Painting Techniques for Kid Rooms

A child can help paint her room.

Painting techniques and treatments for kids' bedrooms usually focus on function and creating an interesting theme or bedroom design. If a child is likely to draw on her walls it can be a good idea to paint the lower half of the child's room in a chalkboard paint to give her a creative surface to express herself. You can also use a semigloss paint that is easier to wash. Match these paint options with paint designs that encourage imagination and learning, and create a peaceful yet pleasant room to play and sleep in.

Things You'll Need

• Border painter's tape
• Chalkboard paint
• Roller, tray, brush
• Semigloss paint

Instructions

1. Select a theme for your child's room. This can be a simple pairing of colors or it can incorporate a bigger idea like world travel, the beach, jungle, aircraft, racecars, theater or any idea that the child likes. Create a chair rail or border 2/3 the height of the room. This will be high enough to grow with a child for several years.

2. Tape off the border. If your theme is an ocean, you can paint the wall above the border a light, sky blue and the wall below the border a dark blue chalkboard paint. The child is unlikely to be able to reach above the border so you can mount shelves and more breakable decor pieces above the line. Mount small wall boxes with chalk and show your child how to draw fish and underwater objects.

3. Paint with a semigloss paint if your children are likely to leave marks on the wall and if you want to be able to wipe them off easily. Keep in mind that the shinier the paint, the more it will show defects in the wall.

4. Draw a mural on the wall with chalk and paint with acrylic paints to create a wall mural of a scene your child likes. You can take the image from a coloring book and project it on the wall to make it easier to trace.

5. Tape off wide stripes or diamonds for a fanciful theater or circus tent theme. Keep your edges very crisp by pressing the tape firmly to the wall. Vertical stripes will often make a room feel taller. Avoid high contrast colors to quiet down the stripes. Consider two tones of the same color. This will still give you a tent feeling but the room won't be as jarring visually.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also add magnetic paint under chalkboard paint. This will allow your child to use magnetic pictures on her wall along with drawing in chalk.

References

• Decorating Kids Rooms: Painting Kid Rooms