In your home, your bedroom is definitely your sanctuary. You have carefully chosen the furnishings, accessories, color scheme, and bedding to create a peaceful place where you can unwind and destress.
Now that you have kids, you want their bedrooms to offer them the same sense of calm and well-being that you feel in yours. However, after taking a tour of their rooms, which include plenty of LEGOs on the floor, clothes strewn on chairs, and super bright colors, you didn’t exactly feel at peace.
Fortunately, you can make some tangible changes to your kids’ rooms, starting today, that will help transform these spaces into soothing sanctuaries. Consider the following ideas:
1. Know That Color Does Matter
Kids’ toys and accessories are often inherently colorful. From blocks in primary colors and vivid pink and blue stuffed animals to brightly painted trains, the aforementioned LEGOs, and more, your children’s rooms are probably brimming with color. To counteract all this visual stimulation, talk with them about repainting their walls to soothing shades of blue and/or green.
Why those colors specifically? Well, blue and green are “cool” colors that are considered to be restful. On the flip side, “warm” colors like red, orange, and yellow have been found to not only make people feel hungrier, but also more irritated. In that vein, buy some paint chips at the local hardware store and work with your kids to choose some new, soothing shades for their walls.
2. Add Some Happy and Peaceful Art
Now that the walls have been freshly painted, it’s time to adorn them with some prints that also feature muted and soothing tones. Instead of garish cartoon characters, go with other subject matters that your children love, like an adorable kid’s art print of their favorite animal that also happens to be in a calming green shade, or maybe some encouraging words in a beautiful design. The key is to find images that are calming and positive, not ones that are likely to rile them up.
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3. Install Some Nighttime Reading Lights
Being in bright lights before bedtime can make it hard for kiddos to fall asleep. As such, install reading lights in their rooms and encourage them to turn off the main overhead light at least an hour before they go to bed. As an additional tip, for kids who like to have a nightlight, find one that uses a red bulb; this creates a warmer and dimmer light that’s less likely to fire up the brain at 2 a.m. when your son or daughter needs to use the bathroom.
4. Clear Out the Clutter
Clutter in your kids’ rooms not only can be stressful for them, but it can also be dangerous and lead to wasting money. As you probably have experienced yourself, when you have piles of stuff all over the place, you feel less serene and happy. The same is true for your daughter, who has toys all over her floor — many of which she rarely plays with anymore — and your son, who can’t seem to part with any of his old toys or clothes.
As for the danger aspect, ask any parent who has stepped on LEGOs while barefoot how painful it can be, and if items like scissors or glue sticks are hidden under piles of toys, they can also cause cuts and/or damage. Additionally, things can get lost in piles of clutter, so you may end up having to shell out money for new sketchbooks, socks, stickers, and other supplies if your kids aren’t able to find them in their messy rooms.
Work one-on-one with each kiddo to pare down their belongings to what they truly love, wear, and use. Then, treat them to great storage options like ottomans that double as bins, a nice new bookcase, large wicker baskets, and maybe a larger dresser, and show them how to keep everything safely stored away.
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Peaceful Rooms Equals Peaceful Kids
You don’t need an unlimited budget and hundreds of hours to transform your kids’ rooms into peaceful places to play, read and sleep. Start with the paint and updated artwork and, as time allows, work on the clutter and add in some soothing lights. Your kids may not admit it, but they will definitely like having a clean floor on which to play, and you may notice they spend more time hanging out in their rooms and are calmer as a result.
