how would you decorate a boy/girl shared bedroom? 'Themes'

[landwhale]

We are moving to the US in a few months and amidst the chaos and stress, I'm trying to mentally re-decorate the rooms (mostly to keep me excited...!).

DS (5) and DD (3) will be sharing a bedroom at least for the first 6-12 months while we are in our initial accommodation. (We will either stay there, if we happen to love the area, but more than likely will have chosen our ideal area and house by that point so will move somewhere slightly bigger).

I am currently thinking I would like a nautical/beach theme, or a woodland theme.

Reasoning behind both are: We currently live by the beach in the UK, and are moving by the beach in US (house backs onto a lake, so a waterfront house!) DS is obsessed with the beach, the sea, surfing etc. his bedroom here reflects this but will probably be replacing items as all looking a bit ragged now.

Woodland theme, purely because I love this rug: Fox rug and also the kids are obsessed with "I want my hat back" by Jon Klassen so would love to decorate their room with his artwork: bear and fox

I am aware I could just go with bits and pieces that I like btw, but I find a theme being easier in the sense that it restricts what I buy so it doesn't end up mis-matched! :D

Which theme is more 'gender neutral'? Baring in mind that a year down the line they could be separate anyway (and in a totally different space).

Should also mention that DD is insanely 'girly' (not by my doing in the slightest!!) As in, anything pink, glittery, minnie mouse, frozen she loves..)

The room size is approx 13' x 13' with closet space. So a good size I think?

Sorry for the long post. If anyone has any suggestions/opinions, I would really appreciate it

Woodland sounds nice! Ikea have a lovely woodlandy rug with animal trail prints on it!

DS's nursery is jungle themed with giraffe print up one corner, I went for that as its nice and gender neutral and it meant I could pack it with funky jungle animals!

Nautical sounds good :)

How would you do nautical without it being too 'boy-ish'? (am not normally blue for boys, pink for girls at all btw - I just worry that a nautical theme will look like its ds's room that dd is sleeping in iyswim?!)

Ooo am going to Ikea friday, will look at their woodland things there! thanks!

Have you had a look on the pottery barn website, they do lovely kids stuff.

If you went for a nautical theme, I would use navy and white strips on one wall and maybe coral on another.

I would go for woodland theme too as nautical seems a bit obvious in a beachfront house. I LOVE the fox rug btw!!!

Have you been on Pinterest for inspiration? I like the nautical idea.

Another one would be a circus theme - Ive seen a ceiling painted red and white stripes like a tent then a more sensible colour on the walls (grey) with some decals of animals etc. Ill try and find the picture.

Ceiling and walls

I would avoid the beach thing, not because it's a boy thing but because it's your DS's much more than DD's. So on that basis I'd go with woodland.

Other ideas - I think under the sea and space themes are pretty gender neutral, or sky with clouds, hot air balloons, rainbows, biplanes, party balloons. Or go with a base of plain blue as a unifying colour, and customise with nautical bits for DS and Frozen for DD.

DD had a woodland theme as her "toddler theme" and I absolutely loved it. I didn't want to go all out girly princess sparkles incase she ended up being completely the opposite. Most of the stuff we got from ikea. If i could do it again i'd probably change the pink for a very pale earthy green (and it does look very pink in the photos!!) but you live and learn. Excuse the mess

I would keep the walls neutral. Then have one wall as a feature wall using really colourful unisex stripes. Or you could buy multicoloured polkadot transfers for one wall.