[Nicole Elaine]

Well, we're ALMOST done with the licensing process. It seems like the homestudies take longer than all of the training put together, but I guess it makes sense.

I want to decorate the child's room (we think we are only going to take one child at a time) but don't want to make it too masculine or feminine. We have a white bed and a white dresser so far. The walls/ceiling, closet door, and entry door to the room are all white, and the carpet is a light off-white/tan. I know an all white room would be very boring to most kids, but I want the room to be somewhat appealing and comforting when our foster child first arrives.

What colors or ideas do you have to make the room appealing without making the room too bold, too boyish, or too girlish? I want to avoid colors like red. Red just seems too bold and personally makes me anxious/sick to my stomach if there's too much of it.

We're taking ages infant-10. Are pastels too "childish" for the older kids? Say ages 9 or 10? We were told most kids will be school age since we're doing therapeutic care.

Any ideas? Thanks!

-Nicole

[DianeScraps]

OH I remember that time it was TOUGH!

I stuck with very neutral walls/furniture and found a very cute denim and flower spread at Value City (like $15) course we were only taking girls.

Perhaps to make it more gender neutral look at some of the fun denim sets with stripes and such - consider purchasing one accesorry that screams boy and one that screams girl but both match the comforter/room so you can just toss that accessory out and make it feel a little bit more like this really is a space for a girl or a space for a boy.

Maybe something else that is neutral -but fun - like Disney? that white,black w/ touches of red Mickey stuff can be cool

[stevenstwin]

Those are great ideas- I especially like the denim, and any kind of blue can work for both genders. It sounds like fun, anyway - my poor 15 year old foster son is stuck in a bright yellow room with white trim! It was designed as a guest room, and was pretty appalling when we got him - very, very feminine. We took OUT my "smooshed" dresser with the cute handles and put in one my husband had built for his own room as a teen (LOL - but he needed more dresser space, so he has the fancy one again), and put on a "rugby striped" comforter to replace the floral monstrosity :-)

[frida_94601]

Hello, I would go with a pale yellow, it seems that you already have the furniture set, I think that that particular color is very neutral and you can add depending on child, florals go for a girl, and for a boy you can always decorate with planes, cars, wel you get it!!! good luck. What also works to add some more personal tuches are to change the hardware on the dressers, you can also change the curtains to sheers that now come in a variety of shades and textures, some have ribbons and sequence, and decals, same for boys!!! I can wait to start on the girls room, I made the mistake of thinking that my child liked pink, she hated it!!! So I decided to include her in the decoration of her new bedroom, we have decided to do a cloud room/with a morrocan twist?

[Lenorah]

We used the blue jean teddy blear set. Its had a blue jean boy set and a pink set for a girl. We mixed and matched and planned to go to build a bear for each child we had come thru our home. Today we will be getting a girl for adoption, so we plan to bring her to pick out whatever she wants.

[GeorgiaMom]

How exciting! It sounds like you have a blank slate that you could take any direction. I 2nd the idea of having something uber boyish or uber girly to change out accordingly.

I would go w/ a pale blue on the walls if you want to paint the walls a color. Blue is a soothing color and can go for either gender. There are also many blue bedroom sets for girls if you ever need/want to make it a girly room.

Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety.*

I don't think I would use it for the walls in a child's bedroom, especially an uneasy or aggressive foster child.

*http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_design_c...775364,00.html

[Nicole Elaine]

Thank you for all the great ideas! I love the "meanings of colors" pages, GeorgiaMom, those really helped

Thanks again to everyone!