Creative Kids Rooms

November 8, 2008

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This year for Christmas, we are redoing our children’s bedrooms. One of the things we have planned are custom headboards. They are flat headboards that will be painted with blackboard paint and then we will stencil designs along the top to “pretty” it up. Once they are up, they will be able to color on them with chalk, decorate them as they wish. I am very excited about the headboards, I love the idea of putting interactive aspects into a children’s room so that they can fill the room with their own creativity. There are so many great ways to do this!

1. Black Board Paint! This paint creates a blackboard finish that children can color on with chalk. You can paint a piece of furniture like our headboard, an entire wall, the bottom half of a wall with a chair molding seperating it from the top, or use moldings to create a blocked of shape on different parts of the room. This works for younger children to because if they forget to stay on the blackboard area, chalk still wipes off fairly easily. There is also paint available that creates a white dry erase surface if you prefer.

2. Magnetic Primer - another great product, this primer is applied under your paint and it has tiny pieces of metal in it so magnets will stick to if after it is applied. This allows them to play with magnet sets all over their walls.

3. Color-on-me Wallpaper - like the Jon Burgerman wallpaper shown here, this lets your child color their own wall! Probably better for older children who color fairly well and would understand the different between coloring on the wallpaper and coloring on any wall.

4. Give Them Some Freedom! - If you have a teen or preteen with an artistic or creative interest, don’t bother with expensive new furnishing. Instead, invest in some used pieces, brushes and craft paint and let them at it. Let them personalize each piece with their own unique designs. Perhaps you might let them have go at their walls as well. Before you start, lay out some ground rules. If there are specific things that must be left untouched (only paint on a specific wall, no paint on the floor, etc) or other guidelines (no profanity, etc) set those out up front, and then allow your teen the freedom to take it from there. You don’t have to love it - they do:)

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