Most children have a place in their heads where they go to when they day dream. For some children this is a magical place, where the grass on a hill is not green but constantly changing shades of reds, blues, mauve and green. Trees can be every colour orange, red or purple. The sky is sometimes yellow, the rivers run in the colours of soft drinks and soda pop.
Personally, I'd find living in that kaleidoscope world forever a bit hard to take but! If you'd like to help create a fantasy land for your child and perhaps get away from the Barbie pinks and purples or space concept consider this.
Choose two similar tone paints as the base wall colours a mid strength colour, not too pale. Colours to choose from include lolly pink, Wedgwood blue, lavender (make sure it is a warm lavender not a cool or grey tone), or warm rusty gold.
- Paint two walls in one colour, the other two using the alternative you have chosen.
- Select a third paint this time a much darker colour. Perhaps a mushroom, a strong dark blue, a plum colour or a very dark fuscia-coloured paint. Use this colour around the door frame and windows sills. It is your trim colour.
- For the very adventurous, you can play with the ceiling colour. If you are stepping away from white-painted ceilings, choose a very soft gold (a yellowy white) or a green-tinted off-white paint.
- At the tops of the walls, slightly running onto the ceiling, choose any of the non-trim paint colours to paint fluffy clouds. Aim for two to three clouds of varying sizes for each wall.
- At the base of each wall paint a "3-D" shape about a metre high a different shape for each wall. In front of it paint a smaller version for example, one wall may look like a stack of blocks, another maybe a mountain made of pyramids.
- About 1.5 metres up the wall mask a section about 120mm wide. Choose one colour. Paint this colour inside the masking tape around the room like a thread that runs around the room. Make sure this colour is not the same as you base wall paint colours. If you have chosen to paint the walls in blue and pink, for example, the colour inside the tape may be gold or green.
- At the hardware store, ask your child to choose transfers for each wall one character per wall. For example, a unicorn, alien, dragon, pirate, fairy or mermaid. Position on the wall so the character has some relationship with the shapes you have created.
- Choose accessories to suit the theme hang a net in one of corner of the room where the mermaid is swimming; introduce a treasure chest to store toys in the part of the room where the pirate lives.
Hopefully, when you are finished painting the room you'll have created a delightful space for your children to dream, play, rest in and remember when they grow up.
