Parents know their children best, so you probably know what kind of setting will encourage the playfulness, creativity and imagination of your boy or girl and what kind of space will feel good to them. That is something to consider when furnishing the children’s room and select the furniture, home textiles, material and textures. Also bear this in mind when choosing the wall colours for your little ones’ room.

For babies, parents tend to go for soft colours which are a staple when it comes to children’s rooms. Nevertheless, we can infuse the room with a dynamic element such as walls in two colours. Who says the entire wall should be painted in one colour? Why not bring the trend in interior design called colour blocking into the children's room? It features bold, contrasting, unusual combinations which may not work for every child’s room. On the other hand, a combination of two pastel, soothing colours is always lovely. 

Small patterns

As little tots get bigger and turn four or five, they just love to show their creative side. They will be excited to get involved in the process of decoration or colouring the walls in their room. Make sure the challenge is within their abilities, but you might be surprised at the things they can do. Preschoolers are very proud of their rooms, and they will be even prouder if they have contributed to the way it looks.

Small and sweet patterns have an amazing effect and are easy to apply. All you need is a small amount of paint, ideally some paint leftovers from another project, a paintbrush and a stencil or masking tape. If you select a curved pattern, it will be easier to apply it with a stencil, which can be purchased or made at home. A stencil made of regular card stock will get soggy as you paint, so it is better to use thick card stock or pasteboard, or better yet, plastic material that is resistant to moisture or paint. Your little one will need some help: hold the stencil on the wall for her to keep it in place and prevent the pattern from smearing.

Small geometrical patterns such as crosses can be painted either with a stencil or by using masking tape. However, the second method is quite time-consuming as every single cross needs to be outlined on the wall with tape. Fill in the outlined cross with your preferred colour and use a brush size that matches the size of the pattern. If you are going to involve your little helper, select a smaller paintbrush as this will reduce the likelihood of crossing the taped lines. 

Wall paintings

You can also ask your children to help with seemingly more complex wall paintings. Some geometrical wall paintings look as complex as true works of art, but many of them do not call for any special skills. The key is good preparation for painting. Take, for example, a hilly landscape mural.

Use a pencil to gently outline the illustration you want to paint on the wall. Tape off the sections of the illustration to be painted in the same colour hue from the rest with masking tape, as this will hugely simplify the painting job. Before you paint the borders between two colour sections, wait for the painted section to dry to prevent any mixing of colours. Unless this is an effect you are aiming for.

It is simple to paint a separate geometrical shape, so children can join in this task under the watchful eye of their parents. What about the colours? Ask your children for ideas, because they are bound to know what colours they want in their room. They have a rich imagination, so they may come up with ideas that are quite extraordinary. One thing is certain: you can’t go wrong with gentle tones that complement the furniture. Another safe choice is using child-friendly paint such as SPEKTRA Active Air. It is available in up to 500 different tones and its main property is that it absorbs harmful formaldehyde, a colourless carcinogenic gas which is most frequently found in wood coverings, furniture and home textiles such as wallpaper and curtains, as well as some cleaning agents, and turns it into harmless water vapour.

For the dexterous

Those who are clever with their hands and creative will set the bar higher. With a drop of imagination, a mural can be an almost tangible piece of interior design. Paint the wall above the bed, desk or shelves with innovative one- or two-colour paintings to liven up the room. It could be an illustration of a house with a tree next to it. This simple idea has a strong visual effect, but it does require a fair amount of drawing skills. However, no matter how skilful you may be, it is always a good idea to first draw details such as branches and leaves with a pencil on the wall before painting.

Another deceptively simple idea which requires somewhat more patience is a beautiful and timeless striped pattern, suitable both for preschoolers and children in their early teens. The stripes as such are not hard to paint, but the preparations may take some more time. Once you have decided on the width of each band, measure and mark the stripes with a ruler or tape measure and protect the edges with masking tape. Now all you have to do is paint the room. The pattern is simple yet full of possibilities if you let your imagination run free. The width of the stripes can vary and you can use two paints only, several shades of the same colour or multiple colours to achieve a rainbow. Just make sure you don’t get carried away and forget that the walls should complement the style and colouring of the room’s interior design.

The wall can be a magnetic board

If not earlier, children in the last years of primary school, not to speak of secondary school children, want to be autonomous and make their own choices about the appearance of their room. They like to explore the possibilities, put up posters on the wall, draw on the walls etc. You can provide an outlet for their creativity with SPEKTRA Magnetic, a paint containing a special ferromagnetic material which can make magnets stick directly to the wall surface. Teenagers can play around with ideas; change the area above their desk into a magnetic wall or apply the paint on each wall in a particular shape where they can easily attach drawings, posters, notes or messages. The sky is the limit.

This paint is manufactured with material that has magnetic properties and is black, so it is used as a basecoat which can be optionally covered with a finishing decorative coat of paint. The roller used to apply SPEKTRA Magnetic paint should not be reused for painting the finishing coat, because the paint cannot be fully removed and it might smear the top coat.

 Another idea, quite unlike the magnetic wall, is a rainbow wall decoration that will also appeal to teenagers. Especially if the idea and execution is theirs. You will need different colour tones, which are to be painted on the wall in the preferred shape. For greater accuracy, use stencils, which can easily be fashioned by yourself. Or your teenager, who will be profoundly proud of their creativity and the end result.