If you share a bedroom with a brother or a sister, you know that tastes and styles can clash. Maybe you’re a girly girl who loves pink and your sister’s a tomboy who can’t stand anything frilly, or you’re totally into one football team while your brother cheers from their arch rivals. How can you design and decorate your bedroom when you’ve got to split it with someone else?
The main thing you need to remember is you have to design and decorate the room so both of you have a space you feel comfortable in and can live in. Having said that, it’s totally OK to pretend the one bedroom is actually two when it comes time to decorating it if you absolutely can’t come to a compromise or agreement about one theme that will suit you both. Spilt it down the middle and paint and furnish each side to suit your unique tastes and personalities.
Single Theme Bedroom
If you and your brother or sister want a room that’s all decorated in one theme and you think you can come to a mutual agreement about what it should look and feel like, then you’ll want to follow these tips for a single theme bedroom.
For sleeping, you can choose either futon bunk beds or twin beds . But since the bedroom is one theme, it’s a good idea to have matching bedding. Since the two of you may have really different tastes when it comes to patterns, you may want to settle on bedding that’s one solid color.
For your walls, you have a choice of wallpaper or paint. Either way, solids may work better than patterns if you can’t agree on a single design. Also, matching the walls to your bedding will tie the bedroom together. If a single, solid color on the walls seems boring to you, you can always do a complementary border in wallpaper.
In terms of furniture, matching, matching, matching is the way to go for two people sharing one room. Don’t worry – it doesn’t have to be boring. Furniture these days can be a lot of fun, and there are lots more options for kids’ bedrooms, like tables and chairs, entertainment centers, beanbags, etc.
Double Theme Bedroom
These tips are for kids who are polar opposite but still have to share a room. The best thing to do to start off is literally split the room in half and work on each side as if it’s a room in and of itself.
Paint or wallpaper each side of the room as you like. Be careful, though. You don’t want things to clash too badly. A good idea that looks nice, too, is to pick two solid colors that complement each other and paint each half of the bedroom separately.
No bunk beds for this divided bedroom. Get two twin beds that allow for under-the-bed and other kinds of storage so you don’t have to keep both your stuff all in one closet. As for bedding, pick what you like and think about what would match best with the color of your side of the room’s walls.
Furniture for this room can definitely be mix-n-match. And when it comes to storage pieces like bins, dressers and cubbies, get a bunch of labels and make sure to indicate where your stuff goes and where your sibling’s things should be kept.
There are tons of accessory options for a two-in-one bedroom:
- Lamps
- Window treatments
- Clocks
- Throw pillows and blankets
- Area rugs
- Wall hooks
- Storage trunks and benches
- Waste bins
