Help - desperately need ideas for decorating a toddler bedroom

[somethinganything]

Sorry - I don't think this is the ideal place to post but couldn't see another, more appropriate area either.

New baby due in Feb, need to sort out a lovely new room for DD who is almost 2. It's quite a big deal because she is being ousted from her room and most likely cot too and because of a building project it won't be possible to move her until a few weeks before DC2 is due.

I'm not keen on cutesy pink or very girly stuff, want something simple and striking that will be easy to match furniture too. It's a pretty small room so I think I'll have to steer clear of dark colours otherwise it'll start to feel even smaller.

What sort of furniture do you need/is nice in a toddler room? Any tips for making it really cosy/fun and something that we won't all get sick of really quickly.

Any suggestions very gratefully received!

Forgot to say, she has pale pink curtains to lighten the waindow wall as it is one of the short walls.

At the moment we have

White walls (matt gloss so can be wiped)

chalkboard paint on the chimney breast

Huge sheet of mdf painted red and nailed to one wall where I put paintings/ collages

all light wood beds/ drawers

Biult in (deep) shelves for books / storage baskets

DD (6) has curtains in this fabric. The walls are a sort of apple green, same green as in the curtain stripe. Carpet is sort of sand/gold colour with a rug similar to this in colour but in squares. I was anti pink and am not very fond of yellow either. To be its pink and girly without being too pink. The light apple green walls are fab and there is loads of stuff in apple green and pink for girls. Got a few different Laura Ashley bedding sets, all got in the sale, mainly on pink/green theme.

DD (6) has curtains in this fabric. The walls are a sort of apple green, same green as in the curtain stripe. Carpet is sort of sand/gold colour with a rug similar to this in colour but in squares. I was anti pink and am not very fond of yellow either. Its pink and girly without being too pink. The light apple green walls are fab and there is loads of stuff in apple green and pink for girls. Got a few different Laura Ashley bedding sets, all got in the sale, mainly on pink/green theme.

SomethingAnything - I don't know if you were thinking of looking on eBay, or not, but I have a complete 'nursery set' from John Lewis which I have been meaning to list for about 6 months!

It's a really lovely 'Animals' theme which has lots of primary colours/pictures on a predominently yellow background.

It lasted our eldest from about age 2 to 6 - so it's not too babyish.

We have:
Curtains (+ black out linings)
2 x cushions
1 bean bag
Duvet cover + pillow case

It's all still in excellent condition, and is very good quality. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll see if I can post pics etc?

It fitted in very well with our pine furniture, but would go well with anything really.

Dd's room (that we are leaving on Friday sob sob) has a mural of green grass around the room (that me and dh painted). Above is pale blue, below is green. Green carpet. White and various coloured furniture. Various accessories/stickers for a garden. Looks lovely IMVHO.

We have great plans for a 'rainbow room' (me and dd) in the new house... (rainbow curtains/great chandelier light I found/basically white background and every cheap rainbow accessory I can find )

The dc do have toddler beds (well, dd does - ds is planned to) but the ones from Ikea that extend to single beds. Good for keeping the max space in the room, though yes, ds sleeps in our kingsize alone all evening and is fine! So if you have the space...

I think the idea of a flexible room is great too yangymac, easy to change when you're bored or want to swap rooms about or whatever.

We went for toddler beds simply because space is at an absolute premium, we already have both DCs sharing a fairly small room! DD is the size of a 6 year old and there is still plenty of room in her bed, similar to the one Fairylights linked, it's 165 cm long. At some point we'll get bunk beds if we're still here.

Somethinganything have you looked at Mydeco? They have a 3D room planner that lets you design and furnish rooms, play around with wall colours etc, and there's loads of furniture from places like Ikea, John Lewis, GLTC etc you can try out. I have wasted spent many a happy hour on there.

My other reason for going for toddler beds in our small rooms is that by the time the boys grow out of them (6ish) they will be old enough for a raised bed with storage below.

And IME begin able to put duvets in the washing machine when the D&V bugs are doing the rounds is a BIG bonus that I'd not anticipated.

BTW DS1 moved into his age 1+9 and DS2 was exactly 2. No problems at all. They have each rolled out of bed once but they are so low that it didn't seem to bother them.

Sorry all - have been offline and busy clearing up after DD's horrid D&V bug among other things - Muddleduck I hear you re the washable duvets, washable duvets sound like a real bonus. Good news also that your DCs settled into beds happily - I guess I"m slightly less worried about her rolling out and more worried about her now being able to come and get me in the night! But I guess it'll have to happen at some point.

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Yangymac - accessorising on a plain background for flexibility sounds like the way forward.

In fact, I'm ditching the yellow idea and going with white/cream walls plus some lovely stickers I've found online and lots of bright bits of furniture/bookshelves/storage units etc There's still a bit of juggling needed to fit everything in but at least I have a vague plan now... thanks, all

cornflakemum - thanks v much for the offer re the JL set, it sounds lovely but I've already set my plan in motion by ordering stickers online!

I'f you're worried about her getting out of bed then you need something in there so that she can tell when it is time to get up. Otherwise they can't tell the difference between 3am and 7am!

Either an expensive bunny clock or a cheap lamp on a time switch.

What about a yellow gingham duvet cover and curtains. This would be nice and sunny and look great with some white bedroom furniture. Not too cutesy, should last her a while!