How to Make Your Own Motifs for Children Room

1. Animals are a good starting point for the nursery. Stencil them on the wall as a border, on the front of dresser drawers, on the panels of the closet door and on a toy box.

2. It’s easy to paint a simple border around the room. Measure down from the ceiling approximately 6 to 8 inches and run a strip of painter’s tape (unlike masking tape, it won’t pull the paint off the wall when you peel the tape away) along the wall as a guideline. Paint the border sky blue. Let it dry. Stencil yellow stars and moon shapes at random on top of the blue border. Use this color scheme for sheets, bumpers and a quilt on the crib, window treatment and floor covering. Paint the dresser with the same blue paint and add yellow stars and moons to the drawer fronts.

3. Use the simple stencil design of a car to create a border design around a toddler’s room. Position the border halfway up the wall. Use a strip of painter’s tape to delineate a line above which you’ll stencil the design. Use bright blue and red paint colors and alternate for each car.

4. Paint the bottom half of the walls with a soft pastel color. Then add a wallpaper border around the room as high as a chair rail. Apply a wallpaper with a soft overall pattern on the top half of the wall.

5. For a quick and easy design, paint the room a solid color, then apply a wallpaper border around the windows and doors.

6. For a coordinated look, use a matching crib bumper, sheets, crib skirt, quilt and curtains. Paint the walls and furniture one of the colors in the fabric.

7. If the rest of your home is decorated in a country style, carry the theme into the nursery. Use transparent deck stain, such as Thompson’s Water Seal stains, in one of over a hundred colors on unfinished furniture. Let dry and apply a coat of satin polyurethane to protect the finish. Or whitewash the furniture with a coat of white latex paint. Let dry for a few minutes, then wipe away the excess to allow the natural wood to show through. Let dry overnight and coat with polyurethane.

8. Revive old wicker furniture with a coat of spray paint. A wicker chair, a small night table and a dresser will combine to create a charming and romantic baby’s room. Add eyelet trim, ribbon or rickrack to the edge of cafe curtains and a valance.

9. It’s easy to create a room of cloudlike softness with sponge-painted walls in a pastel blue, pink or yellow. Begin by painting the walls with a light color latex paint. Then, using a natural sponge, dip it into white latex paint, remove the excess on newsprint and, working on one small area at a time, pounce the sponge over the dry painted wall. Continue to do this until you’ve achieved a subtle, textured effect. If there is too much contrast, just keep going over the area until it looks good to you. This technique is absolutely foolproof. Cover the entire wall with random sponging in this way. You can use this technique on furniture as well. The goal is for a blending of colors that are closely related in shading. It’s not advisable to use a light and dark color together as the results will be harsh.

10. If sponging walls isn’t your thing, but you like a faux finished effect, you can get any treatment you like in wallpaper. It is so real looking that no one will guess it’s not the real thing.