[fredalina]

We are planning to foster a child or small sibling group of either gender, age 4-7. Do you have any suggestions for decorating the bedroom when you don't know what colors or preferences the kids will have, and you won't want to re-paint after every new child arrives?

Currently the room is beige with beige trim and a bedspread with teal, off-white, and turquoise stripes. Not very child-like.

TIA!

[KT08]

We painted our spare bedroom a soft sage green and had window treatments made that are kind of paisley, so it would work with either gender.

If we had had a girl, we probably would have gone with hot pink accents (bedspread, pictures, etc). We got a baby boy, so we went with bold red accents. That might sound like a weird combination (soft green/bold red) but it is really cute and boyish and the red is a fun accent color.

I think shades of yellow or green are always good wall colors for this sort of dilemma. I'm not a beige fan myself, but it certainly is neutral! You can always wait to change the bedspread/pictures after you get a placement.

If my placement were older (mine was a baby), I would ask the child what color he/she wanted the room and make a fun project out of the redecorating. But then again, I like that sort of thing.

[basimah]

I think the beige is a pretty good neutral to start. You can just get a few boy items and a few girly ones that you can swap out as the placements change. My room right now is very girly since it was my ex's daughters room for when they stayed over. I bought a gallon of some really light gray and to repaint the room from home depot for $5 from the oops selection. Probably the easiest way to decorate in a child friendly way and not too expensive would be to let the kid pick out their comforter set.

[Boulderbabe]

One word: WALLIES!!! Wallies are removable, repositionable stickers. You can put them up and take them down a year later, easy as pie. And they come in all sorts of characters and designs.

So when I have a little boy, out come the Spiderman Wallies. I take them down and store them on wax paper when he leaves. And when a little girl comes, voila, out come my flower Wallies to make a beautiful border. When I need new Wallies, I let the current occupant choose them.

I get Wallies at Target or Home Depot.

[marathonmom]

I painted the walls a really creamy color, it almost looks like vanilla yogurt. Then I painted the tall green Sesame Street sign over the door and the characters around the room. I used an overhead projector to help me. Also, Pottery Barn Kids has a great book shelf that hangs on the wall. The bedding and curtains are white with polkadots. I have nothing on the floor yet.

[snc2007]

Marathonmom, I want to spend the night on Sesame Street! It sounds so cute! I'm not so creative or talented though. I think I might try Boulderbabe's Wallies.

[deadcalm]

I used blue, green and white. The colors worked for the girls when thay were little babies. Now that they are toddlers, I just changed the cribs to toddler beds and kept the same colors.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...z/f82cf4d0.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...z/1edb29b2.jpg

[deadcalm]

Originally Posted by marathonmom

I painted the walls a really creamy color, it almost looks like vanilla yogurt. Then I painted the tall green Sesame Street sign over the door and the characters around the room. I used an overhead projector to help me. Also, Pottery Barn Kids has a great book shelf that hangs on the wall. The bedding and curtains are white with polkadots. I have nothing on the floor yet.

My babies would never leave your room. They LOVE Sesame Street.

PS: I must admit I am a ELMO fan too.

[shan76]

I painted three walls yellow, and an accent wall blue (a shade of blue that could be girlish, if need be.) I painted the closed dark lavender and used a lot of orange and green as accents. The quilt is dogs, and the sheets are just whimsical stripes (but I did seriously consider clouds). It works for either gender, but will not work for an older child, so I know we'll be repainting someday. In the meantime, but son loves his room. He has added all kinds of posters and sports stuff, so even though much of it was done before we knew him, the room is all him.

[Mommyofthreetobe]

Originally Posted by Boulderbabe

One word: WALLIES!!! Wallies are removable, repositionable stickers. You can put them up and take them down a year later, easy as pie. And they come in all sorts of characters and designs.

So when I have a little boy, out come the Spiderman Wallies. I take them down and store them on wax paper when he leaves. And when a little girl comes, voila, out come my flower Wallies to make a beautiful border. When I need new Wallies, I let the current occupant choose them.

I get Wallies at Target or Home Depot.

your fc don't pull them off the wall? how do they stay on?

[Boulderbabe]

Sometimes kids pull them off the wall and make new "scenes." Spiderman is a recurrent victim. Doesn't bother me--I figure they're being creative, and since the Wallies cost me a whopping five bucks, I don't care if they don't last forever.

They're great for kids who are only there for the short term, since you can customize the room with each kids favorite characters. But I like them for my son's room, too---he is IN LOVE with a character for like six months, and then wham, one day, he thinks that character is too babyish. (Poor Diego--nobody at our house loves you any more!). So I can get him the Spiderman room he wants, and in six months, if he hates Spiderman, it's no skin off my back. We just take down the Wallies and put up something else!

I also have several poster-sized frames in each of my kid rooms. I rotate all sorts of art in and out of those---sometimes things the kids paint, sometimes photo collages of kids, our family, and the bfamily, sometimes posters that I get on the cheap....whatever seems to suit the kid who is living there!

[mom2fabtwins]

I have two different rooms. One is northern sky blue (satin/semi gloss) stripe - in this room I have dalmations and firetruck bedding for boys and blue/yellow/green butterflies and flowers for girls. The other room is quite large and I have two walls plaid green and white, one wall is navy, and the other wall is sky blue top and green bottom. Car wallies for boys and flower wallies for girls. I do scrapbooking and have a cricket - I make my own wallies with vinyl.

I watch the clearance section of a couple websites for bedding. I never pay more that $100 total - quilt, sheets - two sets, window and rugs. I have cowboys and horses in the waiting

[missymissus]

I have one room that is beige and decorated with animals that would work for either gender although so far it has only been a boys room. We're only licensed for 0-3, so it doesn't matter that its pretty darn babyish.

The other room is a couple different colors of purple with butterfly and flower wallies, comforter set, and rug. Its ALL girl, but because my dh has already raised 3 boys we decided that if we have two placements we want at least one to be a girl so I went all out on a frilly girly room.

[onhazier]

The room is a darkish clay green from the floor to chair rail height. From chair rail height to the ceiling it is the faintest shade of green-gray and all trim is a shade of off white. The valances are a dark green. On the wall is a black and white picture of Mt. Washington, a line drawing of a person sleeping by Picaso, and a glass dome with butterflies. There are also two architectural stars on the wall. The furniture is a dark walnut and there is a carosel horse and a carosel cow on the bookshelf. The twin bed has a duvet and sham from IKEA which is striped in blues and greens with cute circus animals marching across. We bought a the stuffed blue giraffe that matches. There's also a giant, floppy stuffed Tigger next to the bed.

[jbee]

i got wallie like things at the dollar tree, they have a large selection. they may not be as big of stickers but they are soooo cheap and if they rip them down it is ok. for a buck you can't go wrong!