Boys will be boys...

When my boys were little ones, there was not the selection there is today with regards to clothes or room decor. If you didn't want to decorate with planes, trains, or automobiles, you were left with toy or t.v. related themes, or maybe nautical. Today the market has exploded with decor options and with the added allure of vintage decor schemes, you can have a lot of fun designing a room for the little man in your life.

The most important thing to remember when decorating any child's space is that the child will grow up! Don't invest too much money on small-scale furnishings. Instead purchase beds, desks, and dressers that will grow with your child and have fun with the accessories and bedding instead. In my experience, boys are even quicker than girls to outgrow "baby" themes. They want to feel like big boys and will shun your attempts to style their space at quite an early age.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if my boys were smaller, one of them would have a vintage cowboy-themed bedroom. Unfortunately, I missed my opportunity and have had to relinquish much of the control over their rooms to them. So have fun while they are little, and don't be a "momzilla", trying to stick decals on their walls and hang cutesie curtains long after they reach that tween phase...

When decorating an older boy's space, try to incorporate a desk area, a comfy place to sit, and a display area for their treasures. This photo shows an excellent way to display those trophies that they are so proud to have won, and they look more like wall art than clutter (which they only are if they are our husbands trophies...not our precious sons'). If you have more than one boy sharing a room, find their common ground and let it be a starting point from a decor perspective. If they both love to ski or snowboard, try adding accessories like in this room. If it is a shared sport they have in common, add tasteful nods to it and try to get them to agree to matching, or at least coordinating, bedding. If you are brave, and they are not too daring, give your son the option of choosing the paint colour. If you are not so brave, narrow the colour down to three shades you are o.k. with, and let them choose from there. Baby steps...

Have fun with lighting. Opt for something modern in design or use an exterior fixture. They tend to be more masculine in style and can be used in a variety of themes, especially nautical. If hockey is the style, hang their curtains from hockey sticks used as rods. If they love geography, frame a world map and hang three clocks set at different time zones above it. Add some vintage globes and a "wordly" theme is born. You can have lots of fun thinking outside the box with boy's rooms. The colours can often be bolder (think red) and the accessories more rugged. Scour flea markets for fun stuff like old oars, skis, skateboards (to be made into shelves), sports equipment, etc. I have even gone as far as taking a bare-limbed tree and hanging it from the ceiling, added fake bugs to it, and put mini lights in it for a twinkly night light. Cheap, easy and different. My little bug-lover was thrilled!

Enjoy this opportunity to create a special room for your son(s). Include them where you think they will be of help, get them to draw and frame their own wall art, and if you are opposed to posters (as most mothers are), help them to create a collage of their favorite magazine pictures/posters and pin them to a cork board. They can change it at their whim, and you can feel like a cool mum who is showing their boys how not to decorate like the boys of old!!!

***next up...I will discuss how to create teen/tween friendly lounge areas to encourage your big boys and girls to bring their friends to your home...where you can keep a closer eye on them...!!!***

A Room With A View

I know a lot of people with little girls. I came across these great photos and decided I'd share some more room ideas for decorating a little girl's space. I tried not to focus on only pink rooms, but there sure are a lot of pink rooms out there! I was thinking back to the rooms of my girlhood and I think I have always gravitated towards pink. I know I certainly had my share of seventies decor, but once I found my feet, I think I had pretty nice rooms. Of course, in those days, wallpaper... the busier the better, was all the rage. I remember some of my rooms being more of a kaleidoscope of colour than anything...

I often marvel how times have certainly changed since I was a girl. The overall attention we pay to our children is unbelievable. Even with regards to decorating, when did it become the norm to give so much thought to our kid's rooms? All of a sudden it has become very important to give our kids these beautiful, stimulating personal spaces...play rooms, swing sets that have grown in size to monumental proportions, playhouses (hey...there's nothing wrong with those!!!), and even personal "home gyms" geared up to our little monkeys with mini rock walls, gymnastics mats, etc., etc.

Is there anything wrong with any of it?? Are we just pampering our kids or are we indulging our own childhood fantasies? It seems like the more money we have, the more we spend on creating this fantasy land in our homes and backyards for our little angels...

My final word is ( and I'm no expert), it is all o.k. as long as we are doing it for the right reasons, we can afford it, and we aren't doing it to make up for the times we are too busy to just enjoy our kids and what they have to "offer". I have been guilty of trying to create these "perfect" play spaces for my kids to enjoy, when all they really wanted to do was to lay at my feet in the kitchen with a toy car or play with their toy kitchen, which by the way, always entertained them better if it was in the kitchen alongside Mummy and/or Daddy. I've tripped over many a small child playing at my feet...

The times, "they are a changin'..." and we roll with them and adapt and decorate!! It is definitely lots of fun to create these beautiful spaces for our kids, and we really do enter into it with the best of intentions. Have fun decorating these fanciful rooms...but be aware... in some cases they just might never actually play or sleep (right Wendy?!!) too often in these magical settings. To kids, home is where the heart is...and you are the heart, or center, of their little worlds...!!

**Tomorrow, I'll continue this talk about playrooms and outdoor play spaces...and show you some great boy's rooms. **

Think Pink

I am drawn to pink. I think it is because I am very much a "girly-girl". Whenever I go shopping for clothes for my daughter, I gravitate to the pink dresses, pink sweaters, etc. I have to make a conscious effort to buy the yellows and blues that are equally as pretty and certainly less predictable. I love pink, so it is was with more than a little surprise that I noticed that apart from Sophie's room, there is no pink in my house. Weird...

I think I have fallen prey to the notion that pink is for little girls or those who are bound to the Victorian style of decorating. Maybe I am just afraid that if I decorate with pink I will not achieve a "grown-up" look in my home. Or maybe I was frightened away from pink after the dusty rose craze of the Eighties (I had dusty rose carpet in my bedroom as a teen and LOVED it). Whatever the reason I am "bringing pink back" into my decor!

Pink can be soothing or stimulating (depending on its intensity), but is always happy. When I think of my favorite shade of pink, I think of a pale pink peony. I love the subtleness of soft pink and I am determined to come out of my comfort zone and incorporate it more throughout my house. Pink is said to reveal your softer side and encourages conversation. In its bolder shades, it can sometimes be garish, so the key is to temper it with colours that bring out its best. Soft pinks obviously look great with the pastel hues, but also are fantastic with shades of taupe, brown, silver, and even black (in small doses). The bolder shades look great with darker browns, lime greens, and orange. Pink is a colour to have fun with: incorporate it gently. Instead of painting a whole room, introduce pink through the use of pillows, artwork, candles, a chair or even fresh flowers. Bring in enough pink to enjoy; but like anything sweet, don't over-indulge!