Child's bedroom

[Fiadh79]

We are in stage one for adopting, and obviously we have no idea how long it will take, especially with all the COVID stuff going on. We have to make a lot of changes before the house will be ready for the child, in particular for the bedroom.

I know it's early for us, but I was wondering what people did and advise about decorating the child's room? How long did you have to get the child's room ready once you knew what was needed?

This has specifically come up at the moment because we need to get blinds in, and they're pretty expensive, but if we get it all done now it'll be discounted, but then obviously we'll have to get a neutral colour, probably a pale grey. But is it better to wait in case we want something more fun for the child?

We're looking to adopt a baby up to about 2, if that makes a difference. Any advice would be great!

I'd say go for a neutral blind. There are plenty of other ways to 'theme' a room at a later date. Bedding, lightshades, rug, etc.

We've got blinds and curtains in our kids rooms. Easy to have a good quality plain blind and then cheaper curtains that match the bedroom.

We repainted the room magnolia before we started as it had needed doing since we moved in. We got animal wall stickers to go on that once we were matched. So if you can get a blind at a great price now I'd go for it, just make sure it's one that doesn't show the dirt and/or is easy to get fingerprints off. Neutral/muted themes are recommended anyway so children aren't overwhelmed. Our LO loves the stickers I mentioned earlier but has mistaken them for other things in the night after bad dreams and become hysterical looking at them.

Is just get neutral, they be likely to go on and off things so you're better to have easily changeable things for fun, like duvet covers or lampshades.

I would get it decorated in a neutral colour now but not buy any bedding, accessories etc until you are matched. We tried as best as we could to replicate the room our little one had at foster carer's house to help the transition. It obviously wasn't exactly the same but it had similar colours, cot etc.

Everything in my grandchild’s bedroom was done in neutral colours, including the blind and curtains. LO has quite severe sleep problems and the advice from SW was to keep everything in the bedroom really low key. There was just one picture in the wall, no mobiles or anything that might be a stimulant. Bedding was chosen after matching panel and even that had a soft, gentle design. There were a couple of LOs favourite soft toys that always went to bed, and a few books. Everything else stayed downstairs. Because of the sleep problems they had lightbulbs that can be changed with a remote control, so the lighting was low key too. All this really helped to keep bedtimes calm and wake-up occurances less stressful.

I'd advise getting a black out blind. It was news to me that black out blinds aren't always black, neither do they completely black out because of the light that inevitably comes around them. They will significantly darken the room though, which is likely to result in better sleep. I bought my son, who came as a baby, a cream coloured black out blind. He is four now and still has it. He does have bits of personalisation in his room but the decor of the room has stayed very neutral, and unlike the rest of the house it's fairly free of clutter, so it's a lovely calming space for him to go to at the end of the day.

I'd highly advise making sure it's blackout, then curtains too if possible. Children sleep better in the dark. Also make sure blinds don't have a cord which is a big choking hazard. You can buy special ones from kids rooms.

Animals/safari theme is usually a safe choice, or neutral walls with framed animal prints. Kids of both sexes usually love them and they are easy to change in a few years. Good luck OP!

*for kids rooms

We decorated our room at stage 1 and did yellow wallpaper with a jungle scene on the other wall using sticker. We got our lg at 3months and she is nearly 4 now and just asking for a change to pink sparkly princess now! If your getting new blinds I would go for blackout one.
She was in our room until 1 year old though so for much of that first year the room was a bit of a dumping ground for all the baby stuff that people gave us! Good luck with it all and enjoy these fun bits!

Also I would get neutral blind as you can add curtains to match any future theme your child wants

Thanks everyone for the advice! We have gone for a neutral colour blackout blind. We can't get curtains as well as it's set into the roof, but am sure there are other ways we can personalise it when the time comes. It is quite exciting doing all this, but it's all a bit weird too! Because we have no idea how long it will be before we have a little one in there!

I would buy a blackout blind and have themed curtains when you know what baby likes.

We decorated between being chosen for the DDs and being formally approved at panel. Our friendly decorator had done skirting boards for us earlier when doing something else, and then he fitted us in quickly at short notice to paint the walls.

The walls are still there (well of course they are, the paint colours I mean) 13 years later. We used removable wall stickers, and duvet covers etc to personalise walls. (DD2's walls started with Winnie the Pooh, then Disney Princesses, then Butterflies).

It is really exciting doing all the preparations. We did so much stuff earlier than is recommended and it took us a long time to get matched but I found it soothing to go and sit in the room and picture my child in there.
In the end we got a foster to adopt placement and had 2 weeks between finding out about her and bringing her home! So I was quite glad we had prepared so much in advance rather than waiting to find out our match

Our spare room was already a light grey - walls and carpet - so left it like that and just decorated with neutral pictures - alphabet, bright coloured animals etc.

I agree with using removable wall stickers and duvet covers to theme bedrooms - cheap and very easy to change.

Keep curtains, blinds and wall coverings fairly neutral.

Hi,
We are also in stage one of the process with our LA. We already have a BD and are in the process of decorating our spare room for her to go into. Her room will become AC's room. We decorated her room when she was born (she is now 4). It is white walls with a grey carpet, we then have bright colourful letter sticker showing the alphabet along the top and a bright colourful book stand etc and some animal prints framed on the wall and then a white cot. We did use a cheap pink blind in there and painted inside her cupboard pink but we plan to swap this to a suitable colour once we have a placement.
Maybe have a look on Pinterest for neutral kids room décor ideas, I love mooching through others pictures for inspiration.
Best of luck

IMO it’s better to leave everything neutral and choose the details when you have met the child.

The foster carer might say eg “ Oh she’s really into tractors” so that way you can chose something they will like.

That’s much better than looking for a child who fits your idea of what a 2.5 year old girl should like . And it’s symbolic of you adapting to the child's needs rather than the other way around.

Sometimes the child is very attached to something like a duvet set and so you can ask the Fc if they can keep it and offer to replace it . Styles change all the time and it’s unlikely you will be able to buy the identical one for your child.

Most FC will be happy with this and it will be a comfort to the child.

We didn’t even turn the spare room into a useable bedroom until after we’d been approved by adoption panel. Felt too presumptive for us and we didn’t want to do anything until we were sure it was going ahead. Just showed the social worker the room and assured her that we’d be painting and making it suitable once we were approved at panel, which they were happy with and never really questioned. When we did do it, even though there was a particular child in mind, we still kept it neutral (yellow and grey) just in case - he can choose what colour he wants it when he’s old enough to do so!

@Fiadh79 I know there have been lots of recommendations for black-out blinds, but just to remind you that lots of toddlers do develop a fear of the dark - if you’re investing in effective blinds, it would probably be a good idea to buy a sturdy night light, too.

We went for neutral magnolia. Once we knew we were adopting a boy we painted the wardrobe pale blue and we picked stickers we knew he would like, age appropriate to decorate the room.

I'd go for neutral but if you want more colour loads of colours are neutral, yellow, green, purple etc.

It's partly about age, an under one or an almost two may have different interests so the stickers etc can change.

Good luck and hope it goes well.