Let your kids style your home

Styling your home can be a daunting task, especially when you have children. There aren’t enough hours in the day so why don’t you kill two birds with one stone and enlist your children’s help in decorating the space they use the most — their room. It’s a great way to explore their creativity, and the extra help means you’ll have time to get the space ready for redecoration.

Collage

First things first, get your kids to start putting together an idea of what they’d like their room to look like. If your children are old enough, equip them with old magazines or let them print out pages from online interior design websites. Set them up with glue and cardboard paper and let them scour for any furniture items and decor products which catch their eyes.

Choose the colour palette

Even just letting your kids choose which colour you’ll paint their room can make them feel more responsible and proud of their space — or go one step further and let them help choose the overall colour scheme. 

You can turn this into a fun game and teach younger children about different textures. Cut up felt, old fabric and rags in a range of colours and patterns and let your kids play with matching different colours together. Once they’ve settled on colours they love, you can all go to Bunnings and they’ll mix up tins of paint to match.

Final say

If you have already have an idea of what you want the space to look like and a strict budget you can’t go over, you can always create a short list and let your children have a final say. 

You’ll want to choose items which have longevity and will grow with your child. Large pieces, like furniture and rugs, can be a major investment which is why you should select well-made styles which will last through your son or daughter’s childhood. Choose fun smaller pieces to act as accents, and offer your kids two options for everything from side tables to alarm clocks or storage containers.

Alternate wall decor

If your child is absolutely adamant on a colour palette which you think they’ll change their mind about in a month’s time, you can compromise by investing in wall decals. These nifty repositionable stickers are perfect for kids — they’re cheap, impermanent and come in an array of patterns and images. We love Tinyme Australia’s range of kids wall stickers.

Getting started

If you’re worried about letting your kids help with the manual labour of painting the room, there are a couple of things you can do to make sure there are no accidents. Use masking tape to mark off areas so your children have a clear guideline of where they can and can’t paint, and ensure the floors is completely covered and secured with plastic sheets because things are going to get messy — and that’s okay! Just make sure you and your kids have fun while doing it.

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