Boy's Room Decor Ideas? Where Did You Get It?

I avoid themes. I do things in neutral colors and add in eclectic and fun finds I get while thrifting or when out shopping. Fun things like a cowboy hat, superhero cape, or old toys that were once yours, a cool retro spaceship poster, teepee... This way, it makes it very easy for the room to grow with your child's tastes and as fads fade.

some rooms I love that are examples of this:
http://littlelovables.blogspot.com/2010/08/inspired-rooms...

http://littlelovables.blogspot.com/2010/03/vintage-linen-...

this toy wreath would be easy to make and really fun in a kids room:
http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2009/10/happy-meal-toy...

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Early on, we let our oldest pick out colors...and we filled other things in as his interests developed & changed. Initially, we painted the room in the two colors (2 shades of blue) he wanted and I hung a print I got for him from a good friend (who is a powerful, masculine landscape artist). Then up went the dinosaur posters. Then I did a painting of R2D2 for him. Then we screwed up some shelves for all the legos....

Our next sons room is currently pretty bare, but I see some trains in the room's future...

This approach has saved us a ton of money. Decorating kid's rooms is fun, but if the kid isn't super into it, then (to me) it's just a waste of time and money.

As to the WHERE..I always start with Craig's list. : )

Have fun and good luck!

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I have done a couple of different things over the years. I have 3 sons - 10,8, and 4.

Early on with my oldest two (who have always shared a room by choice - theirs not mine) I did an "all things boy" theme - walls were a basic blue, and then I came in with decorations/toys that THEY loved. Some cars, some animals, trucks and tractors, kites and airplanes and helicopters hanging from the ceiling, etc. I picked up items at yard sales, dollar stores, clearance racks etc. I have pretty much gone back to this theme with my older two since they are "growing up" and developing their own tastes. Currently their room is ummm "decorated" with horses, super heroes, firetrucks, and original artwork done by their grandmother as well as a HUGE Monet poster/print. I love the mixture of things in their room, as it really represents their growing eclectic taste.

For Actual themes I have done...
The first was a Fire Truck theme and it was inspired by a set of porcelain dalmatians that I "inherited". I made most of the accessories to include bedding for that one as I could not find much in the stores. I purchased fabric from an online company, used basic black and red curtains (which b/c of their basic colors I have been able to re-use as time goes on), I used the fire truck toys that my kids had an abundance of (their dad had served on a Volunteer Fire Dept in one of the places we lived so everyone gave them fire trucks) I had photos of the fire engines and their dad in his fire fighting equipment enlarged and framed, and a few other small pieces of "art" that I had done from kits found at a craft store in the room. The kids really liked it - so much so that when we moved and the "Graduated" to a new decor I reused everything for their younger brother.

I have done a Super Hero Room...Superman, Spiderman, Police Officers, Military, etc...Not just the movie heros, but other real life heros as well.

My youngest is currently living in a "BLT" Room - as in Buzz, Lightening and Thomas...he loves all three of them, and has for a while. So I have a boyish, playful mix of his favorite things in his room right now. Some of the decorations are toys, to keep costs low I have used kids puzzles and framed them for the wall art. I made a wall hanging from stickers and poster board and framed it. When I first did the BLT room, we were only going to be in the house for about 5 more months and so I did not want to invest a ton of $$ into something that he may not want when we moved...so I bought the plastic table clothes for birthday parties and used the border of them around the room as a border...and one section as a window valence. If nothing else, it was a neat economical way to make a huge impact with out making it permanent.

I guess I should have prefaced this with the fact that we are military and move often, so I try to keep curtains, bedding and such neutral so that it can grow with the kids and bring in other things to make the "theme" take off.

Have fun with it!
T.

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I have two boys, one 22, one 10.

My first guy did the Mickey Mouse Yellow on the walls, then we had the sheets and comforter, posters that I framed and a small MM face rug.

He also had a wolf theme. My MIL make his curtains from material with different wolf prints on it. She also made his comforter. We got a wolf border and painted the room grey on the top 2/3 and deep gray on the bottom. He had many wolf prints and a light form MN that we hung and set in his room

My little guy had the truck theme, but I did it this way. THe room was white, I found a chunky car/truck border, this was placed about 36 inches up the wall. Below I drove one of his tractors through black paint and then on the wall. Above I hung a stop sign and put some of the chunky cars I had cut out of the border. Then on his window ledge I painted it black, actually Behr has a color called Asphalt, and painted a broken yellow line in the middle and a white line at the end for his cars.

In the next house we painted his room deep tan and had a fish border. Not a baby boy fishing border but one that you would hang in a lodge, a man's fish border. (according to my son) We then had tab top denim curtains, Target, that I hung with sticks. I had a rug hook of a guy fishing that has tab tops and I hung that on the wall with a broken fishing pole. I found postcards in MN and framed them for his wall. Under the border I painted a plaid pattern with green, yellow, blue and orange. His comforter is one we found in upper MIchigan with an Up North theme. Target had a whole line of fishing/camping themed items. We have camouflage sheets and sheets with bears on them.

This house we are painting the same deep tan. About 1/3 the way up I will paint a blue stream. Then there will be trees and animals. Some hills. ONe wall will be Spring, one Summer, one Fall, and one Winter. I found a coat hanger shaped like a moose from IKEA. Most of his old stuff will fit right in. I have used the Wallies, little wallpaper cutouts, for some details in other houses.

We have moved every three years, military.

I did a farm scene in one of the girls' rooms and a pastoral, white picket fence, trees, meadow, in another of theirs.
I have one of the One Stroke Painting books from Micheal's and it really is just that easy.

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My sons room is just a science "theme" I guess. Maps on the walls and a globe on his dresser. Toy dinos on his bookshelf. On a small table sits his telescope and microscope. A bin full of fake snakes, frogs etc. The walls are beige and the curtains blue. He has Pokemon bedding because thats what he wants. It's really just all of his stuff in his room - no theme.

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I plan on doing my son (17 months) in a boyish feel, but not themed. Where his crib is I am going to paint an argyle strip in browns, and blues. then have the rest of the room in a color that matches or looks good. I haven't ironed out all the details yet. Then have a bed set that will looks good with the wall. Nothing overly done, nothing like Mickey that he'll grow out of. The lamp however, I have a nightlight that is a star that I got at IKEA and I love it. I want a lamp too for when I read to him, I saw a cute dump truck one online. Like I said, nothing all out themed, but hints, I guess is how you can put it.
*** Oh like Lovesmybabies, my son LOVES Thomas so there will be a small homage to him, but easily changed, like a pillow shapped like Thomas or sheets. And of course all of the Thomas toys laying around. . . that's always fun.

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I did a cowboy room for my son. I loved it. Of course as soon as he could talk he said he wanted a Thomas room.
I made the walls look like leather by brushing on a glaze then putting plastic on it and squishing it up, then peeling it off. I got a dungaree bedspread. I bought bandana's at walmart and tied them to the curtain rods for curtains. I made a couple bandana pillows to match. I went to Joann's Fabric and bought a big piece of cow print fabric and just cut rounded edges and made a carpet with it under the bed. It was super cute. I made a country sign that said sleep little cowboy. I miss this room.. :)

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I have gotten both my kids room stuff at www.beyondbedding.com They sell JoJo's designs. They have the cutest stuff ever and they are REALLY good quality. The comforters are made to last. My daughter has had hers for 5 years and we wash it regularly. We bought both Nursery and big kid bedding there. The have decor as well.

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I would check out Target. They have really cute things!

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I did not do a theme but got wall decals from dollar tree including jungle animals on one wall with clouds & astronauts above them, on another wall added some trains,trucks,cars & clouds with airplanes.
the dollar tree has many decals based on boys & girls interests.

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We did a cowboy theme for my son, because we felt like it could grow with him for quite a few years. We got a few prints from Art.com...here is one in a series of four or five (by the same artist) that we purchased:

http://www.art.com/products/p10034060-sa-i846183/frederic...

I picked up some rustic, western type frames from Michael's to put them in and they looked fantastic. Since "western" is a fairly common decorating scheme, there's a TON of stuff out there that works in a toddler's room, but is also tasteful and would be good for an older child as well. We recently moved to a home where the previous owner's had horses and found several old rusty horse shoes. My hubby cleaned the dirt off of them and nailed them to the head and footboards of my son's bed...which was a nicely worn antique. It looks absolutely perfect.

Anything vintage or "distressed" really goes well with the theme, so have fun with an old dresser or chair using one of these paint kits (available at Home Depot or Lowe's):

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=82

I used the white one on an rocking chair that I had stripped bare and it turned out beautifully.

We also had fun purchasing a set of authentic looking toy cowboy guns (with holsters) and hanging them on his wall along with a cute set of shiny spurs. I could also imagine something like that looking good hanging over the back of a chair as well.

We got a simple patchwork quilt for his bedspread and it fits the theme SO nicely without being "cutesy" or baby-ish. Also, most western stores sell adorable leather boots for babies/toddlers and we have a pair on our son's dresser. He never really wore them but they are SO adorable as a decoration piece.

Antique stores are really a fun place to look for stuff for a cowboy theme, including an old, worn out hat and/or books (for a high shelf, lol). A rocking horse is, of course, kind of a necessity. It's also a good place to put a child sized cowboy hat when it's not being used. Those are available in any toy store (including Walmart) or, if you want a quality one, you can go to your local western appparel store...not sure what you have there in IL.

My hubby and I actually just picked up this cool lamp at Lowes the other day. Since my son is now five, we had to "upgrade" from his old nursery-style lamp and this one fit the bill:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_###-###-####-139725_0__?productId...

Whatever you decide, have fun with it. And shop online to find those special, one of a kind items. Stores are so limited nowadays!! :-)

1 mom found this helpful

It really depends on what your toddler is in to! I once saw a toddler room done in John Deere Tractors. On the bottom half of the wall they put those metal sheets that are bent back and forth that you would see on a barn up and then put white molding on top and bottom to cover the sharp edges and the top half of the room was painted yellow with green accessories and shelves with tractors it was really cute and most country boys would like this for years to come. My sons room at the moment is done in Thomas the train~ got the train bed and toy box from a resale shop, got the bedding and wall decor from walmart. He has liked Thomas the train for a couple of years and still loves him. By the time he is ready for a twin bed Im sure we will go with a different decor. The easiest way to decide on how to decorate and what color scheme to go with is google toddler bedding or twin bedding for boys depending on what size bed he has. There are so many companies out there that sell unique bedding for children. Pick the bedding that you like the best and use that as your color scheme in the room. Once you have the bedding you can base your other purchases off of it!

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I LOVE Target!

I did all 3 of my kids' rooms with them, with the exception of my first son's bedding and wall paper trim...I got that online from 'Lambs & Ivy' bedding/room decor. I went with the 'trains, planes & automobiles' theme and have stop signs and railroad crossing signs, speed limit signs, route 66, etc. He has a huge standing railroad crossing piggy bank that doubles as a nite-light...very cute. I went with a blue bottom half of the walls, with a chair rail half way up, then a 'popcorn' color for the top half followed by the matching wallpaper border on the tippy top. It came together really well!

My middle son, I went with the 'off road monkey jungle' theme (from Target circa 2005) every wall a different color, orange, blue, green and yellow. Alligators, monkeys...very cute!

Daughter's room is not as quite put together or 'themed'...she has an eclectic mix of pinks, purples and everything cute I could/still find! Coupled with glow in the dark stars on a couple corners of her room.

I am thinking about having the boys share a room (to give dad his home office back) and going with a 'space/geography/science' theme...?

~My Mother did the COOLEST things for my kids' rooms...she got sticky back felt fabric from Michael's craft store and cut out each child's name in coordinating colors...really pulls it all together!

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My daughter decorated with a cowboy theme. I found blue drapes with cowboys on them for the windows at Goodwill. She made a quilt from cowboy themed fabric. I found a platter at Fred Meyer with a cowboy on a horse and put that on the wall. I put up a cowboy hat, and plastic horns on the wall that I found at a Party store. I added a kerchief that i already had.

She started this while he was still a baby. She's just now changing the theme and he's 7. He didn't develop an interest in cowboys. lol In fact he doesn't care how his room is decorated. She's only changing it because he's going to share the room with a baby sister and she wants something a bit more feminine while still appropriate for a boy. She hasn't decided how to do it.

I noticed that Babys R Us has a whole wall of themed bedding and room decorations. If I had the money, I would choose one of their themes and buy some of it and make the rest.

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