What to do when your child asks for a themed bedroom
In this blog I’m sharing pro ideas to keep your child happy when they ask for a themed bedroom, whilst also creating a scheme with some longevity than can adapt to their changing tastes as they grow, and fit in better with the rest of your house!
A lot of parents struggle with the idea of decorating their child’s bedroom in a way that clashes with the interiors throughout the rest of their house. Having taught and worked with children from 6 months to 18 years in my past career, I have amassed a little insight into what makes kids tick, how quickly things change, and how to nurture their imagination. Rather than buying acres of Disney Princess wallpaper, you can make your child’s room much more exciting and foster their creativity by ‘world building’. This means imagining the room is where their favourite character would sleep, for example sleeping in the Madrigal house (Encanto) or Asgard (Thor). You need to tap into the set design, as it were!
This way you can edit the more cartoonish elements and choose a colour palette that you can both live with. This doesn’t mean you can’t have Encanto bedding or posters on the walls, but aim to keep the obviously themed elements to smaller, non-permanent pieces that can easily be swapped out when your child develops a new obsession.
It’s great to involve children in design choices in an age-appropriate way. Not only does this foster agency and show your child that you respect their ideas and trust them, but when they invest their own effort into their space, it feels all the more special to them. You could ask them to draw where their favourite character would sleep, or watch the film they feature in together on a recce mission to find good colours and patterns. They’re unlikely to stay focussed on the mission for long, but you can also sit there with a paint chart and mark the colours that come up - after all if you child says Thomas the Tank’s shed is green, you need to know if it’s Calke Green or Bancha (both Farrow & Ball)? Spoilers: it’s Calke Green. Older children might enjoy picking out wallpaper or fabric that their favourite character would like.
Some themes are definitely easier to put together than others, but I’ve created ready-to-shop examples of two popular requests. A client recently told me that the adult bedroom in her new house was previously decorated in a Harry Potter theme (quote stickers and all) so maybe that homeowner could have done with this advice!
I’ve been inspired by the colours and styles of Gryffindor tower to create a Harry Potter themed scheme. It’s pretty red and gold in the films, but as red walls can be hard to sleep with or study with, I’ve relegated red to the furnishings and gone for this dark starry wallpaper. It’s both magical and sophisticated - most things in this scheme would be just as suitable for an adult’s room, so it has the longevity to last and adapt as your child grows. Key elements for the world-building in this scheme are the four-poster bed and the trunks. This is also a great theme for adding junk shop finds or antiques as things at Hogwarts tend to be described as old, battered and lived-in.
Ever popular despite being nearly a decade old, Frozen themed rooms often end up being icy blue and lilac. There are few houses this sits well in, and unless your child has a south-facing window in their room, these particular shades make a room feel cold. Not to mention all the snowflakes which seem out of place for all but a few months of the year! Instead, I’ve taken inspiration from Elsa and Anna’s home, Arendelle castle. The blue for the walls is a much warmer colour but still very much in keeping with the film’s colour palette. Much like the film, I’ve taken inspiration from Scandinavian folk patterns to create a cosier scheme that feels appropriate all year round. Key elements for world-building in this scheme are the Rosemaling stencils and the rug which is both folksy and reminiscent of Elsa’s ice patterns.
If you’d like help pulling together an exciting, fun and tasteful bedroom scheme, book a Colour & Style service using the link below.