By Jo Philipp
Children grow so quick – just when you get started with getting your bundle of joy to sleep at night, you need to say goodbye to them as they start their own adult lives. Watching your children grow so fast isn’t just an emotional rollercoaster ride, but it’s also quite a journey into becoming a smart budget-maker and a master decorator!
Decorating children’s room with a specific age-related décor can be a costly experience. One year your child could be a massive fan of Peppa the Pig, while the next, they are all about Barbie dolls. You definitely won’t see a teenager get excited of teddy bear wallpapers and pink furniture!
So, are there any decorating tricks you could use to your advantage right from the get-go? Here are our favourite decorating ideas that will last a long time in a girl’s bedroom and which could be easily adaptable with simple accessory changes.
Simple Furniture
If you want to make a proper investment, décor-wise, you should opt for good quality furniture. With a simple design and quality condition, you can guarantee you won’t need to be changing the pieces as the years go by. The simple design will also guarantee you can change the room’s decorative style with other things like fabrics, decorative items, and even the wall colours.
One great option is to find furniture pieces that can be adapted to your child’s growth spur. There are some stunning cots you can turn into a young child’s bed later on and these can be a great way to guarantee you don’t need to go furniture shopping every year. Check out the Dulux article on Dot and Cross kids’ furniture for some inspiration.
You could even opt for beds, such as the above, that have storage inside them! Image courtesy of bedzine, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
You could also find a second hand cot for the early years, and purchase a teenager size bed to use even for your toddler. You could easily make it appear less big by adding soft storage boxes for one end or decorating the end of bed with pillows or giant soft toys!
Furthermore, you shouldn’t stuff the bedroom with a lot of furniture. You’ll just need a proper wardrobe and plenty of storage space in addition to the bed. Avoid buying things such as desks and chairs until your child needs them. When the child is young, she’ll probably enjoy playing on the floor and you could turn storage boxes into a table for dolls!
Opt for Neutral Colours
The colours you choose to use are the most important part of adding more longevity to the bedroom. You should avoid going for very bright or overly girly colours to avoid having to repaint the walls every two years.
The best option is to go for something neutral, such as light beige or soft grey, as you can easily mix and match this with other colours. Beige, for instance, could easily be mixed with pastel pink when the girl is a baby and include a darker violet colour into the mix, as the girl grows older.
Our Dotty Daze nursery wall stickers add plenty of softness on neutral-coloured walls and make your nursery look fun yet is easily adapted as your child grows!
You definitely want to avoid going after trendy colours in the bedroom. Although a bright orange combined with turquoise might feel like a quirky colour option for a nursery, it might lose its magic in five years. Traditional and neutral colours like green and navy blue can work well in a girl’s bedroom. You can simply add more femininity to the room with bright red or shades of orange, for example.
If you want something timeless, yet unique, you should definitely consider a restrained gold. For example, this gold paint was picked by interior designers to be one of the ‘fail-safe’ colours to use! A slightly glimmering gold is also the perfect colour for a girl’s bedroom and you can easily control the amount of bling with accessories.
Above all, try to keep the wall paint simple and don’t use any special wallpaper on the walls. Neutral simple wallpaint allows you to include more age-specific looks to the room with wall stickers and other wall art designs.
Timeless, Multipurpose Storage
As mentioned before, you want to go for timeless storage solutions. As you don’t want to be adding too many furniture items to the room, multipurpose storage solutions will work the best.
One quirky idea is to buy a small metal or a wooden ladder into the room. Place the ladder against a wall and remember to secure it safely. Now you can place small hangers on the ladder with your baby’s clothes on them. You can also hang extra towels or other such items. You could even make your own DIY ladder if you want!
Once you child starts growing older and the clothing won’t fit on the ladder anymore, you can add simple metal boxes on the ladder. For example, storage boxes designed for bathroom would fit the purpose well. Just add the child’s toys onto these boxes and you have a lovely design that can be adapted for different needs.
Stackable storage boxes are also a great option for a timeless bedroom. You can use them as small tables for toddlers and turn them into funky storage blocks when you need more floor space. Opt for neutral coloured boxes and use wall stickers or sheet paper to add more colours to the room.
Furthermore, as the below video show, you could even cover your shelves with a colourful contact paper for a funky look!
Accessorise Wisely
If you want long lasting décor, you need to think wisely with your accessories. Décor items that don’t last long, such as bedding, can easily be used to add more personality and colour to the room. On the other hand, larger and long-term options, such as the furniture and frames, should be kept neutral and timeless.
If you want to decorate the walls, then opt for simple wooden frames in a neutral colour that fits the wall colour. You can easily swap the design inside the frame. For example, for a younger child frame beautiful postcards of children’s favourites or cute baby animals. As your child grows older, you can swap photos and postcards of real life events and a teenager might want to use the space for the next boy band’s photos!
The key to long lasting bedroom is all about keeping it simple and focusing on the easy-to-change ideas when it comes to decorations. Pick a colour scheme from neutral and traditional colours. You can choose fun decoration themes in the chosen colours to add a bit more flair to your décor.
If you liked this post check out more from the Kids Wall Stickers blog:
Girls Bedroom Ideas When They’re Not a Girly Girl
How to Bring a Grey Bedroom to Life
Kids Wall Stickers Blog 
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