Decorating a Bedroom That Is Shared By Siblings

It is challenging enough to decorate your son or daughter's room as they mature from being a toddler and want to express themselves, but if you have two kids sharing a room, this can be the epitome of challenging. You want to give each of them their own space, but don't really want to create a divider that delineates one side from the other. Each with his or her own personality, you don't want either to feel slighted. Competition is constantly an issue with siblings and the last thing you want to do is feed into it.

First Things First

The first thing to do is sit down and involve each of your kids in the design process. Let them both have their opinions heard. Maybe one parent can write down all the suggestions while the other sits and listens and is a part of the conversation. Hear how each wants to see his or her half of the room decorated and write them down. If bickering occurs, remind them that this is simply the planning stages, and that you are just hearing ideas. It's important that each understands that no decisions will be made without everyone being in agreement.

Chances are good that you have one who is dominant in personality and another who is passive. Don't allow the dominant one to talk over the passive one. Equally important is not to allow the passive one to get his way because he's so used to not getting a word in edge wise.

Ideally you would love it if after hearing every single item on your kids' wish lists, you can begin to weed out some of the ideas they were just throwing out there to be heard. Equally optimal is that after feeling heard, they decide they can share a desk, sleep in bunk beds and share a closet. If you did the first part of the exercise correctly, getting each to compromise shouldn't be so arduous.

Lastly, A Very Important Step

With any hope, you should be able to convince both to agree on things like paint colors, window treatments and furniture. If you are successful with that, ask each of them to select a corner of the room that each can express his or her personality. A ground rule needs to be set that each has to respect the other's corner of the room.