Cujam West Home and Garden

Decorating your child’s room can be a nightmare of tactful negotiation between unsightly colours of wall paint, quirky furniture they’ll tire of within the month, and storage solutions you know they’ll never use. To take the difficulty out of decorating your child’s room, there are some easy steps to keep you both happy.

1. It’s important to involve your children. Decorating the room is a fantastic way to spend some fun time together. Deciding on a theme is the first step, whether it’s a football club, their favourite cartoon characters or a favourite book. Find something that your child loves and the theme will provide a platform on which to build the entire look of the room around.

1. Once you’ve decided on a theme, the core colours of the room’s design should become apparent and you can apply the palette to most of the furniture in the room. Kidspace furniture at Littlewoods focuses on providing parents with décor solutions for kids’ rooms. Try browsing their online catalogue with your child. If you’re feeling particularly creative, set yourselves the challenge of building a mood board and a room layout to scale using print-out images of their favourite furniture. That way finding the perfect pieces to fill the room should be easy.

1. It’s important to choose a single focal point for the room. This could be a fun bed, allowing you to reinforce your chosen theme for the room. Most importantly, this means that when your child’s taste changes, you can adapt this focal feature rather than having to revamp the entire room.

When it comes to building the theme around the focal point, use some imagination – both yours and your child’s. Wallpaper, paint and designs related to the theme are essential for helping you finish off the room, as well as furniture, fabrics and accessories.

Creating an all-encompassing theme should be a fun, rewarding experience for you and your child. Spending some time looking for the perfect bed, accessories and furniture will open a whole world of possibilities to the redesign of your child’s room.

1. Health and Safety Has Gone Mad

According to the HSE (Health and Safety Executive), this is the number one myth associated with Health & Safety. Between 2007-2010 the HSE ran a highly effective “Myth of the Month” initiative to debunk the numerous misconceptions out there. The HSE is eager to boost its intention to save lives, not stop them. Their aim is to promote understanding that current H&S procedure must fall in line with changes in society, e.g. disability awareness, litigious culture etc.

2. Risk Assessment is Too Complicated

Risk assessment is usually very straightforward. The myth was born from the fact that most HSE advice cites various legislative documents to back up assessments. For the layman this can be confusing. Risk assessment is about identifying potential hazards and putting protocols in place to reduce them, e.g. wearing PPE when handling chemicals, putting up a “Wet Floor” sign when mopping etc.

3. Health and Safety Takes the Play Out of Playgrounds

Indoor foam playgrounds and outdoor play areas can be wonderfully fun, stimulating and engaging for children of all ages. The HSE has spent a great deal of time on the establishment of new procedures for playgrounds that are current and compliant with modern living. For example, an old 1960s steel climbing frame may have served previous generations well, but could now be dangerous or exclude disabled children from use. Replacing indoor hard flooring with rubber boards can significantly reduce the risk of injury etc. It’s not about ruining fun, but about creating a modern, relevant environment.