Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Decorating Kid's Rooms With Thrift Store Finds

You can give your children the room of their dreams with some simple bedroom decorating ideas that you can find at thrift stores. First determine what your child really wants. Do you want to go with a theme of their favorite cartoon character or a sport they love? Whatever you decide the biggest mistake you can do is to purchase a comforter with the cartoon character on it. Remember that your little darling is growing and her/his interests change with every birthday. Unless you want to purchase a new comforter on a yearly basis you should keep this to a very neutral color. I know that most mothers shudder at the thought of putting white in a child's room, but solid white, tan, grey, blue and pink are your best bets.
If you have already bought a comforter that your child has out-grown or gotten tired of there is a very inexpensive quick fix! Use the old comforter as a duvet and make a cover to slip over it.
One of the first places I head to in a thrift store is the bedding section. Not because I need new sheets but because bedding can provide you with ample fabrics to make decorator items from. This is especially true for children's rooms. Because a child's interests change so often you will find awesome character sheet sets in thrift stores. So if your princess decides that this year she would like a Dora the Explorer bedroom start browsing through thrift shops because another little girl will have decided that Dora is no longer her dream because Barbie is now the coolest item in her toy box. Most people send their children's used, but not abused, bedding to the thrift store. Remember you are not going to use these sheets for sleeping on. They will be the source for all of your decorative items in the room.
Once you have the character sheets start looking for other sheets with the same color schemes in various patterns. It may take a few trips to a few thrift stores over the course of a few weeks or a month but you are going to be sewing up your finds in the meantime. Look for stripes, patterns, polka dots all with at least one or two of the same colors of the character sheets in them.
Use these sheets to make curtains, bed skirts or dust ruffles, throw pillows, chair pads and slip covers, dresser scarves, organizers, basket liners, etc. Most of the character sheet sets have pillow cases with large characters on them. One of the best things to do with these are to create artwork for the walls. Use a canvas stretcher frame you can pick up at any art store. Center the fabric over the frame and stretch it tight using a stapler to fasten it on the back of the frame. Now either put the artwork in a picture frame you found at the thrift store or just hot glue some ribbon around the outer edge to give it a finished look.
Have fun with pillows. These are items that cost very little but can add a lot of pizazz to the room.

These animal pillows are an excellent example of using various patterns and colors to coordinate decorator items for your child's room. They create fun and interest, they are very inexpensive to make and your child can even play with them.
Many thrift stores also have a fabric section. Here you can pick up scrap pieces of fabric to add to the mix. Also keep your eye out for trim and lace. Many people clean out closets and sewing rooms and their unused craft supplies will end up in the thrift store. These finds are awesome because the price of trim at fabric stores can really add up.
I hope you have enjoyed my article. Have fun being creative! Be sure to browse through my blog for even more bedroom decorating ideas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Find the comforter sets, bed sheets and other sleep ware accessories that you’ve been looking for at buildbedroom.com. Browse through our selection of bed sheets for all standard bed sizes from twin to king size beds. Our collection also includes a generous assortment of sheet sets sized for the biggest California king mattresses. The high quality richly woven sheet sets in our collection feature brilliant colors, generous sizing and high thread counts for added comfort and durability. Complement your bed skirts with beautifully made sheet sets from our collection. Durable cotton and linen bed sheets in solid colors are available. Colors include cappuccino, white, rose, sage, light blue, lilac and buttercup. You will also find print patterns suitable for the kid’s room, guest room or the master bedroom. Pulling together a great-looking bedroom is simple when you put our extensive selection of home décor to work for you. Mix and match bed sheets, sheet sets, curtains comforters and decorative pillows to produce the style and effect that you want, whether you are creating an elegant boudoir, combination bedroom, dayroom, or a fun sleep-over room for the kids.