How to Decorate a Room for a Boy & a Girl

If you have a young boy and girl sharing a room, you might find yourself stumped when considering how to decorate it. You don't want it to be too masculine, or too feminine, but you also don't want it to be bland or lack character. Many of the children's decor motifs at home-decorating stores are either pink and frilly, or feature sports or superheroes. Finding a happy medium for boys and girls can be challenging, but it's not impossible. Take some of these ideas into consideration when decorating to keep your little man and lady equally happy.

Things You'll Need

• Magazines and books
• Paint chips and samples
• Gender-neutral furniture
• Bedding
• Accessories

Instructions

1. Decide on a theme. You might want to get the children involved in the selection. There are many fun and whimsical themes that can be designed to suit both boys and girls. For example, a medieval theme with knights and princesses, or a theme revolving around a favorite cartoon that features both male and female characters, such as Micky Mouse and Minnie Mouse. You can also choose a gender-neutral theme, such as barnyard animals, the beach, or a favorite board game, like Monopoly. Flip through magazines and books with the children to see what catches their interest.

2. Decide how much of your theme you want to incorporate into your room. You can take it quite literally, or simply draw inspiration from it with shapes, colors, and textures. Go to a home-decor or hardware store and collect some paint chips. Use them to come up with a color scheme and choose your paint palette from them.

3. Select gender-neutral furniture that fits into your theme. Wood furniture is always a good option, because natural wood goes with most designs. If the children eventually split into separate rooms, any of the pieces can go with either of them, or in another room entirely. Also, wood can always be painted in the future if you want to change the look.

4. Choose unique bedding for each child that will coordinate with the whole room. For example, if you are doing a medieval room, one bed can be decorated for the "princess" with frilly shams and a dust ruffle, and one can be decorated for the "knight" with toy shields and swords hung above it and a treasure chest at the foot. If you are doing a Monopoly theme, the girl's bedding can be a shade of pink or purple that reflects those color blocks on the board, and the boy's can be blue. Or you could make the girl's bed yellow, like the "Community Chest," and the boy's orange, like the "Chance" cards.

5. Choose accessories for the room that reflect both children, and either combine them in displays, or create zones in the room, such as "Minnie's side," with bows and dolls, and "Mickey's side," with race cars and sports equipment. As long as all of the decorations and accents fit in with the overall theme, it will flow together nicely.