to want equality for boys....

[JimJammum]

...when it comes to soft furnishings and clothes?

It's already been well documented and lamented on here about boys clothes being confined to 2 rails of uninspiring t-shirts covered in transfers while there are racks and racks of gorgeous things for girls, but now I discover the inequality extends to the bedroom.
Wanting to decorate my ds's new bedroom and playroom when we move and am sick of seeing loads of lovely pink bedding, curtains and accessories, while boys get a digger shaped shelf and one set of football themed bedding. Or Thomas. Can anyone recommend somewhere that sells anything remotely more exciting, individual or original that is not going to costs my entire redecoration budget (you know who you are, White Company and Cath Kidston).
Ps - what do you do if your little girl doesn't do pink? Non-conformism at 4yo?

I have 2 DS's (DS1 is 7yo, DS2 is 6yo)sharing a room, neither likes football, one is scared of space/spaceships (has SN+odd phobias), and another that doesn't like dinosaurs on the principle that no-one over the age of 18 would have bedlinen with dead aminals printed on it! . I painted the walls in beige (natural hessian anyone) . I painted large blue & red circles on the walls. (DS1's favourite colour is red, DS2's is blue). Then Tesco's do reversible bedsets (very cheaply) in blue and red, one side pale, one side darker. They loved it. So do their friends btw. And it's also easy to find accessories in blue & red. The DD that doesn't like pink...has she a different favourite colour? I could offer ideas...My DD is another non-pink lover, at 4yo her bedroom was pale yellow. Then she went through a green stage, then a lilac stage (short-lived though). And now she wants her room re-done (she's almost 12yo, it's to be a birthday present) with white walls, black carpet , and luminous orange/yellow/green accessories!

I agree completely,to the point that i hired a local artist who painted a mural on one of ds's bedroom walls.

Ds really loves the Italian Job film so he has the cover of the dvd painted on his wall,the other 3 are painted white & i bought some red material from Ikea & made him plain red curtains & i found some plain blue duvet sets from Primark.

We got his accessories from Ikea also,red magnetic board & round red/blue rugs.

I found a union jack pic with a mini on the front from Matalan.

Its just a case of looking in shops you wouldnt normally look in.

I thought this too. My DH wanted us to decorate our DS's (as a baby) room as a football theme, in red!! Horrendous even though I am a big football fan myself.

We have gone for a nautical theme. Jojo Maman Bebe do lovely things but I got most of mine from ebay. Walls are white at the top with blue at the bottom with a wavy line in between then the big under the sea wall stickers. Got some lovely fabric from Laura Ashley for the curtains, Laura Ashley also did some lovely nautical stuff (not sure if she still does but there is loads on ebay).

DH thinks it is old fashioned, everyone else I know absolutely loves it. I really do love going in his room, plus its the only room in the house that it actually decorated .

We had a complete renovation so started kids rooms from scratch. I was determined to go contemporary and get some funky stuff for DS and DD that would last a few years.

DD has this one on her wall

DS has this

check out this for some funky boy stuff

DS link not working - if you go to link, then image collections, then Marvel. He has the Captain America one in panel art, but there are loads of cool ones.

I bought one of these for my DD's room

wall stickers not very cheap, but less expensive than wall paper.

nelly - good point re stickers. we got some for elsewhere in house from here

I notice they have a sale on.....

agree re girls clothes bleurgh

H and M have good stuff sometimes tho. blacks/greys/whites quite plain and reasonable price

H and M sometimes cheaper than Primark. Have to rummage though.

Jeepers zapostrophe - that's disgusting! Cannot believe it is being sold at Toys R Us. Urgh! The reviews are really disturbing too.

Besides, what happened to just using a scrabble board during wet playtime

I bought some really nice bedding from Asda for DS, bright and colourful and suitable for a girl or boy.

here

There are matching accessories too.

Aspace and Laura Ashley have some nice soft furnishings for boys, as does Great Little Trading Company.

My son is 10 and his bedroom badly needed decorating, but like you I found it hard to find decent boy stuff. I painted his wall a neutral kind of coffee colour, he already had a blue carpet which I didn't want to replace. In 'Wilkinsons' I found a really lovely pair of lined Dark brown chocolatey curtains with thin blue (different shades) sripes on and there was a cushion that matched. He's got a brown and cream bedding and a lovely brown furry throw. To add more colour I bought him some black and white pictures with london scenes on, one has a bright red bus, one with a bright red telephone box and another with London Bridge. On his desk he has a red lamp. Also on ebay for a couple of quid, you can buy wooden words, he's got cool, chill and happy that I've painted red and blue and stuck on his wall. The good thing with boys is you can go quite grown up without going to far!

Save the money and spend it on videogames and sports equipment when they're older.

Thanks for all your help. DS only 3 but I don't want it to be too "baby"....he loves generic cars and trains but not Thomas and Disney's Cars so that is out, he's not into dinosaurs, animals, seascapes etc and is too young at the mo to be into fantasy play such as castles, knights etc. Have been drawing a complete blank. Found some wonderful blue and red stripy curtains that I will get, but was so disappointed at high street bedding and accessories. Have decided to get a huge frame and fill it with photos of friends and family for his wall, and he has already his name in letters. May do stickers/mural in playroom and will browse your website selections in detail.....once I get over the horror of pink Ouija boards. Nice....

www.kidzdens.co.uk/catalog/home.php or www.finebedlinens.co.uk/www/11/1001127/displayproductcategory/1001212.html freckles is actually Dormas childrens range. Last feb there as a brilliant sale things as cheap as £25.

I say this so often, I ought to get commission. Check out Vertbaudet, who have very funky stuff for children's bedrooms.

Ikea

Their bedding is 100% cotton AND is affordable. Lots of gender neutral stuff.

This company have the most beautiful bedroom sets, we asked for the sailor theme to be adapted to remove the skull and cross bones!! Look at the MAGIC set its lovely

www.steveallen.co.uk/magic-bed-p127/

Also this site is lovely for a beach theme

www.nauticalinteriors.com/

Totally agree about clothes, I like molo, me too, gap, but you have to look so hard!

John Lewis have bedroom stuff that you might like.

Don't worry about equality - I have a 4yo boy and 2yo girl and I find shopping for clothes for them equally horrendous:

-boy problem = slugdey, mad sloganed crap
-girl problem = pink/purple glittery crap

I like gender neutral bright stuff, but luckly I also like character stuff such as Thomas and Mickey so I am not limited there!

Ds 1 has Star Wars from pottery Barn that I bought off an ebay lady.

here Fantastic thick cotton, he loves it as it's not clone wars.
He has this picture and a couple of others from the same chap.

previosuly he had the pirates bedding from Laura Ashley and I had 2 beanbags, bunting, a door stop and a blind made from 2 extra duvet covers.

Ds 2 has this from blooming marvelous. We have painted his room a light blue. The quality of this set is amazing.

He has this chair with a handmade cushion with a red felt train on backed onto the same green check. Over his bed he has a crocheted blue/white striped blanket.
I'll make a blind from an extra duvet too.

Ds 3 has this set and the matching curtains. His room is a baby yellow and he has this chair with a handmade crocheted blanket.

I am currently making a blanket for ds 3's toddler bed (he's 7 months at the mo) out of his old babygrows. I have cut hearts out of the babygrow material and sewn them onto 10cm x 10cm squares cut from one of his old sheets.

I like to mix old/new handmade and bought. I keep their walls plain so we can add pictures easily and don't ruin the walls.
I like a mixture of ideas, colours and fabrics and use thier interests as a starting point.