When decorating a child’s room, there are many decisions that have to be made. From choosing the perfect theme to choosing the perfect paint color, the decisions often seem endless.  Lighting your child’s space will be among the most important decisions that you will make.  Use the 12 lighting tips for kids rooms listed below to ensure that your child’s space has proper lighting.

• Start with overhead lighting. Overhead lighting is the main lighting that will brighten the space. It is the fixture in the room that will likely give off the most light and be used the most.  Popular overhead lighting that are often chosen for kid’s room is ceiling fans with light fixtures included. While this certainly isn’t your only choice, it can help reduce your cooling and heating bill and comes in various designs.
• Fixtures that match the theme.  The options as far as lighting fixtures are endless. Regardless of what theme you have chosen there is likely one to fit your theme.  However, it is recommended that you choose timeless, classic fixtures that will grow with your child. Otherwise you may find yourself changing out the fixtures in the near future.
• Task lighting is a must.  If you child will be reading, doing homework, or any other task that requires light, it can be beneficial to add in task lighting to the space. Perhaps lighting placed directly over the desk will help your child during the times when he is busy working at his desk.
• Built in night lights.  Young children often request night lights to help them see during the night.  Consider building the night lights directly into the room by placing lights in places such as behind mirrors.
• Natural lighting.  When deciding upon the perfect lighting for your child’s room, consider the natural light that he or she will have during the day.  If very little sunlight is let into the room during the day, you may need to add more lighting.
• Focus on energy efficiency. Choose fixtures and bulbs that will save you money over time. Children often spend a lot of time in their rooms.
• Colored lighting can add fun. For a burst of fun, choose to add in some color with colored light bulbs. This can give the room a glow that your child and his friends are sure to enjoy.
• Fun lamp shades! If adding in color through light bulbs isn’t really your style, choose fun lamp shades.  Lamp shapes are available in many different colors.  If you need more light, you may need lighter shades.  Consider choosing a lamp shade that matches the current décor in the space.
• Design your own lamp shades. Take a classic lamp shade and turn it into something fabulous by adding beads, fringe or some other decoration. The lighting added to the room can actually be fun and fit perfectly into the décor.  You may even choose to allow your child to help you decorate a lamp for his space.
• Versatile lighting. Consider lighting that can be used in many ways. A bedside table lamp can be used as task lighting and to add in additional lighting into the space.
• Dimmers can be helpful in some spaces. In nurseries, dimmers can be helpful during those times when mom needs to come check on the baby. Consider adding dimmers to every light switch in your home.
• Wall sconces can shed light on art work in kid’s rooms.  Sconces are just for your living room and hall way! Consider adding sconces to the wall in your child’s room. Perhaps you want to display artwork or pictures from when your child was an infant.  Wall sconces can add a dramatic touch to the space and also help light the area.

Listed above are 12 lighting tips that will help you to set the perfect mood in your child’s room.  Allow lighting to transform the room by choosing fixtures that match the theme of the space.  From trendy lamp shades to wall sconces, the lighting options are endless.  How will you choose to shed light on your child’s space?

Sarah Manning writes for http://www.1001floorlamps.com/ on online store to find floor lamp for every style of room and home décor.

Photo by hownowdesign

Bringing home a new baby is an exciting time in the lives of the parents. While it is an exhilarating time, parents need to prepare for the baby by providing a space of his or her own and decorating the nursery. Fortunately, decorating a nursery is not as hard as it might seem.

Theme or Colour

Before starting the decorating process, parents should determine the theme or colour scheme. Themes might include favourite books, stories, fairy tales, movies, sports or even dolls and toys.

For those who are not sure about an appropriate theme or do not want to work on theme decorations, opting for a colour scheme is another option. Colour schemes select one or two base colours and plan the decoration around these colours.

Once the theme or colour is selected, it is then possible to start determining how to decorate the room. That includes paint, furniture and toy placement.

The Walls

The walls are an important part of the decoration and parents should focus on getting the walls painted, wall-papered or covered with murals or pictures and posters before working on any other part of the room.

Depending on the type of theme, the walls will vary. For most decorating ideas, painting a layer in a base colour like white, cream or a light version of the selected colour scheme is a good place to start. Murals or pictures can go on top of the base paint. It is not necessary to paint the wall if they are being wall-papered instead.

Windows

The window treatments of the nursery are just as important as the rest of the decorations. Patterned Roman blinds are always a good choice for the room. It brings texture to the room, particularly for plain painted walls, and it can bring in some colour as well. Patterned Roman blinds are available in a wide range of colours and looks to suit any preferred theme.

Parents should take care to pay attention to where strings are located, regardless of whether it is a curtain or blinds kept on the windows. The strings can become a choke hazard if kept too close to the baby’s crib.

Furniture

The furniture will vary depending on the colour or theme, but usually should include a minimum of a crib and a set of drawers to keep the baby’s clothes. Many baby cribs are available in bedroom sets, which make the selection process  easier. For those who are opting for something custom made or who want a mix and match style, getting a few pieces of furniture is often a part of the decorating process.

Parents should obtain a safe crib at the least. For many rooms, a rocking chair or a comfortable seat for the parent is also important because babies will wake up at odd times and parents should expect to want a comfortable place to sit while caring for the child.

Decorating the child’s nursery is about planning what works best for the parents. Ideally, the room should feel comfortable to the parents because a room that feels uncomfortable will lead to discomfort on the child’s part as well.

This post was written by Michael Turner, an enthusiast in home improvement, technology and design 

If you are just about to have a new addition to your family, you need to prepare a room that will suit your new child’s needs. One thing that is very important is what material will be covering the floor of the room.

A child spends considerably more time making close contact with the floor as they go about the development cycle of increased mobility. Their hands will be used to help them get from one end of the room to the other and they will crawl around in an effort to discover every nook and cranny within their territory. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to cover the child’s room with something that is both comfortable to move about on and does not contain any known toxins.

American studies have indicated that indoor pollution can reach levels that are two to five times greater than anything found

If you are just about to have a new addition to your family, you need to prepare a room that will suit your new child’s needs. One thing that is very important is what material will be covering the floor of the room.

A child spends considerably more time making close contact with the floor as they go about the development cycle of increased mobility. Their hands will be used to help them get from one end of the room to the other and they will crawl around in an effort to discover every nook and cranny within their territory. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to cover the child’s room with something that is both comfortable to move about on and does not contain any known toxins.

American studies have indicated that indoor pollution can reach levels that are two to five times greater than anything found outdoors. A large number of these pollutants saturate the air when new carpets or floors are installed which include the products benzene and formaldehyde, which are known carcinogens and can take many years to completely break down. Other sources of toxins are brought in from outside and can become trapped in a carpet’s fibers which often lead to allergic reactions.

If you have decided that it is more comfortable for your child’s room to have carpets laid then there is a choice of green environmentally non-toxic carpets available on the market. You could select one that has been sealed so that gases from the carpet’s fibers are unable to escape into the surrounding air. Even with regular cleaning these green carpets will not let off any toxic vapours.

Carpets manufactured from natural fibers with hardly any chemical treatment are also available widely and are quite competitively priced. These are often made from sea grass, different sorts of jute or natural sisal and have a low toxicity. Woollen carpets, which have been made from natural or vegetable-dyed yarn with only the smallest amount of natural rubber glue, used to help to bond the yarn. It would not be very environmentally friendly to purchase carpets containing nylon as this is derived from petroleum products and could be quite toxic to your child’s health.

If your home is well insulated or the climate is quite balanced year round then there are some good eco-friendly choices when it comes to finding a lining or covering for your child’s floor. ard

Hardwood flooring is quite popular and much of it these days is certified to have come from a sustainable forest resource, which is being regenerated. However, for a child’s comfort level especially when a child is young and might trip or fall over when learning to walk it is a good idea to at least add a few environmentally friendly natural fiber mats to cushion the blow from the tumble.

Cork is a softwood, which is a good alternative to a hardwood and has a certain amount of natural elasticity, which increases its comfort level. This as a flooring material is particularly durable and recovers well if children’s toys are constantly dragged, bounced and scraped across its surface. The cork material is produced from the bark of the cork oak tree, which only takes three years to regenerate.

Bamboo is becoming increasingly common as a green flooring choice and is surprisingly durable, especially as it is not a tree but a type of sturdy grass. It lasts a long period of time and holds out well compared to more customarily used hardwood floors. The flooring material naturally resists the effects of water, insects and mould, and its abundance and speedy growth cycle makes it an excellent green option for a child’s bedroom. There are no toxins to worry about either.

When the time has come to make a decision about the type of flooring or floor covering then seeking out the non-toxic environment friendly way will help to protect your child’s health in years to come.

Author Brad Snipes recommends http://www.niceledlights.com if you are interested in led lights for your home improvement.

Decorating any child’s room tastefully is a bit of a challenge. Before you know it you are up to your waist in TV characters and clichéd colour schemes. Not that clichés or TV characters are necessarily bad, but they do provide increased opportunities for tasteless decorating.

Walls, floors and ceilings are normally your first point of attack. Paint schemes, indestructible carpet and interesting finishing elements are normally high on your list of priorities (primarily because there are so many options available), but what about the door?

Most of our home’s doors are not even considered as an opportunity to put a design spin on a room. Unfortunately most children’s doors are typically subject to an extensive number of low quality small stickers or other adhesive eyesores before you can even make a plan. Due of the fact that children’s doors provide such a missed opportunity and can go so horribly wrong we have put together a list of some tasteful and extremely interesting stickers that will hopefully open your eyes to the options available.

1. Welcome to the zoo

We all know how much young children like going to the zoo and seeing all the exotic animals held within. This wall sticker provides a tasteful entry to any animal mad child’s room. Available (along with a lot other stickers) from the Cool Wall art site.

2. Guitar hero!

Older children and teenagers typically get into music at some point. If their passion leans towards guitar based bands or singers why not consider this full size door sticker. It suggests that there is not only an expensive guitar within reach but that the door leads not to their parent’s hallway but a much cooler place…

3. The birds

These bird stickers come as a flock and can subsequently be positioned across whichever space you like. As such these birds can wrap around a kids room (or living room) and can be added to doors and window frames, creating a sense of movement and catch the eye. Bird lovers, youngsters and older style conscious children cannot help but be mesmerised by whatever bird layout you decide upon.

4. Underwater scenes

What child at some point doesn’t dream of having being the ruler of an underwater kingdom? Whether they dream of exploring hidden wrecks or are more concerned with finding Nemo; having a life-size underwater scene on their door will never get boring. Even if your design scheme is nautical and not underwater based; these scenes still looks amazing.

5. A hidden castle

Bring the past to life with a mysterious passageway from the cellar of a medieval castle with beckoning light at the top. What a way to transform the entrance to a child’s room than by turning it into a castle!

Whether you put this sticker on the outside or inside of the door; whoever looks at it will not be able to stop their imagination from racing. Whether it is the only entrance to a hidden land or just a quick way into Hogwarts, kids and adults will have hours of fun discussing what is up the winding staircase.

The above cool door stickers were suggested by Yale composite doors. Yale Door are proud of their front door designs; from contemporary to Victorian front doors there is a style for you. All new doors are U-value compliant and will help lower your family’s carbon footprint.

Alarm clocks can help foster independence in children, so it is important to choose one that appeals to them.

OK to Wake Owl

The OK to Wake! Owl with night-light, music and nap timer is wonderful addition to the rambunctious toddler’s bedroom. Little one’s love to cuddle with this cute plush owl, and parents enjoy the extra alone time that it provides. The owl’s face illuminates to a soft green in the morning notifying the child that it is okay to get out of bed. At night the owl’s face glows a soft yellow, enabling it to double as a night-light. It also plays five soft lullabies and two groovy wake-up songs. The alarm clock features a nap time timer that will not interfere with the morning timer and the plush part of the clock is machine washable. The owl speaks five unique phrases that indicate how close it is to wake up time whenever his tummy is pushed. Pressing the button on the tummy will also reactivate the night light and lullabies.

LEGO alarm clock

The LEGO alarm clock is a favorite of all ages. This big block clock is 10 times the size of the classic toy and is available in the standard LEGO colors of red, yellow, green and blue. The two top knobs function as a volume control and an AM/FM tuner with snooze.

Hello Kitty

Girls of all ages will adore the Hello Kitty AM/FM projection alarm clock radio with backup battery. This Hello Kitty shaped clock features an adjustable projection that displays the time as well as a Hello Kitty’s face on the wall or ceiling. The clock also has an LED time display inside of a heart held by Hello Kitty. The radio has an automatic shutoff feature that enables girls to fall asleep listening to their favorite station and they can wake up to either tunes or buzzer.

Hot Wheels

Boys can wake up to the sound of screeching tires and honking horns with the Hot Wheels Screeching Projection alarm clock. The alarm can be set to a favorite radio station as well. The stations and volume of this clock radio are adjusted by turning the wheels of the car. The clock also includes an adjustable time projection arm and an engine-shaped snooze button.

The Sonic Boom

The Sonic Boom alarm clocks are perfect for heavy sleeping teens and college students. The extremely loud alarm on this clock is accompanied by flashing lights and a powerful 12-volt bed shaker that is impossible to sleep through. The Sonic Boom is available in a bright pink heart shape for girls and a sleek black design for boys.

Written by James a father of two and a writer from the UK.

This is a Guest Post provided by Leslie A. She is a home improvement fanatic who writes online to help people get car insurance quotes online. She also deals directly with a number of insurance providers. When not dreaming up new design ideas for her home, she does her best to keep up with her 4 children.

Parents want to provide the very best for their children. Providing for your children means making their childhood the best it can be. A room makeover can be the perfect, inexpensive gift to your child.

Bring new life to your child’s room while still saving money with these 6 tips:

1. Pillows and Pictures

If you are at a loss for decorating ideas go to your favorite, local retailer or website and pick out a couple objects with color and detail.

Choosing a multi-colored object is better than a single paint swatch. You should be able to come up with several creative ideas based on the color, scheme and shape of the object you choose.

2. Crafts and Handmade Items

Take a trip to the craft store and you will find endless ideas for your child’s room. Whether you have a baby or an older child, using crafts as decoration can give the room a personal touch and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.

Most craft stores sell small sew and stuff kits with dolls, animals and flowers. These kits are easy to use even if you can’t sew a button.

Build a mobile for your child using these sewn crafts, ribbon or string, and a colorful coat hanger. Buy larger sew and stuff kits to make pillows for your child’s bed or mount your crafts on poster board to frame.

3. Furniture Rearranging

Sometimes a simple rearrangement of furniture is enough to bring life back in to a room. Start by organizing cabinets, dressers and closets.

Make your child’s bed the centerpiece of the room, not on the same wall as the door, but visible from the doorway. Add a variety of lighting. This is easy with different colored light bulbs and lamps.

Use pink or peach light bulbs for warm lighting in the evening. Take out the television and computer to make it a quieter space. Clean out the clutter by giving some of your child’s unused toys and clothing to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Simply rearranging your child’s room will make it feel like a new space, especially to them.

4. Focal Point Art

Create a focal point in the room. The best way to do this economically is by buying a large canvas or a poster board that can be framed later.

You don’t have to be an artist to create this art. Simply draw a large circle or other shape and paint it several different colors, or make an abstract piece with your child’s help using glitter, matte or glossy craft paint.

Hang it above your child’s bed to create a headboard, put it above and behind an existing headboard, or add it to another large wall in the room. Be sure to match the art with the comforter, wall color, and other art in the room to avoid a confusing, busy theme.

5. Colorful Decals

Decals come in so much more than princess and trains now. You can buy full length flowers, butterflies, trees, animals, poems, and even headboard decals.

These are safe for most types of interior wall paint, so they will not ruin paint in any way. Put flowers blooming out of your daughter’s baseboards, trees overhanging the dresser, and sweet sayings over her bed.

For boys, create a transportation theme with cars, planes, and trains, or a sports theme with his favorite players and sports emblems.

6. New Bedding

Perhaps one of the more simple ideas for bringing life back in your child’s room is new bedding.

It is fairly inexpensive and it can create an entirely new theme. Take the room from babyish teddy bears to Legos, race cars, or anything else your child loves.

Throw pillows also make nice additions to a child’s bed and can replace the teddy bears if your child is feeling too old for them.

Bringing life back in to your child’s room is easy and inexpensive. Start out with a color in mind and go from there.

Even if you don’t feel like you are very creative or artsy, a room makeover doesn’t have to be a big chore. Simply looking at your surroundings can provide you with infinite ideas for a brand new room.

When you’re expecting a baby, among the million and one things you have to bear in mind is preparing a bedroom for them. Not only do you need to think about pretty patterns and colour schemes for the walls, but you also have to consider safety. As well as the obvious safety concerns, like visible items the child can hurt themselves on, it’s also important to take temperature and light into consideration. An affordable and practical solution which allows you to control all of these concerns is a set of roller blinds.

Safety is paramount with these window treatments. Everyone knows what sort of innocent mischief children can get up to as they explore their new surroundings, and any loose ties or draperies can cause a potential threat to their wellbeing. Blinds can be measured to fit any window, meaning they won’t hang low enough for a child to play with. The majority of modern blinds also come equipped with cordless control mechanisms, which significantly reduce the risk of harm to your little ones.

On the topic of operational systems, there are a wide variety available for roller blinds. Perhaps the most impressive and convenient for parents would be the motorised unit, which can be controlled from a wall-mounted switch or a hand-held device. Some are even able to be set up on timers, meaning that the monotonous job of routinely adjusting the blinds a couple of times a day can become a thing of the past.

Blinds also offer a great amount of control for parents when it comes to ensuring the bedroom is kept as light or dark as necessary. This enables the baby to develop a healthy sleeping pattern, ensuring that even during the light summer months; a baby can have an early night. Parents are also able to use roller blinds to control the temperature of their baby’s room. They provide enough insulation to block out intense sun and chilly draughts ensuring that your child’s comfort level is as high as possible.

Whilst safety is obviously the key issue, it’s always nice to have window treatments that look good too. Fortunately, roller blinds can be customised to suit almost any room you put them in. As a baby grows up and experiences changes, their room is likely to undergo a similar transformation. They are available in a wide range of colours and styles, so as the child ages and develops, their décor can reflect this. Patterned roller blinds are available to purchase with co-ordinating accessories and valances, which means you will always have matching colour schemes and patterns in the room.

One final benefit of roller blinds is the cost. Families bringing a new born baby home can often find themselves struggling financially. With roller blinds offering such a wide range of options and control over so many elements, you really won’t find a more cost-effective solution.

Jack Oldham is a recent BA (Hons) journalism graduate who regularly blogs about a variety of subjects including shutters, roller blinds and personalised clothing.

Image via Wikipedia

Kids’ bedrooms should be nice, fun places for them to spend time, but it’s not always easy to make this reality when on a tight budget. This guide offers a few suggestions of cheap but attractive decorations that can be used in a child’s bedroom.

The first, and perhaps my favourite, is a hand painted mural. A mural is a piece of art, usually depicting some sort of vista, applied directly to a wall or ceiling. It is by its nature flexible in terms of size, content, and theme, and it can be a great way of developing or nurturing your child’s artistic flair by getting them involved in painting it. Tailoring the mural to suit your child’s current interests (whether they be aquatic life, space, forest animals, the farm, etc) is easy and will go down a treat; I remember having a mural depicting a scene from the current craze when I was 8 years old and loving it!

Staying on the wall decoration theme, photo-collages are another good idea for decorating a child’s bedroom. With the advent of digital photography, the price of printing old-fashioned tangible photos seems to be continually decreasing, but the sentimental appeal will always remain. A friend’s toddler son has a giant photo collage of family and friends on the wall in his bedroom which he both enjoys, and uses as an aid in learning to speak (mum: “who’s this?”, son: “uncle!”, mum: “where is he?”, son “in the woods”, and so on).

On a slightly different note, accessorising current fittings in the bedroom is another great way of subtly changing the feel off the room. Accessories available include (but are not limited to) curtain poles, door handles and lampshades, but with a plethora of styles, colours and finishes  available for almost every piece of furniture and accessory in the house these days, there’s no reason this shouldn’t be extended to your child’s room also. Giving your child a say in the decision making regarding the type of accessory they want in their room will give them a feeling of involvement and will most likely enhance their enjoyment of the space.

The final suggestion, and perhaps the one most open to interpretation, is to add some wall or ceiling hangings to your child’s room. A few ideas could include fabrics hung from the ceiling, which give the room a cosier feel and, if hung below lights, can change the lighting (and mood) of a room. Just ensure the fabric is far enough from the light as not to be a fire hazard! A favourite decoration of my mother’s was glow in the dark stars, suns, and moons, which could be stuck on my wall to form constellations that glowed gently when the lights went out. Slightly different, wind chimes can be used to provide gentle melodious sounds when a breeze passes through the room. As I said previously, this suggestion is heavily open to interpretation, so whatever you and your child enjoy can be used.

The most important thing to consider, though, when decorating your child’s room, is that they won’t be a child forever and their tastes will no doubt change as they grow older. This in mind, flexibility and collaboration are important!

Chris Lee writes guest posts on a variety of topics. This one, on behalf of Poles Direct, was particularly enjoyable.

Let’s face it: Decorating a child’s room is a lot of fun. When you are decorating a regular room so much emphasis is put on fashion and style; so much so that you often substitute comfort. That’s typically not the case with a child’s room. Yes you want it to look nice on the off chance one of your friends might poke their head in; but ultimately the room should excite your child and make them feel at home.

Luckily there is a whole industry geared around decorating for children. From paints to cabinet makers, there really isn’t an idea you might have that a product hasn’t already been developed for. Those of you who have been through the child’s room decoration programme before will know how easy it is to find wallpaper, bedding, fittings and fixtures.

However the stumbling block in most cases is the door. It’s always left plain, nobody knows what to do with it, maybe put a name or coat hanger on it? Which is why; we have gone out of our way to provide you with a list of interesting and fun ways to decorate your little ones door. Some of these ideas are so good you may find yourself applying them throughout the house.

1. Door Wallpaper

I know the name is contradictory but these interesting designs are printed on opaque white fabric and can be applied with wallpaper paste or a less permanent adhesive (if renting). Some of the designs such as the castle and bookcase would be pretty perfect for any Harry Potter or fantasy lover.

2. Paint

We know how it goes. After finishing the whole room the last thing you want to do is pull the paintbrush out and decorate the door. But painting the inside of the door can really transform a room. More often than not you will have some left over paint laying around, it doesn’t have to be a scene from a cartoon or their favourite character – often simple colour combinations will look great. It is very cost efficient too!

3. Stickers

Door stickers don’t have to be the eyesore which we all know they can be. We know; when you think of stickers you think of tens of free playing card variations applied randomly over every flat surface available. This is often unavoidable, but there are alternatives. Full size door stickers can be very tasteful and often really tie in the interior theme you were going for.

4. Stencils

If picking up a brush and painting Shrek freehand doesn’t come easy for you, do not fear. For you and I there are some brilliant stencils available which will ensure professional looking designs, every time. There really is no end to the stencils available and if you are feeling creative enough you could always make your own out of some think card and your favourite designs.

5. Glow in the Dark Stickers / Transfers

What kid’s room is complete without something that glows in the dark? I know we already mentioned stickers but the glow in the dark variety area completely different beast. Hardly visible during daylight hours these stickers really can transform a door or entire room at night and also make bedtime that little bit more interesting.

These interesting children’s door decoration tips were brought to you by Yale composite doors UK. Yale composite doors come in seven interesting styles; from Victorian to contemporary front doors Yale has a design for you.