The Precious Parcel's Guide to Decorating a Child's Room

When they are very little the kids don't care what their bedroom looks like, but we do! Decorating the nursery is an important task while waiting for the new arrival. Hours are spent poring over catalogues and trawling the internet for ideas, it's a rite of passage, it's fun and quite often, we change the whole colour scheme again in six months!

Our ideas about what is practical and what looks best in a nursery very quickly change when our children develop their own personalities and their own likes and dislikes. To save you time, money and effort we've come up with this short guide to decorating a child's bedroom.

1. Go neutral! You don't have to have pink, blue, green or yellow walls. Go for something along the lines of a soft cream or magnolia. Fresh, warm and a blank canvas for you to decorate and change as time goes on.

2. Choose good quality paint. By good quality paint we mean paint that can be wiped down. Trust us, there is only so many ways you can arrange the furniture to hide sticky hand prints or artistic scribbles.

3. Personalise the room. Peppa Pig, Thomas, fairies and cars come and go as your child grows. George has had so many favourites that getting fed up chopping and changing everything we decorated his room in the best style... George Style!
Large wooden letters, like these pictured, across the wall spell out the owner of the beautifully arranged (toy strewn mess) we like to refer to as George's room.

Beautiful handpainted letters with matching gingham ribbon and polka dots if requested. Letters measure approx 20cm high. Available in most colours, 6 letters £24.95.

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And this handpainted gingham plaque so we don't get confused between his room and the loo.

(I wonder how long before I'm making him a "KEEP OUT!" sign?!).

Each plaque measures 15xm x 10cm and costs £7.95 each.

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And of course, so we can set this for 6.55am, take the batteries out and tell him not to get out of bed until 7am...

(Obviously I don't do this.... he laughed at me the first time I tried it).

Personalised clocks at £12.95 each.

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4. Get black out blinds. You don't have to spend a fortune having permanent blinds put up if you don't want them but can find some fantastic temporary ones with the power of Google. This helps if your house is near a road and has headlights beaming in, for daytime naps, bright early mornings and long summer nights. Blinds or sanity savers, call them what you like but they are a must!

Keep it simple, keep it clean and have fun choosing a practical, safe and fun bedroom which is as individual as your little people are!