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A Guide to Painting Children’s Rooms

Kids’ Room Painting Ideas: Fun and Creative Concepts

Planning and painting a child’s room can be an exciting project. It is such a different thing to painting any other room. We can be far more creative and flexible with a child’s room, using all sorts of ideas and bright, extreme colours. It feels good to live a little vicariously through the child’s experience by decorating their room, often with their suggestions. As, long as the room is safe, there should be no limits.

Creative Painting Ideas for Kids’ Rooms

Theme-Based Rooms

Jungle Adventure:  Most children like animals. Use greens and browns for walls, then add decals or other images of animals, vines and trees to create a lively jungle scene.

Underwater World: Blues and aquas dominate this theme, with mural elements like fish, coral, and sea creatures to make the room feel like an ocean adventure.

Space Exploration: Dark blues or purples with stars, planets, and rockets can inspire a love for space and exploration. Light sky blue can also work with these images.

Flight: Use light blue walls with some darker trim, then add images of aeroplanes, helicopters and hot air balloons. This can be extended to the ceiling.

Colour Combinations

Pastels: Soft pastel colours like mint green, baby blue, or lavender create a calm and serene environment suitable for younger children.

Bold and Bright: For an energetic feel, use bright colours like yellow, red, or orange. These colours can make the room feel lively and stimulating.

Two-Tone Walls: Combining two colours, such as navy blue and white or pink and grey, can add depth and interest to the room without overwhelming it.

Feature Walls

Murals: A feature wall with a mural can become the focal point of the room. Murals are sometimes hand-painted but are more often created using wall decals, depicting scenes from nature, outer space, or favourite storybooks.

Patterns and Designs: Stripes, polka dots, or geometric patterns can add a playful touch to a feature wall. Use painter’s tape to achieve clean lines and precise patterns.

Chalkboard Paint: An entire wall or a lower section of a wall is painted with chalkboard paint. This allows kids to express their creativity with chalk directly on the wall.

Ceiling Treatments

Sky Ceilings: Paint the ceiling a light blue with fluffy white clouds for a sky effect. This can make the room feel more open and airy.

Night Sky: For a room with a space theme, a darker blue ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars and planets can create a magical night-time effect.

Contrasting Colours: A ceiling painted in a contrasting colour to the walls can add an unexpected and fun element to the room. For example, a room with light walls and a bold, colourful ceiling can be visually stimulating.

Considerations and Tips

Colour Psychology

Calming Colours: Soft blues, greens, and purples are known to have calming effects, making them ideal for creating a peaceful sleep environment.

Stimulating Colours: Bright reds, oranges, and yellows can stimulate activity and creativity but perhaps should be used in moderation to avoid overstimulation.

Feature Wall Placement

Choose a wall that will draw attention but won’t overwhelm the space. The wall behind the bed or the one opposite the door are common choices.

Avoid placing a feature wall where it may compete with large pieces of furniture or shelving units.

Safety and Practicality

Non-Toxic Paints: Always use non-toxic, low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints to ensure the room is safe for children. These paints release fewer harmful chemicals and are better for indoor air quality.

Newborn infants and pregnant Women: Even the best paints and related materials will give off some airborne chemicals. These can be dangerous for infants. Never have rooms painted when children under 1 or pregnant women are in the house. 

Durable Finishes: Children’s’ rooms will suffer some spills and abuse. Using a paint with a durable finish will help prevent damage, or at least make spills and stains easier to clean. Satin, eggshell or semi-gloss finishes are usually a good option.

What to Avoid

Overly Dark Colours: Too much dark colour can make a room feel smaller and less inviting. Dark colours are best using in combination with lighter colours.

Complex Patterns: While patterns can be fun, overly complex designs can be visually overwhelming and make the room feel chaotic. A complex pattern on one wall can work if the other walls are almost plain.

Overcrowding Themes: Do not overcrowd the room with too many themes or decorations, which can create a feeling of a cluttered environment.

Being stuck with an old design: Children grow up more quickly than we realise. So, the room design that was cute for a 7-year-old will feel childish for a 13-year-old. Expect to either repaint after a few years or have a colour scheme that can be used with different decors at a later date.

House Painters Near Me

Children’s rooms allow us to show a different side of our decorating ability. By choosing a suitable colour combination, incorporating feature walls, and considering ceiling treatments, we can design a space that is both enjoyable and functional. Search online for house painters near me, and then can implement your creative painting ideas.