Kids room makeover

Recently I traveled with my husband to Phoenix to visit  our son and two young grandchildren. My teenage daughter moved in with them to finish her last year of high school had taken one of the kids bedroom's for herself.  For many of us, a shared bedroom for siblings of the opposite sex is not a choice but a necessity. If your kids haven't shared a room since infancy, it becomes a challenge to merge them together into the same bedroom especially if the children are of the opposite sex. As a family of artistic and handy DIY-er's, we spent our visit renovating the toddler bedroom.

Establish boundaries so that each child has a little space of their own within the room. Reinvent and reuse what you have when possible!

Each child needs:

• a place to sleep
• storage
• an area for play
• a work surface to paint, draw or do homework, if the space allows it.

Choosing a color scheme may feel daunting, but don't worry. Start by using an item that is going to serve as a guide to select all your other colors in the room.

I chose the sheets for the individual beds as my color inspiration. Think about what your kids like. Make it personal; dinosaurs were a perfect choice for my grandson and my grand daughter loves outer space. Make sure that the two different sets of sheets go together. From there you can choose all the different items you need- like blankets, curtains, wall color, furniture, etc.

To me, color is the most important factor in creating the mood of a room.  I wanted to make the bedroom relaxing by using a calming gray color for three of the walls and black chalk  paint on the focus wall.

It definitely took a lot of elbow grease to reinvent the space, but it was well worth the effort. Our budget was small, but our changes very effective. The next phase for this room will be hardwood floors. Carpet and toddler's don't mix, in my opinion. Do what you can, the best you can, when you can- that is what matters most!