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Creating a Kid's Room With a Jungle Theme

When you are ready to decorate your child's room, think beyond just paint and wallpaper for a moment.  For younger children especially, their room is their haven, their play area, the main part of their home, so why not make it special?  Simple paint and wall paper is great, and can help to liven up any room, but you can go beyond these items and create a children's room that will have them wanting to invite everyone over to see it.  There are certain themes that you can use that will be great for either a boy or a girl, and a jungle theme is one that is both easy to do and both a boy or a girl will enjoy.

First, you will need to paint the walls with your primary color.  Usually, a light green or yellow-green is best, as most of the other items in the room will be shades of green.  You can either choose to paint the ceiling this same shade, or you can opt for a sky blue to enhance the look of the jungle. 

Once you have your walls ready, you can move on to the carpet.  For the carpet color, you should choose a dark brown shade, or a dark green shade.  After all, you are in the jungle, and dirt or grass goes great here.  If you want to go all out with your jungle room, some carpet companies offer carpeting that resembles grass with special patterns or you can go with outdoor carpeting that looks like grass or dirt, but these are harder and can cause some scrapes if your child plays on the floor a lot.

Lighting is another big part of any jungle, and a harsh overhead light isn't always the best.  You can purchase and install a dimmer switch if you want to have an overhead light to help create the feel of daylight, dusk, and night in your child's new jungle.  Other lighting, such as rope lights or even white Christmas lighting works great as extra lighting and will give your child a fun room at night, with some great night lights.  If you choose rope lighting, make sure that you purchase enough to circle the room on the ceiling or floor.  You can use hooks or other items to attach the rope lights to the ceiling or floor, just make sure that you keep the ropes at the edge of either the ceiling or floor.  If you choose white Christmas lighting, make sure that you find the ones with the bulbs that will allow the whole strand to flash.  (This can help make the room have a “twinkling star” look at night.)  These strand lights are much more versatile, and you can tack them up around the edges of the ceiling and/or run them through the trees or other areas of the room for extra light and extra fun.

Now comes the fun part!

The next step is to purchase some of the glow in the dark stars, usually about 1 package per every 10 feet of ceiling.  You will need to use an adhesive to ensure that they don't fall after a week or so, as they might be hard to get to after the room is complete.  Space them out all over the ceiling, and your child can help with this part.  You can even print out constellation maps to create real life star patterns on your child's ceiling.

And now, for the trees!  Every jungle needs trees, and you can usually find some great options at the larger arts and crafts stores.  Purchase at least a couple of larger palm trees, (for each side of the bed), and several other palm trees.  You should anchor two of the larger palms to either side of the headboard, and another palm in each corner of the room. 

You should also purchase some ivy strands, which you can find at any crafts store, larger discount store (such as Target or Wal-Mart) for between $1-$3 each.  Purchase enough to criss-cross the ceiling a bit, wrap around any lamps or bed posts, and line closet doors, windows, shelves, and so on.  You can use small nails to tack these in on the ceiling, above the doors and windows, and any other areas you like.

For the bedding or other material items in the room, you can usually find a jungle themed bed set, such as sheets, comforters, pillow cases, and so on.  If you cannot find them at your local discount store, you can always find them online.  Look for some throw pillows that look like jungle birds, plants, or animals as well to complete the bedding look. 

Get creative with the other furniture and items that you place in the room, as there are all sorts of jungle-themed items that you can purchase online and off to complete the look for either a boy or a girl.  When all is finished, your child will have a unique jungle room that they will love to be in and have their friends in.