room share decoration ideas and advice please!

[mellyonion]

hi. am re jigging my 3 kids...ds1 and dd1 share at the moment. ds2 is in his baby room at the mo, but looking to put the two boys together...

so, ds, age 7 1/2 and ds, age 2 (this saturday!) will be sharing. we have two single beds on the opposite sides of the room, with a sort of chimney breast inbetween them.

do i allow each one to choose their own duvet covers, "posters etc, or is it better to just have a nice calm plain room for them to share? i want them to both have a feeling of their own space really....my ds1 gets comments from his mates when they come over that he has his sisters girls toys in the room...i'm worried that this will now be replaced by baby toys....i want him to be proud to take his buddies upstairs to play!

how are your kids rooms done who share?

[mellyonion]

no one then?

[piximon]

I'd definitely allow the older ds to have posters/pictures on the walls that reflect his age and taste. It's horrible when other children visit and make fun.
Can you put in some sort of room divider? How will you stop the younger one fiddling with the older one's stuff?

I am in a tiny rental at the moment, I currently have ds1 (5.5) and dd1 (3.11) sharing one room and g/b dts (19mths) sharing the box room. DS3 sleeps in with me.

I plan to have a girls and boys room once the twins are old enough not to eat any of ds1/dd1s toys.

[misscutandstick]

I have DS1 (15) on his own in the tiny bedroom. DS2 (10) and DS3 (9) sharing with bunks in a Dr Who theme room with posters of their choice on their bits of wall (next to each bed). DS4 (3) and DS5 (2) share with cotbeds at the mo but DS4 is huge (size of a 5yr/o) and will need a real bed soon, but Autistic DS5 will probably be in his cot for a while longer. But will bunk up when both ready. Theirs is the Thomas tank room. Im lucky to have all boys.

[misscutandstick]

Just had a thought on your position - i would probably decorate it in something of the 7yr/o's choice: the 2 y/o probably wont give a hoot what the decor is like, but the older one will, so let him choose - that way when his friends come over it will be OK. 2y/o will get to an age where he thinks whatever 7y/o does is fantastic anyway and will love the decor that he chooses. HTH XXX

[mellyonion]

thanks for your ideas girls.....

i really can't bear the thought of pokemon covered walls, but i guess its a small price for a happy big boy! lol

[misscutandstick]

Doesnt have to be 'covered'... let him put all his posters/stickers anywhere he likes in a specified area. You could even put a line around the edge of specified area like a post-board.

Colour the rest of the room (paint is cheaper and easier to keep looking clean and tidy) in a fairly basic blue type colour, get creative and let him choose ONE pokemon to have a nice big mural over the top of his bed head (about 2foot sq looks best)... then to be honest it doesnt matter what the theme is (and it can be changed very easily!) it looks fairly neat and possibly 'all grown up' - for added wow factor outline the mural in glow in the dark liner, which can be bought fairly cheaply at craft shops and is a doddle to get on the wall without much fuss because of the nozzle on the bottle.

Glow in the dark stars (bought or painted) will always be a winner too, our 15y/o wont admit to it but loves them too! and the only time you really see them is when the room is dark.

Match curtains and duvets if budget allows, lampshades if you really have to - but blue is cheaper and will last for some time.

HTH XXX

[Dynamicnanny]

Agree with Miss Cut and Stick - go for a plain room possbly beige with bue accessories. I would reccomend getting some of those perspexe frames you can get from places like tescos, wilkinsons etc and put posters inside those.

I like these

planets
rocket
good advice
volcano
the earth
Be myself

Or maybe find some of your sons drawings and get themblown up to poster size and have them put up in frames, or even some fab photos of the boys together or doing something like scoring a goal, recieving a prize etc and again get them bown up and framed so tht you can easily change the room with little or no effort.

[frogs]

You can also paint the room two different colours -- when dd1 and ds were sharing, we painted two walls blue and two walls pink.

Now ds and dd2 are sharing (not ideal, but v. large room) and we're planning to put a curtain down the middle to separate the two halves.

[Blondilocks]

I'd probably just use a neutral colour for the walls, carpet etc as they grow out of characters really quickly.

Then just allocate half of the walls for each boy's posters / accessories.

[loudmouthmum]

My boys 6 1/2 and nearly 5, are sharing a room, walls are blue (ds2's choice, fave colour), skirting boards are red (ds1's choice,again, fave colour). I really thought it sounded awful, but they'd come to an agreement, so painted it, and stone me, with a couple of spiderman posters up, it looks, well, COOL!