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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

As a parent, when you create or design a bedroom for your younger child you assume that within a relatively short period of time, you’ll need to redecorate. Kids grow up quickly these days, and the bedroom that seems so perfect for them today may be completely unsuitable for them in a couple of years.

If you want to save yourself the time, hassle and money of redecorating, redesigning, and spending more money on a regular basis, it is worth looking at ways of creating a child’s bedroom that can grow with them. This means that as your child gets older, you won’t have to scrap all the hard work you have put into their existing bedroom in order to start from scratch.

Four tips to create a bedroom that can grow with your child

While it may seem tempting to cover the walls in Disney wallpaper when your child is a youngster, you can pretty much guarantee that before you know it you will have to tear that paper down and spend money on the next fad that your child has taken an interest in. A few simple tips can help you to avoid the hassle, time and expense involved in continued redecoration and redesign.

Opt for simplicity: Rather than buying themed wallpaper, curtains, carpets, bedcovers and anything else you can think of, try and keep things simple. Using neutral decor may seem boring, but there is nothing stopping you from using temporary décor, such as posters and artwork, to reflect the themes that your child is interested in. Once they grow out of that phase, these can then be taken down in a matter of minutes and replaced with more suitable ones.

Choose the right wardrobe: As your child gets older, their need for space will increase. For instance, they will need more space for their ever-expanding range of clothes and footwear, particularly as they enter into their teens. Investing in sliding wardrobes rather than ones with very limited amounts of space means that you won’t have to keep replacing this item of furniture as their interest in fashion grows.

Choose suitable furniture: Many parents love to rush out and purchase cute chests of drawers and other items of furniture for their young kid’s bedroom. However, in a couple of years, your child will no longer find them cute, but is more likely to be embarrassed or irritated by them. It is therefore worth opting for furniture in colours that can grow with your child and will suit any age, such as white, black or natural wood.

Choose the right bed: While there is little that can be done about the fact that your child will need to be in a cot as a baby, one thing you can do is cut out the toddler bed that many parents invest considerable amounts of money in. This is clearly an item that will not grow with your child, so rather than spending money on something with a very limited lifespan, choose a bed that will be suitable for at least a few more years.

By finding ways of enabling your child’s bedroom to grow with them, you can save yourself a lot of time and money – and save your child a lot of embarrassment in years to come.

By Kathryn Ward

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who like to decorate just once.

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