Decorating Kid's Rooms on a Budget

One example of a child's room

Decorating a kid's room can be a challenge, especially if you are dealing with a child who is very particular about his likes and dislikes, or has a tendency to change those likes or dislikes on a weekly or monthly basis. In this situation, finding a lasting set of ideas when decorating the kid's room is going to be paramount. Choosing a few items that can be swapped out occasionally might not be a bad idea either. Keeping in mind that there are always going to be fads and trends and selecting themes that can satisfy more than one of these at a time can also help to keep you on budget.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Decide how much you are willing to spend before going shopping. When you don't know what your budget is, or you purposefully allow yourself to be fuzzy regarding your limits, then you are sure to spend more than you can realistically afford.

2. Select a theme. One way to get around spending a lot of money to decorate a kid's room is to choose a theme. A theme will keep your spending in check because you will only purchase things that fit the theme for your child's room, and you can avoid unnecessary purchases. Let you child help when choosing the theme of the room.

3. Choose a color scheme. This will help in avoiding buying items that don't fit the color scheme or that look out of place in the room. Let you child help when choosing the color scheme of the room. Choose bright and inviting colors. Your child will spend more time in a room that is cheerful, happy and inviting.

4. Choose plenty of colorful storage. Kids tend to have a lot of toys, clothes and shoes need to be stored away neatly. Choosing colorful, inexpensive storage containers should be part of your decorating scheme for your kid's room. Some ideas for storage might be, inexpensive plastic containers such as you can find at the dollar store for items like loose crayons, paint tubes and other art items.

5. Keep in mind the different uses for your child's room, such as studying, sleeping and playing. You will want to set aside a part of your child's room for each of these activities and then decorate accordingly. While this may sound as if it could end up costing you more, keep in mind that you can use one area of a room for more than one use. For example, instead of a desk you could use a larger table with chairs for your child's computer and play area. The larger space will leave a place for your child to draw or play with toys.

6. Decorations can be one the easiest parts of the room, if you plan well. Use your child's drawings and art to decorate their room. This can be a great way to honor your child's artistic talents and make him feel good and save you money purchasing art to decorate her room. Consider inexpensive removable wall stickers for decorating. There are many such removable wall stickers available on e-Bay for a reasonable price. The nice thing about these is that you can choose some that are fads and you won't break the bank doing so. Paint your child's room in a bright color and then purchase an additional paint color that is complementary to the first color and use stencils put designs on your kid's walls. Stencils can be found inexpensively at craft stores, and you can even find stencil patterns online.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't buy new unless you have to. Shop thrift stores, yard, and garage sales. Shop your local dollar stores for storage items and knickknacks. Take your kid with you when shopping for items to decorate his or her room. Including your child in the process is important, but you also need to make sure that he understands you are on a budget and what the budget is. Check local home improvement stores for deals on items like paint. People sometimes return cans of paint to the store and then the store discounts them. This happens at Home Depot in some areas relatively often.

• Solicit your kid's ideas before starting any of this, he or she will be happy to be involved in the process. Don't go overboard when decorating your kid's room. Keep in mind that fads change overnight and decorating your child's room all in Transformers, or even Barbie Fairytopia items can be a recipe for disaster because when they are no longer popular, your kid will want to redecorate his or her room.

Resources

• Kid's Discount Furniture
• Removeable Wall Stickers
• Home Depot