Decorating Your Child’s Room Can Be Fun- By Special Guest Blogger, Angela Berry

Is it time for you to decorate or redecorate your child’s bedroom, but you’re just all out of ideas? Or you don’t feel like doing it, because you don’t know where to start? Here are some helpful tips and tricks on how to transform your kid’s room and make it super fun, cosy, practical and stylish.

Get your DIY on

Even if you’re not big on DIY projects, you will probably enjoy making things for your toddler’s room. We don’t mean you should make furniture from scratch, but some small details such as framing a picture or crafting a piece of décor. You can also bring out your sewing machine and make some cushions for your nursery glider, transforming it from an essential piece into a focal point for the room.

Bring in some colour 

If you’ve been planning to paint the nursery one colour, that’s ok, but have you thought about 3 or 4 colours? Maybe some dramatic stripes to make things more interesting? You can always go for a nautical look for boy’s room. Think blue and white stripes, wooden shelves, turquoise linen and furniture, and some fun suitcases as storage space. Maybe put up a life buoy as a finishing touch.

Don’t rush into things 

Buying a finished bedroom with all the matching furniture and décor will never look as good as a personalized room. You don’t want your kid’s room to look just like any room, but want it to have a personality that matches your kid. You can collect different décor pieces and furniture over time to achieve that new vs. old, cool and eclectic look. Or, you can choose one piece of furniture, and then build around it. If you don’t know where to start, you can browse for decorations from Angus & Dudley Collections  and find something beautiful for every nook in your kid’s room. For instance, you can get cosy Grey Raindrops Bean Chairs, put them in a corner and create a little nest for reading and relaxing. Reserve that corner for peaceful activities which will provide your kid with some space where they know they won’t be disturbed.

Shelving 

Most of the kids are collectors. They are very proud of what they own and want the world to see it. Make sure to provide your kid with enough display space, so they can arrange and rearrange their collection as they want (put shelves and cabinets on their level). If your kid wants to display photos and other memorabilia on the wall, it doesn’t mean you have to go with corkboard. You can hang them from thin ropes or clip them to a string attached to the wall. Also, you can buy (or make) a cool magnetic board made of galvanized metal for a more contemporary and industrial look.

Light it up 

One thing you must think about is the lighting. Your kid will need multiple kinds of lighting, such as overhead lighting for play, task lighting for studying, and a soft light for dark nights. Night lights come in interesting shapes and size, and are perfect for nurseries and young kids’ rooms.

Personalize for older kids 

Teenagers don’t care about themed rooms, but they want a space that tells you who they are. The best advice is to take things your teen loves, and incorporate then in the design. Is your kid an aspiring athlete? Frame their favourite athlete’s jersey or make a classic display shelf for all of their sports souvenirs. Is your kid a future musician? Find a cool spot for their instruments and records. If you’re raising a little explorer, put up a world map.

As you can see, decorating your child’s room can be so much fun, not just for you, but for your kid too. Let them help with decoration to make them enjoy their new room even more. Have fun!

photo
Angela Berry
Editor, Ripped me
angela.berry@ripped.me https://ripped.me/

 

dad from day one: Feng Shui Dad

Week 1.

Being that I spend most of my lunch breaks at Borders, over the past year I have been acquiring a small library of discounted books.  One of my purchases off the “five dollar clearance rack” was a huge colorful book on Feng Shui.  While I have yet to spend much time really learning these ancient Chinese secrets, I did scan through a few chapters.  One of the concepts of Feng Shui that I did pick up on warned against long uninterrupted straights, whether the layout of the house is based on one basic hallway or the driveway to the house has no turns.  Without turns and interruptions along a straight path, one might “fall out of the house and out of their own yard”.  That’s considered “bad Feng Shui”.

If you are able to grasp that concept for the most part (which I think for some strange reason I can), then maybe you can understand my recent perspective on how having Baby Jack relates back to Feng Shui, if nothing else, in my own sleep-deprived head.  Recently, some of my cosmic insecurities have been heavily resolved as I realize that by being a parent, I am forever in the middle of a generation, no longer the tail end.  I am no longer the tree itself, but instead one of the branches on someone else’s family tree.  No longer am I a coastal state like Rhode Island or South Carolina, exposed the possibility of breaking off in the Atlantic Ocean, only separated by a few thousand miles from giant Africa; instead, I am now landlocked Kansas.  Like sitting in the middle of the third row seat in a 15 passenger van on a church mission trip to Mexico; like no longer being on the outer edge in a herd of zebras escaping from a hungry lion, so am I.

As a parent, I now feel more Feng Shui.  I will not “fall out” out the universe into outer space without it being immediately noticed.  Because I am no longer simply a husband; I am a father.  And being a father doesn’t simply hold importance in the direct care of my son, but also in an undeniable eternal sense.  Baby Jack is not just simply a cute little Bambino.  He is a spiritual being who I am responsible for.

I am no longer an island of any kind.  More than ever before, I am needed and necessary in this world.  What I do from this point has potentially everlasting outcomes.  I won’t look back on my life when I’m an old man and think, “I  lived such an empty life.”  Because I will always be linked back to my son.  So cosmic, man.

“These moments, they can never last; like a sad old man with his photographs keeps wishing for the things he can not change.”

-Guster, “Architects and Engineers ”