Reflect for a moment back to your childhood. Did you love your bedroom, or was it a parent’s version of their bedroom decorating ideas. If you loved the room you grew up in, there is a strong likelihood that you were a participant in the bedroom decorating planning process at some level.
This continues to be the best way to create the space in a home where a child can develop their own personality. Involving the kids in the bedroom decorating department goes way beyond just giving them a bit of personal indulgence, it also…
- Encourages discussion between parent and child.
- Gives them a sense of “ownership” which just might help motivate them to keep things a bit neater.
- Opens the door to a “teachable moment”. Your child can begin to learn about budgeting, decision making, cooperation and the steps it takes to complete a long term goal.
- Gives a teenager permission to develop their own bedroom decorating ideas, that could open up doors of better communication.
So, how do we get our kids to open up to expressing their bedroom decorating ideas?
Well, for little ones, an excellent way is to first, provide a brand new box of crayons and fresh clean paper. Tell them to create their favorite space on paper.
Explain that you want them to draw their “dream room”, including everything they would want in it no matter how crazy or fantastical it may seem.
For the older kids you will need to take a different approach.
This age group will have no shortage of ideas once you get them to open up a bit.
The goal with them may be to just to keep things focused. To do that, how about a creating a short questionnaire. With questions written in personal format that may include:
- What would you like to change in your room right now?
- What do you like about your room? What do you not like?
- What are your favorite colors?
- What would your perfect environment look like if you had no limitations?
A twist on this to get a resistant teen to participate in exposing their bedroom decorating ideas is to have both you and your child fill out the questions. When finished, compare notes to see just how well you know your son or daughter. This will definitely open the door to some sort of interaction!
Once you have discovered what your child’s ideal bedroom decorating ideas are, be prepared to take things to the next step.
What can you realistically implement considering, time, budget, and room size. What can be traded, sold or reworked to fit into this new look. How willing are you to allow them to paint walls or introduce some crazy decor (especially with teens).
Your budget may not allow for all the ideas suggested, in that case. You can work together to…
Create a wish list – with the commitment of buying things as they have been budgeted.
Decide together to determine what are the best choices out of the many. It could just be a simple paint job, moving furniture, or a window treatment change that would be satisfactory.
What ever your determining factors are – A room “just for me” is a room designed to encourage, inspire, provide safety and certainly feelings of love and acceptance.
If you don’t like the results…well, you can always close the door!
