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You have made it! You have reached the top! You have
acquired the ultimate luxury, the very essence of a
parental paradise - your children have a separate bathroom!
But now that they have it, how do you make it a space
just for them without spending their lunch money, college
fund and inheritance? There are inexpensive ways to
make their bathroom a place so cheerful they will want
to take a bath and brush their teeth!
1. Start with a neutral décor. Neutral doesn't
necessarily mean tan or cream. Blues or soft greens
can be neutrals as well. You want a color that will
grow with your child's changing interests and styles.
Bright, vibrant colors are wonderful colors, but when
covering every wall of a small space…well, one
can tire easily living inside a crayon box (really!).
2. Add vibrant color and personality with accessories,
wall and window treatments and easy paint effects that
can be changed quickly and easily. This is a great chance
to let your child use his or her own creativity! However,
if your child wants a bathroom covered with vampires
and ghouls with faucets dripping blood red water, you
might want to draw the line and seek professional help!
3. Find a bright fabric to match your chosen theme
and make your own shower curtain. It is a simple matter
of hemming the top and bottom and adding grommets to
hold the curtain rings. You can sew pockets made from
the fabric (reinforced with fuseable backing) to the
front of the shower curtain to hold washcloths, combs
and the like. Add one or two grommets to the bottom
of the pocket to allow moisture to evaporate.
4. Pick one color from the fabric you chose to use as
a wall color (for a vibrant color, paint only one wall
as a feature and leave the other walls neutral or simply
paint the wall trim). Before you paint a wall, however,
live with the color for at least 24 hours. Buy a small
can of the color you choose and paint a large piece
of cardboard. Prop the cardboard against the wall or
tape it to the wall so that you can see the color at
various times of the day. What may look wonderful by
morning light may be ghastly under artificial light.
5. For a customized look for your windows, or if you
just don't like the look of conventional curtains, try
cutting out a portion of the fabric around a featured
pattern and using fuseable backing to adhere it to a
roller shade. Or add an edging to the bottom of the
shade - wide rick-rack, a ruffle, tassel edging, pompoms,
or a strip of matching fabric. Give you a hot glue gun
and a basket full of trim and then "Katie, bar
the door"!
6. Give life to the bathroom with painted knobs or
specialty children's knobs in fun shapes to match your
theme. You can paint the knobs in stripes, flowers,
checkerboards, squiggles, animals and any other shape
your child can think of! If you are handy with power
tools, try making knobs of simple shapes made of scrap
wood. Simply prime and let your child paint!
7. Remember to put a towel ring at a height your child
can reach. You can personalize towels by cutting letters
from of the fabric you have chosen and applying them
to the towel with an appliqué stitch on your
sewing machine or by using fuseable backing. Just make
sure that the fabric is color-fast!
8. If you don't like the tile you have, dress it up
with stencils made from ordinary sponges. Choose a simple
shape and make a template out of paper. Place the paper
over the sponge and cut with a utility knife or scissors.
Clean your tiles with soap and water, then alcohol.
Pour your paint into disposable tin pie plates for ease
of clean up. Press the sponge into the paint, then press
the paint-filled sponge to the wall. Don't move the
sponge around, just lift it off carefully. Let dry thoroughly
and apply a polyurethane finish.
9. Make certain that bathmats you chose for the room
have a non-skid backing for your child's safety. There
are many bathmats available now with themes for children.
10. To help little ones reach the sink, steps with
a broad, stable base can be painted and decorated. But
remember, if a child can reach the sink to get his toothbrush,
he/she may also be able to reach electric appliances
like hairdryers or storage cabinets filled with medicines.
Keep them behind child-proof locked doors.
11. Fill a small basket with shampoo, toothpaste and
other personal hygiene items that a child can easily
handle. Decorate the basket in your theme with ribbons,
painted or stenciled animals, or other trims. Again,
hot glue can be a decorator's friend!
Sound like fun? It is! Making your child's bathroom
into one you can be proud of is a rewarding experience!
Now…if you can just convince your husband to change
the Early Athlete's Foot décor of his own shower,
your life would be perfect! |
