This one is for you Christine! Since you live somewhat in the west, how about a cowboy theme? Here is how we did Brady's room. His walls are stone around the bottom half, the top is some old trim we found in a house and stripped, and burned with streaks. It looks like a boy's room! One long wall has logs.

Cale built his bed from cherry lumber. Across the top of the bed he put a slab of wood that still has the bark on it as a headboard. Our closets do not have doors, we have curtains hanging on them. I found some blue flanned, with dark blue, light blue, and dark green, (kind of like a flannel shirt) for 89 cents a yard. I bought enough to make curtains. For his window I used a beige sheer panel someone gave me, which I used to make 2 panels. For his bed I found a comforter that is dark blue, with very small white lines in a square pattern, It was $10. His dresser was mine when I was a kid, just plain wood, but heavy duty.

Now to the decorating. Cale mae him a coat rack for his door with horseshoes. We found some pictures of wild turkeys, deer and country scenes. Cale made him a shelf where he puts his horses and cowboy hats. He also has several posters of horses. He also has a big set of shelves for his toys and building blocks. It turned out very nicely and only cost us about $200 total (includingthe tile for the floors, and the mortar for the stones!) I think it will be a nice style for him for years. He was about 5 when we finished it and he is 8 now.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), March 02, 2002

Answers

Christine~

I too have a cowboy theme room for my youngest. He loves anything cowboy or TEXAS Longhorns, which just kills his Razorback mad Dad! I saw a cute thing on TV that we are going to try. Cover plain bookshelves or I think closets would look good too, with doors that look like barn doors. My youngest son loved it!!

My middle son has a star theme in his room. The quilt has star appliques and it is sooo cute. I have just added navy or royal blue accents and he can add sport or whatever his interest is this month items to the mix. He has a lot of trophies from sports and school that we display on his chest.

We also have an outdoor themed bath. It is easy, I just used plaids for shower curtain and window curtain. Hang some fishy, hunting stuff up. I have an old minnow bucket in there that they lay their towel on for the shower. It is an easy theme to find inexpensive items to decorate with.

-- Ivy in NW AR (balch84@cox-internet.com), March 02, 2002.

One thing we have done is give the boys the option of staying together or separating. If they separate to their own rooms, they each get to pick their theme. If they stay together, they both have to agree on a theme for each room (right now they sleep in one room and have toys in the other). They both want to stay together for now, but haven't decided on a theme yet! I'm trying to encourage more "generic" themes like western or sports or cars as opposed to the "Blue's Clues" and "Power Rangers" junk.

We'll be slowly plugging along. Lance thinks I should paint a mural on one wall, so I asked him where we were going to get the talent! I can get the paint at Home Depot or Wal-Mart, but we are just fresh out of talent, unless we let the 3 year old do it!

I'll let you guys know what we finally decide. I want to make it special for them, and I've never done this before, so it should be an adventure!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), March 05, 2002.