Decorating Your Toddler's Room

I just found a "theme" that I liked and then found things on sale that went with it. My daughters room was fairies and my sons was sports themed. Both pretty basic and easy to find decorations for. My daughters room was painted a mauve color about 1/4 way up from the floor and then a cute fairy boarder went around the room. I left the top part the off white that was already there. Same for my sons but it was blue on the bottom and the sports boarder then off white. I had those wooden holders that held different colored plastic baskets of different sizes for their toys. They worked really well and in fact my son at age 8 still has his in his room. I think the biggest thing I learned was to really downsize their toys and only keep what they really love and actively play with. So if I were you I would find a really cute bed set and start with that and build around it. Good luck!

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The trick to decorating the room is to pick a paint color that can span ages and themes.

My daughter's room walls are a periwinkle purple. Here crib set was Winnie the Pooh 'Lazy Days'. For her 3y birthday, we took that down and changed it over to a pink/purple/Disney princess room, complete with life size wall clings. Minus the wall clings - Dad's present for $100 (www.fathead.com), I changed the whole decore for $60. New lamp, light switch, curtains, sheets, toy rack.

For your son, I recommend the following:
Ceiling-paint it white - makes the room seem bigger
Walls - a medium blue (Thomas the tank)
Then accessorize!

Some suggestions:
Craigslist
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bab/2487451456.html
http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bab/2487462385.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Childs-TRAINS-4pc-TODDLER-BEDDING...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Toy-Story-4pc-TODDLER-BEDDING-SET-Boy...

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We always wallpapered, painted, did new bedding for baby, then about 2 yr old, and then about 5 or 6. And teenage years. I like doing these things myself so its not like we paid a fortune for some professional decorator.
I had never seen a toddler bed when my son was little (maybe 3) and ran across a Mickey Mouse head board and little short legs that hooked to the spring of the crib to make a toddler bed. It was $5 at a garage sale so I got it and he loved it. He moved on to a twin about 4 or 5 yrs old. Our daughter went from her crib at 3 to a twin trundle bed. She had that until she moved out at 19 or so.
I see a lot of toddler beds on Craigslist for sale for as low as $10. You should look in the baby/kids section and also post an ad in the wanted section for your local area. Its fun making their rooms special for them!

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Do you have a Dollar Tree store in your state? I bought cute wall decals for both of my kids' room. My daughter has one "princess" wall, covered in 2 sets of stickers, and a border of multicolored flowers along another wall. My son has a border of planets and stars on one of his walls (just one set). They had trucks, dinosaurs, sayings, letters, all for $1 a set. I also got each kid a plastic accordion hooks that they hang their sweaters, hats, etc.

My son got out of my bed and in his own room at 3. He was into spiderman at the time, so I bought a spiderman poster at walmart and a spiderman fleece throw for his blanket (he went straight into a twin bed). I hung up the feet prints and hand prints from when he was a baby also, along with a guardian angel his grandma gave him. Now he is 7, and he still has those hanging in his room, now we've added a shelf and a couple more posters as his tastes have changed, plus pictures of his sister and other family. He has an older dresser that he can use as he grows

My daughter got her own room at 3 also. As off now, her walls only have the decals. We got her a toddler bed at a children's consignment store for $20. she has her brothers old small dresser, so she will need a new one eventually.

You don't need to do anything fancy or elaborate for his room. Especially since now hes into Thomas, but in a couple years it could change to something else. check out craigslist for cheap toddler beds too. You can get a plain one, and dress it up with Cars sheets and blankets. Can you paint? You can do an accent wall in his favorite color. Theres cool "chalkboard" paint that you can draw on, and there is magnetic primer to put under paint and he can use alphabet and number magnets on it.

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We decorated my oldest daughter's room when I was pregnant with her sister. She was 2 1/2. The big thing she was into was Tinkerbell and she had received some bedding for her big girl bed that was also Tinkerbell. We painted the room two toned pink/purple to match the bedding and added accent pieces to coordinate. We realize the colors are a little out there but there are tons of more grownup bedding choices to choose from when she gets older. She has a dresser, bed, and bookcase that are not part of a set but are all relatively the same color of wood. We then added clear stacked bins to organize the toys and other items in the room. We went with blinds instead of curtains (mainly because our window is situated differently). It really only cost us the price of the paint and about $30 extra for the bins. When she's a teenager we will probably redecorate again but that is many years off.

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I wouldn't rely too much on what he's currently into, that can change so quickly!
I think color is really important. If you want his room to be a quiet, soothing space, stick with light, neutral shades. If you want it to be an exciting, stimulating space, go with big, bright colors.
Keep the toys and clothes to a minimum and use baskets and bins to keep things organized. Keep it simple and accessible so he can easily help clean up. Those stick on hooks are amazing inside closets!
As someone else pointed out on another post, you can always use the crib mattress on the floor if you don't have the money for a bed. My youngest had a mattress on the floor and a little pop-up tent (like $20 from Ikea) and OMG she LOVED it, it was like camping out every night!

I am more about long-term theme versus characters. Dinosaurs, trains, pirates, construction,etc. are all appropriate at 3, but will still be ok at 8. (He may not love it then, but at least you got 5 years out of it.) I also think it looks nicer than the cheaper character sets. As for a toddler bed, save the money and buy a twin or double. He won't use the toddler one long enough.

I have done neutral primary colors and added characters. My boys room is wooden twin beds and dresser. Dark blue light blocking curtains. Blye sheets and right now it's Thomas the Train comforter and blanket. But, I could just as easily yank that tomorrow and do Toy Story with the same blue curtains and sheets.
my girl is pink and black. think the 50s retro barbie. We have a Dora comforter on it that is mostly pink with some black. But without that comforter, it's a very gamorous, retro pink and black.
Both are going to be easy to update as we grow.

A friend told me when I was pregnant w/ my 1st ~ don't do a theme that's too baby-ish b/c I'd have to change it soon. Thank goodness I listend to her. We didn't find out the gender of either of our children so we went with neurtal themes. Our oldest is 10 & still has the fish/ocean theme from when she was born. Our youngest is 4 & still has the jungle theme from when she was born.They both like their rooms. When my older one is a bit older, we'll probably let her change the theme (she's glad we didn't let her change it when she was younger ~ she wanted some pretty crazy things). Good luck!

we switched my son's room from a baby to toddler, but we were also moving so it worked well. My son is really into dino's, so that was the theme we went with. I found a cute bed set at kohls for very cheap. He already had a ton of dino stuff, so I was able to put some dino's on his dresser. I painted his walls a very bright green and then painted 5 different silhouette's of different dion's in a darker green on the wall. Along with a height chart. and it was a wrap. We also have his train table in his room. But his room is soooo cute. and we did it very inexpensive. What theme are you thinking? I am full of artsy ideas!

I never pulled my son's room all together so not sure this helps but someone made him a quilt with frogs on it in dark blue, bold green and yellow. She made valances to match and i tried to find some cute stuffed animals to decorate with.
We moved and now he is older but still loves his quilt so i focused on the blue in the quilt and added some navy throw pillows. and got dark blue and red milk crates that he uses for book shelves and toy storage, they are set on their side so the opening faces out instead of up.

If i wre you i would pick a color and decorate around that with a few touches of cars or thomas,

A sports theme would really last him. and i think cars would last longer than thomas.

good luck with finding a bed, i don't know that i would count on a cute bed convincing him to sleep alone. but never hurts to try :)

You don't necessarily need a "theme". Do whatever suits you and your son. Wall decals work great.

When we converted our son's room from a baby room to a little boys room, we changed out the baby furniture for a twin bed/bedroom set and added some decals and a couple of other small things. We found some camouflage sheets for the bed. On one wall, he has sports decals, along with some pennants and such that we had or have bought since. He has truck/car decals. We had purchased a Bob the Builder poster online and hung that up. With his toys and stuffed animals, the room really shows his personality. It is a really cool, little boys room.

I tend to fantasize huge rooms, not in size but as in while going to college I can't do a room up the way I want it lol. What does he like? I honestly want to shell out the money for a wall system like this:
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cameron-creativit...

I hate not having enough storage in her room. I also think they have way cute toddler beds nowadays.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Step2-Car-Bed-Convertible/2606495

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Delta-Disney-Cars-Toddler-Bed-w...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Disney-Buzz-Lightyear-Spaceship...

http://www.meijer.com/s/kidkraft-fire-truck-toddler-bed/_...

I think I should've had interior designer as my minor in college because I absolutely love spending quite a bit of time designing and putting together rooms. Do you have any cats? If he's into balls, you can get a ball pit. They have really cute ones for $30 that are a good size. You just have to buy another bag of balls b/c they don't come with as much as you need.

You could get a cars or trucks wall border and put it in the center of the wall around the room and paint the upper half one color and the bottom half another color. Then get a matching or coordinating car/truck fabric, get a canvas (they are usually pretty cheap at a crafts store) and wrap the fabric around them and staple the back, hang 3 of them on the upper portion of the wall on one or two walls. Those end up looking really good. Without a price point, it's hard to give suggestions specifically so I hope I didn't get too pricey with the beds I gave you links to. I tried to have variety lol.

My son's room is sunflower yellow (really more of a gold). He has a modern rug with large squares in different colors (mostly in the gold to rust and teal to green range) with modern white dresser and wall size book shelf/cubbies. His crib was simple and white. His current bed is modern and white also. Sheets are an abstract pattern in the same rust/greens as the rug. He currently has some Peruvian embroidered wall hangings and a large Indian elephant bedspread hung on the wall.

DS is 5-1/2. When he was little there were lots of stuffed animals in the cubbies and all his primary colored toys (wooden stackers, blocks, etc). Now there are more books and we have filled in some of the cubbies with translucent drawers for a more streamlined look. As he gets older he will likely change the wall hangings and what is on the shelves.

It never occurred to me to do a 'theme' and I think it looks great the way it is. Plus, it should work for him until college (when it goes back to being my office).

Hi i feel you with not knowing what to do and being on a tight buget. Im there too. We have a 2 year old who is into it all. but since the cars2 movie came out its all about any cars not just the movie ones. But we decided to do his room in cars. Still getting the stuff. They have lots of borders and stickers to may things and themes. buy things slowely. So far we just have stickers and borders. we were lucky and a toddler bed and kids storage shelves were giving to us. Still need to buy the bedding and curtains. look around price things out. we found that one thingis cheaper at say kmart and the other is at wallmart etc. I hope this helps good luck and have fun.

I struggle with this a lot...My son and daughter share a small room so there is not much room for decorating. But I had her first so the room was pink/brown (bedding - the walls are eggshell). On the walls we have a pink shelf with her 'stuff' (name in blocks, picture frames, etc) and pink framed pictures on the wall of her at 9 months, 2 years and 3 years old. When son came along, we went with the blue plane theme and hung a blue shelf and blue picture frames. Now that he's a bit older, we bought him a cars fleece blanket and her a Tinkerbell one...so they do not match but coordinate enough.

Whenever they get a bigger room (if we add on or move) or separate, I would like a room that they can grow in. I second the opinion about skipping a toddler bed. If you can't afford all the stuff for a twin, just get the mattress and put it on the floor for a few months and save for a bed (Wal-Mart has them fairly priced and have good reviews). However, I'm still not sure what themes or colors I will use in those rooms...

Actually I would skip the toddler bed and just get a twin bed, my son went from a crib to a twin bed and did great. Also your son might like it if you involve him in the process a little. I would avoid doing anything permanent in a theme, because they change their minds so often! Just pick a bright, fun wall color (we used "Dancing Green" from Sherwin Williams, it's perfect!) and do wall stickies or picture frames you can change.