

©2008, Kathy Burns-Millyard.