Convert a Nursery to a Child’s Bedroom

Nursery with 2-tone colour scheme

If your baby has outgrown their nursery, then the time has come to create a proper toddler haven – a real kids’ bedroom!

It might only seem like five minutes since you were planning your nursery for your new born baby, and now you’re eyeing up big kids furniture and bedroom sets and thinking up themes for your growing youngster – yes, the time has come to start converting your nursery into a proper bedroom!

How to Convert

Converting your baby’s nursery into a child’s bedroom does not need to be a difficult task! However, its simplicity largely depends on what you initially bought for your baby – parents who refused to be suckered into the temptations of miniature sized nursery furniture and instead bought good, plain and practical basics from the offset will undoubtedly find it easier!

Back to Basics

If you are having to almost start from scratch and remove baby-themed wallpaper and borders, and replace cots with junior beds, and mini wardrobes and chests with full sized ones, do, do your homework and think ahead: do you really want to be doing the same when they hit their teens a few years down the line?

Buying high quality plain furniture that can be adapted as your child grows is a far better solution: chests and wardrobes can be painted and have decals added to interpret a theme without the need for new items to be bought every few years.

Themes and Characters

Your toddler or young child will no doubt have lots of ideas as to what they want from their bedroom – as will you as a parent!

By far the easiest way of converting a nursery into a child friendly room is by simply changing the soft furnishings and adding new, bright wall stickers. Let your little one become involved by choosing colours and themes, and accessorise with matching lampshades and ‘replaceable’ decorations like door and cupboard handles.

Most of the popular TV characters have a myriad of soft furnishings – duvets, cushions and curtains – and homeware products marketed with their image on, making lamps and bins and toy boxes with appealing images on very easy to come by.

Safety First

Whatever you decide on theme wise, bear in mind that as your child grows more independent, they will be spending more and more time playing unsupervised in their bedroom, perhaps with other children. With that in mind, make sure all your soft furnishings are machine washable and stain resistant.

Think too of the safety aspects of heavy wardrobes, overloaded bookshelves and hinged toy boxes – anchor items to the wall where ever possible, and use foam buffers on drawers and Ottomans to stop fingers becoming trapped or lids being dropped down on hands.

Growing Up

Try to design a room that can adapt and grow with your child as they move from toddlerhood through to school age – practical can still be fun! Use space and light imaginatively and involve your youngster in every stage of the design process – converting your nursery into a proper bedroom should be a rewarding and exciting time and one that heralds lots of changes for both you and your growing child!

See Also
Nursery
Decorating and Accessorising Your Nursery
Dumbo themed wallpaper
How to Design a Nursery