It’s possible to keep your child’s decorated room neat, tidy

June 11, 2005 By

Q. I’d like to decorate my ten-year-old son’s room this summer, but I need help with clutter control. He is a sports fanatic and has lots of interests, and as a result his room is full of things he loves. How can I have a nicely decorated room when the clutter is taking over?

A. Yes, clutter is a problem. But fortunately there are ways to tame the clutter in kids’ rooms. The first thing to do is help your son go through his things and determine which can be donated or sold at a garage sale. I’m sure there are toys he has outgrown. After the clutter has been minimized, then you can see what is left and plan accordingly.

One way to get started in decorating is to pick a theme. You mentioned sports. Have him pick the sport he loves most and use that as the theme. Let’s choose baseball as an example. For instance, if he likes a particular team you might decide to use those team colors either in paint or accessories. A young friend of ours painted the lower third of his walls orange, trimmed in black molding, in honor of the San Francisco Giants. It is a colorful and fun room. The top two thirds of the walls are kept white in order to keep the room light. My own son’s room is painted a tan color, which I called “Baseball Mitt Brown.” It kept the walls neutral so he could display his vast collection of sports posters.

Having a theme helps limit the items that are on display in the room. It doesn’t mean he can’t have all of his things, it just means they don’t need to be on display. However, that means that you need to find ways to accommodate all of the little accoutrements that seem to multiply.

Consider purchasing an organizing system for the closet. With a combination of shelving, drawers and rods you can create space for a multitude of toys, games and clothes. Place seldom-used items high up in the closet, reserving the lower half of the closet for frequently used items. For easier access to the closet, consider replacing the sliding doors with bi-fold doors or curtains.

In small rooms it is important to use every inch of space wisely. To take advantage of the vertical space, hang decorative shelving on the wall. These shelves can be used to display trophies, stuffed animals, Lego creations, or just about anything.

Purchase large, shallow plastic bins to store shoes, sports equipment, or out-of-season clothing under the bed. If necessary, elevate the bed using specially designed risers found at bed and bath stores.

Use decorative storage boxes to house small miscellaneous items. Cover shoeboxes with baseball-themed wrapping paper, or purchase boxes in colors to match the room. With the boxes neatly labeled and stacked on bookshelves, items are contained, are easy to locate and also look attractive. Your son will love his newly decorated, neat and tidy room.

This article first appeared in Alameda Newspaper Group papers on June 11, 2005.

Filed Under: Children's Rooms, Organization

Sometimes daughter knows best when decorating room

May 15, 2004 By

My daughter turns 11 this summer. She’s growing up and has expressed her desire for a redecorated room that reflects her new status as a pre-teen. (My words, not hers.) Our first step has been to go through some of her things and decide what to keep and what to give away. Gone now are the baby dolls and stroller, some of the stuffed animals, and the last of the Barbies. Still with us are her American Girl Dolls (happily for me she still likes some dolls), her vast book collection and the stuffed bear given to her as a baby. With one foot venturing out into the brave new world of adolescence, we are now making room for her CD player, along with an ever-growing collection of colorful nail polish and lip-gloss.

The theme she has chosen for her bedroom is Tropical Hawaii. While we’ll be keeping her bedding, we will downplay the lavender in it, and accentuate the seafoam green and aqua with paint on her walls and ceiling. We plan to add a punch of contrasting color by filling wall-mounted glass vases with hot pink Hawaiian silk flowers. Since the worn carpet needs replacing anyway, I have allowed her to pick a blue carpet instead of neutral beige. In my view, bedrooms can stand on their own. They do not necessarily need to blend perfectly with the rest of the house. Our hallway has hardwood floor, so a colored carpet will not clash. Blue carpet is also likely to coordinate with whatever color she loves when she’s 16.

Her furniture is white and will remain, although we plan to change the white drawer pulls to something more colorful and fun. The hunt is on for tropical-themed hardware. We will rearrange her furniture, putting her bed on the long wall so that it looks more like a day bed. She wants to get lots of pillows to create the look of a sofa. We will keep the Duette shade on her window, but add a new custom fabric window valance in the ocean colors we have selected.

Decorating children’s rooms can be tricky. You’d like a beautifully color-coordinated room, as neat and organized as the rooms in the catalogs. They hang up posters and leave their belongings strewn about. And as soon as you’ve put the finishing touches on their Winnie the Pooh-themed room, they decide they now like The Little Mermaid. For those of us on a budget, we can’t just redecorate the room every time our kids’ interests change. But every five years or so, they will probably be ready for something new. The key is to use accessories to highlight their current interests, but select more timeless pieces for the large-ticket items like furniture, flooring and window treatments.

When you decorate your kids’ rooms, you have to reach a compromise between what you want and what they want. When my daughter was four, she loved the color pink and Barbie dolls. She lobbied for a Barbie comforter, but I wanted her to have a soft, beautiful quilt. She said to me, “I’ll make you a deal, Mommy. You can have what you want in your room, and I’ll have what I want in my room.” Words to live by. In the end, she got her Barbie comforter. And I got an independent, wise daughter.

This article first appeared in Alameda Newspaper Group papers on May 15, 2004.

Filed Under: Children's Rooms