making a house into a home: adding colour to kids rooms
It’s time to tackle kids bedrooms and make them feel more cosy and colourful. My first project was the room of Miss Celeste. Nothing grand planned, but the room was just lacking any character and we wanted her to feel that the room was made just for her. It was first a trip to the local DIY store to take a look at the colour charts.
1. So here we go. This was the starting point: simply put, dull and duller. Off-white walls and beige carpets. At this point we’ve already replaced all the carpets in the house with walnut wood floors, which were treated after installation with semi-gloss hard wax oil to bring the warm redness out more.
2. Now that the floors are done it’s time to add some paint. Against any better judgement I let all the children choose their own paint colour.
3. And her pick was Heather Bloom, shade 3 mixed in Dulux colour endurance paint so that I can wipe fingerprints and other marks off easier.
4. Accent wall is ready. I didn’t want the room to become too violet so I painted just the largest wall on the side where the bed will be. I’ll probably replace at some point the other low-quality off-white walls with a warmer, creamier tone in every room, but that shade will do for now.
5. Adding furniture to the room. This is the first time the twins have been given their own rooms. No new furniture here yet: Celeste’s old Ikea toddler daybed, Ikea plastic table &chairs, Ikea’s colourful kids rugs, low 5-unit storage piece with Polka Dot Canvas Storage Cubes, also from The Great Little Trading Company.
Also the Marimekko Fat Boy bean bag has made it to Celeste’s room. The room is still looking a bit empty as there are no curtains in place, but I love the warm tones of the glossy walnut floors and the new wall – definitely much better already.
6. Curtains are up, those polka dot ones which match to the storage cubes. I think it’s pretty cool that Miss C. managed to pick the same shade on paint as some of the dots in the curtains! We’ve also added this cute wall decal of a tree with cute animals (luckily it comes with numbered pieces to make the process easier). I found both decals on Amazon and they got delivered in a day: Roommates Childrens Wall Sticker Tree
7. Miss C. is a huge fan of butterflies at the moment. She asked for butterfly curtains, but since I had just gotten a pair of Polka Dot Curtains from the Great Little Trading Company we compromised on some wall art. First set of colourful butterflies just arrived on post, and we scattered them into a little cloud formation, and added some into the existing tree also.
There are still more 3D butterflies arriving for both girls, so stay tuned for future updates. Miss C. is also missing some framed art and a ceiling pendant – so the room will become even nice, I hope, but this is what it currently looks like:
View of the back wall storage area and the new accent wall and tree mural
The activity side of the room
And the total cost of transformation – i.e. the paint, equipment and stickers – around £60, i.e. $100 USD. Transformation time – painting two layers, stickers and reorganizing the room: under 5 hours. Not too bad I think. Now I’d like to hear what you think about the room and any improvement ideas for it, especially when it comes to storage and toy displays…