A Room of Baby's Own

Every mother wants her child's bedroom to have an extra-special quality -- that homey, personalized feeling that makes it different from every other baby or toddler nest out there. When you do it yourself, you're guaranteed not only to have something different, but also something meaningful for you and your little one.

Designer Abbey Francis, ASID, owner of Sassy Sprouts in St. Louis and mother of 2-1/2-year-old Lilly, offers some DIY decorating ideas for the kid-centric space in your home.

Inspired Painting

• Color Blocks: Color blocks allow you to bring different colors to a room. Whether they're coordinated or contrasting is up to you, but everyone will need measuring tape, a white wall, a painter's level and a roll or two of regular tape. Using the level and the measuring tape, create a grid, then lay the regular tape down to keep it all clean and tidy. Paint the blocks in your selected colors. Pull off the tape and you've got a neat windowpane effect. Want to take it a step further? "Babies spend a lot of time on their backs -- try color-blocking the ceiling, too," suggests Francis.
• Striping: Vertical stripes are fun, and if you have the time (and patience) to stripe the whole wall, that's great! But you can also just add stripes around the corners. Francis recommends stripes ranging from 12" to 24" in width. Again, use your painter's tape to mark the increments.
• Chalk board paint: This is great for letting kids doodle on the wall and create their own art. A whole wall is a big undertaking (especially since it needs several coats), so you might want to consider just doing a section at first. One caveat: Make sure your kids are old enough to understand they're only allowed to draw on the chalkboard paint -- not the whole wall!

• Alphabet on canvas: Fill up a whole wall by painting the alphabet, letter by letter, on 26 canvases. Have fun with different colors and script styles. Another option is to do a set of numbers -- say, one through 10. Or, like the color blocking, paint the canvases in various colors and hang them in a grid pattern. "Canvas is really big these days because it's inexpensive and not a big commitment," Francis says.
• Wood blocks: Head to your local craft store and find wood cutouts of letters, numbers, animals, and shapes. Buy a handful, paint them, and affix them to the wall (just make sure to hang them high enough so busy hands can't grab them).
• Wall graphics: "Wall appliqués are really hot now," says Francis. These pre-pasted cutouts are temporary, which makes them a great alternative to murals. Websites like www.wallies.com and www.whatisblik.com have lots of great options, whether you want something mod (colorful geometric shapes) or traditional (trains and princesses).

• Frame homemade art: Stock up on clear, inexpensive acrylic frames in different sizes. When your child brings home a piece of art they made in school, pop it in a frame and hang it. "That way, you let the art speak for itself, and you can rotate it," Francis says. Plus, you can watch the quality (or the ambition, at least) of the art evolve alongside your child, moving from baby handprints to big-kid art.
• Make a poster: Kids love to look at pictures of themselves and their family. Choose a few nice candid shots, enlarge them to poster size, and put them in a standard poster frame. You can make a poster of just about anything, like a family pet, or a favorite picture from a Disney vacation -- the possibilities are endless.
• Use children's books: One of Francis's favorite things to do in a baby or toddler's room is to remove the pages from a beloved children's book and frame them, page by page. "I take a lot of my decorating inspiration from children's books because the illustrations are amazing," she says.









© FamilyFun. All rights reserved.