How to Decorate a Young Boy's Room with a Cowboy Theme

Decorating for a young boy is fun. All you need is your young boy's imagination to guide you to create a room that he can be proud to call his own. In this article you will learn the steps to decorate a young boy's room with a cowboy theme.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blue flat paint (1 gallon)
• Taupe or light brown flat paint (1 gallon)
• Paint brush
• Paint tray
• Blue tape
• Drop cloth
• Wooden window cornice
• Level
• Screwdriver
• Drill
• Wallpaper border in cowboy theme
• Bandana handkerchief (7 -8 pieces)
• Window blinds
• Arm-swing wall lamp and shade
• Cowboy accessories

1. Clear out the furnishings from the room. Then lay down the drop cloth to protect the floor.

2. Put blue painter's tape to protect the base moldings, door moldings, and crown moldings. About 12 inches from the ceiling, use the blue painter's tape to mark out the surrounding walls. Paint the top portion using the taupe or light brown color and then paint the lower portion with blue paint. Allow paint to dry.

3. After the paint had dried up, remove the blue painter's tape. Start putting the wallpaper border just an inch above where the blue paint ends. This way it will cover the uneven lines connecting the blue and the taupe. Leave at least 10 inches of the taupe or brown paint exposed. This look gives the illusion of a higher ceiling. But if you want to keep it simple and less time consuming, you can omit the painting with taupe or brown color and just put the wall paper right where the ceiling and wall meet.

4. Next step you will be tackling are the windows. Since this is a boy's room, and a cowboy theme at that, you want to stay away from putting draperies unless you keep it really tailored. Using wooden window blinds with 2-inch slats are perfect to use for privacy and light control.

5. You can also have wooden cornice boards made, keeping the lines clean. Use varnish on your cornice board to preserve the wood. To decorate your cornice board, cut out the cowboy, horse and cow from the remaining wallpaper border. This way the design from the wallpaper border is picked up on the window cornice board. Then, using a staple gun, attach the bandanas folded in half to create a triangle. You can use red cowboy bandanas so that the color will pop up in the room. Use 3 bandanas for windows with a width of 48 inches.

6. Connect the arm-swing wall lamp about 3 feet from the bottom. This will serve as a light above the desk or next to the bed for reading. Decorate the lampshade using left-over red bandanas to match those used on the cornice board. You can use glue gun or fabric glue to make sure the bandanas can adhere securely on the lampshade.

7. Once done, put back the furnishings starting with the bed. Use cowboy themed beddings if you like, but using simple solid colors picked from the color scheme used on the walls and windows would also work for a cohesive look.

8. Accessorize with cowboy theme. Avoid using too much of the theme around the room. What this means is, you do not have to put cowboy, horses and cows everywhere in the room. A few pieces will do, for example, buy bookends for your son's books made of wooden cowboy boots. Also hang a lone-star or a horseshoe right above the headboard or put a lasso next to the door.

Tips & Warnings

• You can pick out other colors than those mentioned in the article. As long as you use primary colors.
• Let your son help out in decorating his room. This way it would be more fun and he can choose items that would match his taste.
• Make sure to use a low wattage bulb for the lamp so that the fabric will not overheat.
• When using window blinds, make sure to the tie the drawstrings to the side or buy those that are child proof to prevent your child from getting into accidents.

[jbduff]

on 11/8/2007 I have a friend who would love this! I'll pass it on!