There comes a day in every parent’s life when their little child decides they aren’t little anymore, and they want a “big kid’s” room. This can a moment filled with many emotions from the heartache that your baby isn’t a baby anymore to exhilaration as you help your child design a room that fits their unique interests and style.
The first thing to do is sit down with your child and brainstorm a list of their interests, hobbies, and favorite colors. If they aren’t already familiar with it, introduce them to Pinterest and let them create a board of everything that piques their interest. At this stage in the planning, urge them to save anything they like without taking the time to think about why they like it or how much they like it. This is a powerful brainstorming activity that can reveal style preferences your child wasn’t even aware they had. For example, after pinning many images, it may become clear that they love a very modern style. This information will help you moving forward.
Once you brainstormed a bunch of ideas to create a direction, you need to determine the budget for the new room. Redecorating a room can be as simple as painting and rearranging furniture or as complex as a complete renovation. You can repurpose the furniture you already own and create decorations yourself, or you can buy everything new. Once you have a clear budget for the space, you can go back to the design ideas you and your child gathered and start creating a plan.
If you are working with a small budget, start by looking at what you already own that you can repurpose in the space, as well as decorations you make with your child. While the appeal of buying everything new may feel strong, creating and repurposing together is an excellent opportunity for you to learn and accomplish something together. Once you know what you can reuse and what you plan to make, start your shopping list. The shopping list will include items you need to create and repurpose, as well as the items you will need to buy new. If you plan to paint the walls a different color, you will also need to add the paint and paint supplies to the shopping list.
Once you have everything you need, you can get to work. Start by clearing the room out. Your child will need to decide what they want to keep and what they are ready to let go of, such as stuffed animals or “little kid” toys. Depending on how they want to use the space in their new room, they may need to let go of a lot of things.
After cleaning out the room, paint the walls and trim. There is no point in moving any furniture into the space until the walls are painted. If you are putting in new flooring, that should be done after the walls are painted. Once the painting and flooring are complete, it is time to install or replace overhead lighting, if that is part of the plan. If you are creating or installing decorations that will take up a lot of space or a large area of a wall, it is best to complete those projects before moving things back in. You can also use the empty room to complete all of your do-it-yourself decorations.
With all of that complete, you can start moving things into the space. Start with the largest items and move your way down, arranging the room as you move things in. When the furniture is done, move in the toys, books, and other items. Help your child organize the room and a way that makes sense to them, and they can feasibly keep clean. Finally, hang any pictures of decorations you plan to have on the walls.
