My daughter and son share a bedroom, which creates a decorating delimma. It’s hard to be gender neutral!
I shared the hexagon wall I made in their room a while back. It didn’t stay up. I was so tired of re-taping hexagons that I pulled the whole thing down.
Today I wanted to show you one little corner of their room…
This is all I’ve got so far, but I think it is a good mix of masculine and feminine.
I rounded up a bunch of old frames and painted them in red, aqua, yellow, and navy. That middle frame really is navy, even if it looks black in the photo. Then I filled the frames with a mix of artwork, an old poster, scrapbook paper, word art and a favorite photo.
Have you decorated a gender-neutral kids room before? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Comments & Reviews
Alice Manville says
I have this dilemma looming ahead of me. I think I will be going with less neutral, and more splitting the room based on space and likes. For example, at the dollar tree I found removable wall stickers. To encourage my 2 year old daughter to sleep in her toddler bed, I put pastel butterfly stickers next to her bed. She loves them! It worked too….she loves her toddler bed! Next to my 5 year old son's bed, I let him stick dinosaur stickers. He is currently on the bottom bunk, but when he needs to move to the top so she can move to the bottom bunk, I plan to buy new stickers for them each to put next to their beds. The butterflies have been slowly getting peeled off by my daughter, and they haven't left any residue on the wall or taken off any paint yet. I have very personalize blankets for each of them based on their interests, but I'd like to try to make comforters or duvets that are either the same material or coordinating materials, but different colors based on gender. I am trying to go with a nautical theme in their room, so I'm working to make some nautical things feminine…like pink anchors with blue lighthouses…it's a work in progress.
Jennifer {The Craft Patch} says
It sounds really cute, Alice! That is a really great way to handle the problem. I made my kids the same comforters and I think I'll take a page from your book and do coordinating pillowcases in different colors.
Alice Manville says
Thank you! Feel free to do any or all of it! Renting can present such challenging decorating problems! I look forward to seeing what other solutions you come up with! It looks like the room is split down the middle. You could Frame pictures in colors that match their different pillow cover colors, or do accents on each side of the room in those colors.
Did the hexagons fall off the wall because the tape was poor? Or because the kids bumped against them? If you could find a good enough sticky solution, maybe you could still use them like a ceiling border?
Jennifer {The Craft Patch} says
I wish the room was still divided down the middle, because I LOVE your idea. It would be so cute to have the colors split. I can totally envision it. But… we got new furniture for the room and had to do bunk beds, so everything was rearranged.
The hexagons didn't stick well and the kids kept ripping them, so they are long gone. I did save a few and I'm going to make name banners to hang above each of their beds. It's too bad, because I really did like the hexagon wall.
Alice Manville says
Jennifer, I have been really mulling this over. I think because it got me thinking about how I will decorate my own kids room, which I have some very clear ideas for now! Well, that and I'm pregnant, so it gives me something to think about, a challenge.
I follow you on pintrest & I love the wall with rainbow stripes that you pinned! But I don't see how you could pull that off without paint…unless you could get the failed fabric trick to work. So I found some other ideas to bounce off of you. One I liked a lot was to hang painted crates on the wall with decorative paper inside them. Very colorful and you could is some of the same colors on the frames pictured above. The down side? If you don't have space for those deep crates, this won't work for you.
One of the things that I decided I will do in my kids room is to use the baby quilt I got for my 1st born as a wall hanging and build off of it. It has shades of blue in it, so I will accent with those shades of blue, adding in a few more like periwinkle and sea green and some Pink here and there for Evie. Yes, VERY boy girl typical colors, but I love blue and she loves pink…he loves green, so thankfully a mirror I got has the shades of blue and works in the green. The focal piece doesn't have to be a baby quilt, it could be a tapestry or a chalkboard with a decorative boarder, or a curtain or shower curtain or simply fabric stretched over canvas, or a cool clock or a shelf with a favorite childhood toy from each child….I could go on. Some of my ideas come from pins on my decor pintrest board. Feel free to look me/them up. I couldn't figure out how to send them to you. I hope you don't mind my going on like this. I feel like I am having trouble getting my thoughts across.
The chalkboard idea seemed promising. You could easily make one, and you could have fun with the frame.
The name banners you are making could be your focal point too & you could work off of the colors, designs within them.
You could also get cardboard letters and cover them with string or yarn or fabric to add texture and or color to the room.
You could hang those paper lanterns in the color scheme you choose.
Use lampshades to accent colors.
Or simply go black & white or grey & White with accent colors of the kids choosing on their things. Or if your son opposes the color your daughter would pick, you could go with accent colors of your choosing. The possibilities are endless, but hinge on space, budget and personal taste.
Oh, if you have a very open wall, you could find an old window, put a picture or poster (of the ocean or fall foliage or mountains) behind it & then hang a curtain rod above it with curtains in colors you want, giving the illusion of another window, possibly opening up the room….or you could put up a big mirror.
I'll stop now…that's a lot for you to digest.
Jennifer {The Craft Patch} says
Alice, you are the best! All these fantastic ideas have gotten me so excited to get to work! I might just have to run to Joann's today while the inspiration is flowing.
I think your colors sound perfect, even if they are "typical." It sounds like you've got some great ideas going. I'd love to see how it all turns out.
Oh, and congratulations on your pregnancy! I know that feeling of needing a challenge and a distraction while prego. It helps the time fly by!
Alice Manville says
http://bethallison.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-made-very-first-thing-for-nursery.html#comment-form
Check out this cute garland idea! 🙂
Adrienne says
I have boy/girl twins, and planning how to decorate their nursery was hard! I ended up using bright polka dot wall decals for the walls. (At one point, I also painted the trim on their windows red, but we've moved since and I haven't done that in the new house…but I might again at some point). I also painted some picture frames bright blue and framed a quotation that reminds me of each of them, and like, you, a picture of Christ with children and an I Am a Child of God printable, and hung bright purple curtains in their room, too (they have a square-ish pattern in the fabric that somehow makes them more gender neutral than purple might normally be). As a final touch, I used red fleece to make teething guards for their cribs. I think it ended up really cute and gender neutral.
Jennifer {The Craft Patch} says
Your nursery sounds adorable! I think adding lots of color is the way to go… then it's not too boyish or girlish. Just colorful!