Battle of the Sexes Decorating with Both Children in Mind

You have one room, but you have two children who love to play in it. They each have their own tastes and likes, and to make it worst, one is a boy and one is a girl. What do you do? How do you decorate for both and keep both of them happy? It's not a matter or pink and blue anymore. Now that your children have aged some, it's more a matter of who controls what. And if your children aren't trying to control the playroom now, be forewarned, they will!

So considering that fact, what must a parent do in order to restore peace in the play room? The best advice is to observe and study both of your children. Although you are the parent and you many known them better than they know themselves, your children may from time to time display certain characteristics that will make your decorating project easy.

For the sake of example, say your daughter, Sally we'll call her, does everything that little girls are supposed to do, but she has a nasty little habit of drawing on her bedroom walls, and the living room walls, and the kitchen walls…get the point? Sally is displaying a very artistic nature. Although she may annoy you with this, if properly channeled, she could be the next Picasso. She wants the room to be a painting and drawing room. Little Johnny on the other hand loves to build things. He has dozens of building blocks to play with. He is a next great architect! He wants the room to be dedicated solely to playing with blocks.

So how do you give them both what they want? First, clean and organize the room from top to bottom. The best way to do this is to purchase plastic storage containers of various sizes… bigger ones for the larger toys and smaller (shoe box size) for the smaller pieces. Take a black permanent marker and label each box according to its owner. Example: Sally's crayons or Johnny's blocks. This way, they will know who owns what and they will know that Mom and Dad know too.

When all toys have been stocked in the appropriate boxes, line them across a vacant wall. Do not stack them higher than your child's height, and do not stock them too heavy. The next thing that you need to do is get out a roll of duct tape or masking tape. Starting with the oldest child, ask him or her which side do they favor. When he or she decides, draw a "tape" line down the middle of the room. You will have one side for your boy and one side for your girl and a space in between as a "neutral zone".

On your son's side arrange his beloved blocks so he will have easy access to them. Make sure that he's got enough room to jump around and release all that boyish energy. On the other hand, for your daughter's side, slide a small table in the corner, facing away from him. Place a container labeled, "Sally's crayons" and "Sally's drawing paper", underneath the table so she will have easy access to it.

The main goal here is to get them on opposite sides of the room, facing away from each other. The less direct contact they have with each other the better. Each one will be wrapped up in his and her own artistic zone. The room has been cleaned, divided and organized. Your son and daughter are playing on his and her designated side. No longer is it a cluttered war zone. It's an organized playroom.

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Rhonda Morin, owner of http://myinteriordecorator.com and author of The Decorating Bible, enjoys writing and teaching others how to decorate their homes their way online.

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Copyright (R) Rhonda Morin, MyInteriorDecorator.com. Article may not be reprinted without permission and may not be reprinted without author byline including the active links.

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