Your Kids Bedroom...

I love the clothesline idea!! I may have to steal that one!

I did decorate my kids' rooms and they are really cute when all clean but they are rarely cleaned the way I would like them to be. My little girl's (she's 8) room is flowers and butterflies. (I think she may be getting tired of them so it may be time to change soon). My little boys (he's 2) room is done in classic winnie the pooh. I'll be changing his soon too.

While they are cute, they are not out of a magazine but that's okay. They work for us. :)

I go towards the eclectic, cute magazine decorator style. I adore the clothesline look. Another fun one is a magnet board. I painted some large bulletin boards and will likely glue on a funky trim, and they have cute pins they can put their artwork and such on. Also, hanging clipboards like a gallery wall style is fun you can clip in all sorts of things, artwork, ribbons, leaves...

Our daughters room was painted before she was born. It was like a periwinkle blue. Everything was a hand me down but in nice shape.
Once she was a toddler we had a better feeling of HER personality and leaned in that direction. She adored books. Slept with them and had tons, so my husband found a wonderful handmade bookshelf with desk that took up one whole wall and we let our daughter fill it in. We then purchased other book shelves so she could place her toys on them along with more books. Her bedding was 100% cotton with stripes and dots.

Once she was 8, she told us she wanted a "Papason Chair".. We told her she would need to save up to buy it herself. Sure enough she did. She picked a purple one and then we decide to redo her room. Again she lead the way with the paint color and this time she picked out the bed linens.

She wanted a different bed (a day bed). So we went to one of those unfinished places and got a simple design. For Christmas one year we gave her a small pink Chandelier and then she found a dramatic canopy. We hung it from the ceiling over her Papason chair so she could read in there. She kept this till she left for college. So I would say it was very eclectic, using our daughters ideas and tastes,

I let my kids kind of guide me about their rooms. If or when it gets important to them, I'll spend money and/or time. Until then, I have lots of other stuff to focus on. So for now, they have fine bedrooms but not magazine looking at all. It's funny you ask this bc I know people who cant donate to school fundraisers bc they're "broke" etc yet redo their children's bedrooms so nicely all the time. I refuse to spend a lot of money on kids' bedrooms until they're old enough to likely not change their minds about what they want every 2 years. If they have something they want to do and want to spend time with me doing it, that's fine bc that's an activity. I never got to pick my own bedroom set and always wished I had. Since we can afford it easier than my parents could, I'll give my daughters one nice set but not multiple sets. I think that's spoiling them. I do like neat though. So their rooms aren't chaotic messes at all. It seems like your idea of the clothesline is a great one btw.

My boys are sharing a room right now. It's a mess....all the time. My 5 year old really has a LOT of toys! Everything passed down from his 9 year old brother...plus he's just a messy kid. When they had their own rooms my 9 year old's room was always pristine and my 5 year old's always looked like a tornado had passed through.
My boys both like to put things up on their walls so I think the clothesline idea is great. We have boxes, cubbies, cubes, whatever, and for some reason my 5 year old still makes a mess. I try to cut back on toys but it seems like it's just too much. In fact, I just told him that I would be on the computer for 5 minutes and then we were going to attack his his room. Bleh
L.

My kids share a small room so other than a box of books, there are no toys in there. We do, however, cover their door and closet door with their artwork. I like it becuase we can see it but also it 'personalizes' their room a bit. We painted the walls a darker off white (maybe egg shell?) because it's so small. The curtains are brown and block out the sun. Each child has his/her own bedding and matching colored picture frames on the walls with the last three most recent professional pics of each of them and then we have two right when you walk in of them together. They each have their own shelf with personalized stuff on it and I usually hang jackets or clothes for school (for my daughter) on it. We use the attached changing table on my son's now converted toddler bed as storage/side table.

I so envision magazine rooms for my kids. BUt the reality right now is that they share a very small space so it wouldn't make sense (in my opinion) to personalize it anymore. I do have each of their names in blinged out/decorated letters on the wall and a cute wall saying pasted on the wall as well. It's very cute for a nursery...but too small for a two child kids room. But that's all we have for now!

It is something out of a magazine 90% of the time, but I think that is because I made sure there was plenty of storage available in there. We are very strict when it comes to putting things where they belong. I did avoid painting, because we are currently renting a short term apartment before we move and I think that I will continue to avoid it until we own our own house. Kids tastes change so fast. I think the most important thing is to make sure that you invest in long lasting furniture that can grow as they grow. Book shelves with canvas bins are great for storage and kid friendly. Closet organizers with hampers on one side make clothes pick up a snap. Toy boxes are great. I think that if you have these basics then you can completely change the style to suit their likes with things like bedding, area rugs, curtains, and art work.

Ha.

It's currently an unmitigated disaster.

Thing was... we were just prepping to rip out the carpet and paint and trade out toys / redo his room right before he got sick. So neither of us really cared about cleaning, since we were about to be doing major take everything out, paint, floor, put half of it back in.

And then, well, he got sick. We'd be home for a week and back in the hospital. For months. Then, coming home the last time, I was doing meds every 2-4 hours, so it was easier to have him crash with me. Then, of course, I had my own shoulder surgery and knee injury.

That's right. Over 6 months of not cleaning his room at all. Or mine, for that matter. Sheets get washed once a week, and that's it.

It's almost an archaeological expedition up there right now. We've got strata. I have midterms to get through, and halloween, and then we're going to schlep it all down and start our February project in November. Fingers crossed!

But the rest of the time? It's magazineish.

My kids' rooms are neither. I desire the more "magazine" look, but it isn't practical for any room where people live. First of all, we don't keep any clothes in our children's rooms. I have a laundry room for that. It has dressers and hanging racks (not the rolling kind, but permanently mounted on the walls). The laundry bins are down there also (all labeled with what goes in each hamper: whites, lights, darks, reds, towels & sheets). So, their dirty clothes are also neat and tidy. :) I build knock-off Pottery Barn cabinets for my daughters' room. they have baskets/bins that are organized with various types of things (kitchen toys, pet shop animals, etc). They have their bed, a toy kitchen, and the two cabinets in there. Also, they have a section for their baby dolls in their room. That's it. Easy to keep clean. Their costumes are in bins that slide under the bed. They have built in shelves in the closet for breakable items. Again, no clothes in the closet, so it is organized and neat. The boys' room is very large (the size of two rooms together). They have their three beds evenly spaced along one wall, with a sofa sleeper between two of the beds. They have a desk between the other two beds (so, it is bed, desk, bed, sofa, bed). They have their weight bench and a bookcase on one wall to one side of the door, and my oldest son's large desk on the other side of the door, but along the same side of the room. That's it. They have a walk in closet that houses board games and winter coats. That's it. It's not always tidy because for some reason the boys' clothes don't usually make it right away to the hampers just a few feet away in the laundry room...but I won't go there.
My tip: get rid of as much as you can stand. Don't keep every toy they have ever received. Have your toys organized by type. (legos, lincoln logs, plastic toy animals, etc) Be ruthless in throwing stuff out (even if that just means goodwill). If you can in any way eliminate clothing in their room, do it. I think that is the biggest headache in a bedroom. We have 3 children in each bedroom, so it could be a huge issue for us. My laundry room was custom designed by me. It is huge (I think 30' x 20'). But, I use every bit of that space! I hope we never have to move... LOL

My 3 girls share one gigantic room on the second floor of our house. I just painted the walls different colors and did funky striped. believe me its not nice at all. We didn't have a lot of money so I painted over the wallpaper with paint left from the previous owner. Then I went to the dollar store and got a whole bunch of the wall stickers and make different designs. I also painted a gigiantic flowed on one of the walls. Since my kids dont like the dark I put a strand of lights across the room. And last but not least we took the door off becasue they messed around with it too much and we hung up a really pretty purple linen thin as a door. Its simple and not perfect, but it works!

I cannot believe you hot glued a cookie sheet to the wall! lol :D I wonder if you could frame one instead? Any way to answer the decorating question. We kept our walls a neutral color and change out the decorations. Since my son was born we have gone from antique toys to western boy furniture that was my fil when he was a boy. My son's taste has changed also from cute little disney mickey mouse to super hero! But the walls are a nice tan simple no change. I do love the idea of using clothes lines and clothes pins. I actually wanted to do that for my niece who loved to draw but her mom would not allow holes in the walls :( I thought those command hooks, some metal wire used for hanging pictures with clamped hoops on the end and some cute little binder clips would do the trick. I love LOVE this site for decorating ideas. I look it up daily. They also have party, storage, food, toy and everything else kid ideas posted! BTW hello neighbor... I am in Victoria!

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/

On thing I love, I bought a bed from Pottery Barn called Stratton Bed. It has very large baskets that go under the bed. All of my daughter's toys, stuffed animals, and blankets are hidden.

Every night she has to clean up her room and I love that it is clean and clutter free.

Another thing I did was in our kitchen, I painted the door to the water heater as a chalkboard with chalkboard paint from Benjamin Moore. If my daughter ever has a wall without texture, I plan on painting at least one wall with this so she can color.

Is it something out of a magazine or a mess of toys, books and clothes?

The latter til I cannot stand it, then the former--so a little bit of both.

What about a french bulletin board or a magnet board?

My oldest sons bedroom is kept fairly tidy when he is not busy (he's 14) and it COULD look like a magazine shoot. The paint is blue and grey. He has blue camo accessories and a "tent" (I stapled a piece of fabric to a 2x4 and fastened it to the ceiling. He has a loft bed and his furniture is arranged so that he has a little alcove behind the dresser- he like closed in spaces. We did it for his as a birthday present when he was 12.
The younger 2 share a bedroom and if a toy is left on the floor it looks messy. But their walls are dark red and navy- think Americana with some airplanes and planets scattered around. It is really hard to keep clean. They just have so much stuff and the room has 2 large twin beds and a dresser in it. DH wants to separate them, but I am not ready to give up the spare room.

Those clothes lines are a great idea. I may just steal them. My youngers love to draw and hand their artwork in their room.

My 15 yo step dtr is spec needs and keeps her room perfect, everything has its place..she is exactly like her daddy. =) My other 2 kids...not so much. My 12 yo dtr used to have everything hanging on her walls but I bought a scrap book for her to keep all her pics and now they are in there. Since she is older, she doesnt have very many "toys" so we have downsized her room a LOT. Its easier to keep decent, not perfect, but she basically has most of it put away but we have to remind her daily. My 9 yo son still has cars, trains, etc that he sometimes plays with and we have one of those cases with the removable plastic bins that he keeps all that in. He basically throws everything in there and we have to remind him to make his bed and keep the floor clean. They all do a pretty good job. I moved a huge bookcase between both the younger kids rooms (the oldest can't read) that has about 400+ books in it so they don't have any books in their rooms anymore. It works really well and we call it their "library". They don't really have "nice" bedroom sets, we rent right now and told them when we buy a house they will all get new furniture and can paint and decorate how they want. Good luck!!!

Definately not out of a magazine, lol. Somewhere shy of that, not a landfill, but not ready for a photo shoot.

I have not painted since we moved and the walls are off white (blah). I got her a matching bedspread and shower curtain. And I let her pick out what she wants on the walls. My daughter loves balloons, so every now and then we will buy one at the supermarket. We don't have it blown up and just bring it home and hang it on the wall. I have shelves up high for her collectables (piggy banks and breakables). And I have two of those cube storage units with the colored boxes that go inside the cubbies. I have them stacked one on top of the other. This way the messy toys can get stored without me seeing the mess. She also has a bookshelf that my sister made her and it is overflowing with books.
I like the idea with the cookie sheets and you can use the string against the wall for pictures. I recently got my daughter a white board so she can make her own pictures. I also started using those Command Strips for pictures with frames, I am so tired of fixing the holes left behind.

We're fortunate to have a playroom, so my daughters room doesn't have a lot of toys, just stuffed animals in her crib. And it looked like a magazine until she was about 18 months old. She figured out how to open her drawers and her favorite game is to take out all the clothes and put them on the floor. It used to bother me, but she loves it, it doesn't hurt anyone; however, her floor is covered in clothes and I'm too tired to clean it up, and I'm in a battle with her right now to get her to clean it up.

You can buy magnetic and chalkboard paint now that comes in different colors. You could turn a section of her wall into a cool chalkboard and then paint a frame around it.

My daughter is only 2 so I haven't yet explored creating funky bulletin boards, or the clothesline look (which I love)...but I assume as she grows and begins school, we'll begin including those as part of her room decor. Right now her room does sort of look like it's out of a magazine...it's shades of raspberry and green, with table and chairs, bookshelves, a plush rug and a wallhanging with her name in hand painted letters that match her bedding... and my husband and I think it's the coziest room in the house! I don't have any great creative tips but am eager to read what others have to say. :) One thing I did was write a beautiful poem for her using each letter of her name to start each line---I then framed it and some day she will be able to read it and appreciate it. I know not all moms will be in to writing a poem about their child but I guess I was. :)