Did You Decorate Your Toddler's Bedroom?

With a few additions for growing interests, the general decor pretty much can stand (as a foundation) until puberty starts to set in (aka between 9-11). Then it's the transition years. Also, in my experience you can never have too mucj room for books. :)

We moved our son into his "big boy" room when he was about 2.5 (he'd been in the nursery until then).

We picked most of the stuff, but we're continually changing things out (wall decorations, etc) based upon his changing desires. It's been pretty consistent for a while. The good thing is, at that age, unless you go with a movie character theme, I think you have a lot of flexibility without spending a lot of money.

He has a shelf full of books in his room (it's actually a cubby system that also has baskets to put toys into).
We also put his library books on the shelf on his nightstand so we can keep them separate and tidy. He's really good about keeping thing in order.

The only thing we WILL NOT put in his room is a TV. He's a smart little devil and would have it on all the time. My husband's an avid reader, so I'd rather his room be void of too many distractions other than those that spark his creativity.

We let our kids decorate their own walls. For example, we have a cat calendar from 2009. Now that it's done, we cut it all apart and let our kids tape the cat pictures up all over the walls. We also have a map of the United States (my 3 year old likes it) and a couple of Smokey the Bear posters that have pictures of different forest animals and flowers. It may not be cute, but the kids really "own" their room, and that's how a kid's room should be, IMHO. We do have a bookshelf - just one of the 4-shelf ones from World Market that sort of folds down - that holds a bunch of books. I dunno, I'm probably not the right person to answer this - we have a boy and girl (both under age 4) who share a room, mismatched furniture from craigslist, and cut up calendars on our wall. But everyone is happy.

I don't know about kids these days, because mine aren't old enough yet, but my parents let me redecorate my room when I was in 4th or 5th grade, and then again in high school, and I was perfectly content with that. I also still have the bookshelf my folks bought me when I was a baby. I say, have fun while you can!!!

I painted my daughters room when we moved to this house, when she was just under two. I did it in such a way that it could be kept as long as she wanted it (not babyish). Still, she's about to turn 5 and she has decided that she would like to paint the walls a different color. The long and short is I told her that we were keeping the bedding, so she had to pick a color that matches that, but otherwise she can pick what she likes. Your daughter probably won't even pay attention to the pattern in her room until she's around 5, and even then you could stall her until she's 6 before you redo it : )

What you have described sounds very pretty, and not too babyish at all. I think it would easily work until she is 5 or 6 (or even older). We have boys, and we did light yellow walls and blue denim comforters in their rooms. My oldest didn't change his room until he was 9, and my youngest is almost six and is still happy with the yellow/denim.

As for books, we have bookcases in the boys rooms. I am an AP Language (11th grade English) teacher, so we have tons of books everywhere and we are all bigtime readers. I'm so happy that my family reads! :-) I agree with Dana W., and we won't put TVs in our boys rooms. I know many people will disagree, and it really is an individual choice, but it has worked well for us. Back to your question about books though, my boys love having lots of books to choose from in their rooms and in the living room, so we have bookcases both places.

Have fun decorating!

My mother in law made my daughter (27 months) a pastel colored quilt for her toddler bed. It's so beautiful and was easy to match to any girl colored things. Hobby Lobby has some really cute little girl stuff and you can almost always get it half off. I have mostly pink/green/purple in her room, accesorized with flower and butterfly items. She has (just for a good example), pastel green walls, a white toddler bed, a white bookcase ($15 find at Big Lots), a pastel and white toy bin organizer, a tinkerbell purple and green wooden table and chairs, and a white and pink toybox along with a pastel striped rug in the center. If she wants to change her stuff at any given point, then it'll be easy to change a few things since the main colors are pastels.
My oldest who's 9, just changed her room (for the upteenth time) to more teenagery colors like hot pink and lime green, but we had her in the same stuff until she was about 6 at first.

I don't know how expensive the bookshelf is (or if it's in your budget), but I think a bookshelf for books is an excellent idea! My daughter has a large shelving unit in her bedroom and one shelf is filled with her books. Having books available -- to pick from at any time -- gives her a feeling of "ownership," which may help her continue her love of books! It has also helped my daughter learn how to put away her books and other toys at the end of the (a nice skill to learn!!) and it gives her easy access to books during her "quiet time" while her brother naps.

The room decor you described sounds lovely!

I too had a beautiful baby set but it only lasted about 2 years as my baby no longer wanted to sleep in her crib. So, we moved her to a twin, instead of a toddler bed. My cousin told us that having a twin/ full bed is the best way to go because it allows room for when Mommie wants to lay down next to baby to snuggle and she was absolutely right. That being said, we did manage to sell our bedding and crib for a great price which we then put towards a new bedroom set.

As for a bookshelf. You can never go wrong or have enough book shelves. One that holds only 30 is not really all that effecient though. You might consider something bigger.

Hope this helps.
N.

Our son is 3 1/2 and still has the same theme from when he was born. The only thing that has changed is we converted his crib to a toddler bed and bought him a toddler bedding set for $40 that matches his sports theme. We will be switching to a twin bed soon and I'm sure I can find bedding to match the sports. If when you get to the bigger bed stage there isn't an exact match for the theme you can use solids so you can keep the decor. Once he's ready for a change, we to like someone else responded, will sell the entire ensemble of bedding, lighting, wall decorations, to someone else to enjoy.

I would get a bookcase big enough to last a long time. You can use it for more than just books, you can get bins and put toys in them too.

We did a themed room for my daughter when she was a toddler. It lasted until she went to school. then she decided her room was for babies and we gave all that stuff to her younger cousin and started over. I have learned at school age I don't think they even know exactly what they want. Since she started school I painted her room light purple which pretty much goes with most bedding themes and have put in curtains that will go with almost any theme. Now when she decides she doesn't like her room we just change comforters a poof we have a new theme. It think a child's room should be the one space that is completely theirs where they are comfortable and happy. Kind of a safe haven if you will. A place they can go and calm down or just relax and play. As far a the book shelf I think that is more child specific my daughter has always had a book shelf in her room with no problems. However I have a little boy that just turned two and he eats his books so in his case all his books stay in the playroom. P.S. my daughter is not materialistic it is usually me that indulges her comments of I want Princess bedding or Hannah Montana. She does not expect me to go running a buy these things and doesn't complain when I don't.

We redecorated my daughter's room when she was about 2 or 2 1/2. (She's 3 now.) She could have kept her crib bedding and decorations until she was at least in grade school if we wanted her to though. :) We're reusing it for her little sister who'll be arriving soon. Our older daughter LOVES decorating so we hung some cute wire things with clothes pins behind her door, so she can redecorate that wall with her pictures whenever she wants. :)