decorating tips for a room shared by both boy and girl

[threeangels]

I'm just curious if anyone out there has any decorating tips for me. My dd age 10 for some reason wants to share a room with her 23 mo old db. At this time he is still in with us since birth. We have 3 children and only 3 bedrooms. I could not even think about putting the baby in with my 13 yr old ds (to mature). I dont mind the boy and girl sharing for now.

My dd and I have been trying to figure out a way to decorate for both sexes. We were going to divide the room in half with shelf dividers and decorated to each childs taste but I decided to do the entire room the same. I thought about an under the sea theme but thats about it. I dont want all girly colors but then I dont want all boy colors (reds,blues, dark green etc).

Anyone have any great reasonably priced ideas? A lot of you seem much more creative then myself. Thanks

[SoupDragon]

I'd be wary about too much of a theme as your DD is likely to grow out of it very quickly.

Stick with the divider idea - maybe go for a more solid divider to allow for more privacy for DD in the next few years. Choose a suitable base colour for both sides and then use gender specific accent colours & accessories. Blue & silver might work well. For DS have almost a space theme (stick on glow stars) and more glittery for DD (feathery accessories & mirror ball type stuff)? If you go Spacey on DSs side, it won't matter too much if the divider cuts out some light.

Just a thought!

[Katherine]

Hmm. For me it would depend a lot on the room. If the room is huge then dividing it up will work Ok, Similarly if its a shape that lends itself e.g l-shape. Otherwise I'd be a bit wary of having too much going on in the room and it might look a bit cluttered and messy. Also the colours you use should be determined by the direction the room faces etc (think I've had too much DIY/ home improvement programmes )

Why not think of a non-gender colour or one that will work well with a little boy. Yellow is a lovely colour if the room is fairly dark and warms up norht facing ones. I'm planning to use this in the room my DS and DD share. But there are plenty of others - orange (perhaps not the whole room!) green, turquoise etc.

I also agree with the comment about themes. They tend to get boring quite quickly and its too easy to go OTT. Why not focus on cheerful accessories such as bedding and toys will also help personalise the room.

Probably not much help... My children's room is tiny so not much room for imagination

[Bobbins]

We decorated our nursery before we knew the sex of the bump. We painted it turqoise and kind of maroon on opposing walls...and alternated the colours on the skirting and window sills, IYSWIM. I then stencilled a couple of large Indian Elephants round the room. It came up a treat, and neither girly or boyish.

[Bumblelion]

Katharine, I agree about trying to keep the bedroom clutter free. My DS (5) has his own room but my DDs (nearly 10 and nearly 1) share. As yet, this isn't too much of a problem as the baby is only in the room when she is sleeping. We keep her toys downstairs in the conservatory and also have a playroom in the loft which is where I try to keep most of their toys, especially as DS room is only "box" size.

What I find hard is the amount of clutter my 10 year old DD has in her bedroom. In her bedroom there is:

1 x bed
1 x cot
1 x wardrobe (eldest daughter's)
2 x chest of drawers (one each)
1 x bookcase
1 x desk

plus countless boxes of toys that are kept under eldest DD's bed.

The only good thing since husband moved out is that now youngest DD has her own wardrobe (husband's that is in my bedroom). Before that she had her "winter" clothes in my DD's wardrobe and her "summer" clothes in my DS's wardrobe.