Designing a Boy’s Animal Bedroom
Animals and safari themes are a great way to transition your sons room out of the toddler/nursery stage.
When it’s time to update the nursery into a little boy’s room, consider an animal theme. One sticking point that many parents run into is that your little guy is beyond the cribs and nursery themes, but his interests are still developing.
Thomas the Train may be hot with him this week, but next week he may move on to Barney, or the Wiggles, or someone else new and exciting. By sticking with a more generic theme, you may be able to eke a little more use out of it before redecorating with the next big thing. Read on for some ideas on how to turn his bedroom into a wild kingdom.
Animal Bedroom Basics
Picking a theme makes all of the difference between an animal bedroom that looks well designed and one that looks messy and jumbled.
Rather than picking animals at random, decide on a theme first and let the rest of the room evolve naturally from that. For example, you might focus on zoo animals, jungle animals, or desert animals, just to name a few of the options. Each type would have different animals in the design: the zoo themed room would have to have lions, bears, elephants, giraffes, and the like.
Wall decals like these jungle safari stickers are cheap and quite easy to put up!
The jungle room would have monkeys, snakes, zebras and lions. The desert room would include wolves, jackrabbits, bobcats, and bear. Or, if there’s one particular animal that has meaning to your child, you could focus on that one animal and give him a bear room, for example.
Similarly, let the color scheme develop naturally from the type of animals that you’re selecting. A zoo themed room might have some brightly colored accents, like the booths and balloons that are normally found at the zoo. A jungle room is going to need some deep greens and browns to evoke that rainforest feel. And a desert room would work particularly well in tans, browns, and dark greens.
Generally, wood furniture is going to look the best in an animal themed room, since you’ve got a nature related theme. However, that doesn’t mean that metal or modern looking furniture has to go; it can be toned down with the right accents and bedding to make it work.
WallPaperBorders.com has a great selection of animal and other wallpaper borders.
Animal Window Treatments
Depending on your animals or animal of choice, you may be able to purchase a set of curtains that would look great in your son’s animal bedroom. Zoo themes are particularly common, and they include a variety of animals in the prints that do a good job of tying the room together and making it feel cohesive.
However, if you select something a little less common, you may need to tackle the treatments yourself. One thing that you can do is try to find some fabric and make some simple pocket curtains. They are so easy to make that even beginners can sew them.
But what if you’re designing a hawk bedroom or something equally esoteric and can’t find any fabric that will work with the design? Of course, you can stick with generic mini blinds or solid colored curtains, but you have some other options too. First, consider the habitat that you’re working with.
For forest animals, look for curtains in a leafy print. For desert animals, try a mottled or nubby tan fabric that looks a little like sand. Or you can try evoking a cabin in the woods with rustic shutters; this approach would work well with forest animals like bears. Similarly, plantation shutters would work well in a jungle room.
Animal Bedroom Theme Bedding
Animal related bedding works pretty much the same as the window treatments do. If you’ve got common animals, you shouldn’t have much trouble with the bedding. But if you’re working with something a little less common, you’re going to need to be creative.
Consider your color scheme, and then consider the colors in the animal’s pelt, hide, or whathaveyou. In the example of the hawk room, the bed could be done in shades of brown, grey, and white to mimic the colors in a hawk feather. Use textured fabrics to add a little bit of interest to otherwise solid colors and don’t be afraid of using patterns. Just steer away from modern patterns like polka dots; stripes or plaids tend to work better.
Animal Bedroom Theme Accessories
In an animal room, the accessories really make the theme, particularly if you’ve chosen one of those rare animals that we’ve been talking about throughout this article. So your goal is to add animal related images and materials as much as possible. The most obvious ways to do this are through posters, pictures, and figurines, and you’re definitely going to want some of them.
To create a more finished look, make sure to frame posters in a poster frame or mount them on a piece of Styrofoam. Taping them directly to the wall not only leaves marks on your paint, but it also gives the room a college dormitory kind of feel, which is not what you’re going for.
You can mix things up and get wild with animal pint fabrics.
But why stop there? Don’t forget about books on the animals in question, which can be lined up on a shelve or opened to display a particularly interesting picture. Depending on the animal in question, you may be able to create a learning experience out of the design with some biological models or specimens. For example, mount and hang a bear claw necklace in a bear room.
String and display feathers in a bird room. Post statistics on endangered species; hang a map and tack animal photos in their countries of origin to help children learn where zoo animals come from. Not only do these types of accessories make your child’s room completely unique, but they also help him learn a little more about the wonders of the animal kingdom, and that’s never a bad thing.
