Decorating kids' room is no child's play

PUNE: Gone are the days whendecorating the children's room happened as an afterthought. Today's kids have itmade - what with fond parents opting to create a magical ambience for them,armed with informed inputs from interior decorators, and a generous budget. So,be it a Disney theme for a young child or Space Wars for an older one, pink andcream for a girlie look, or all the characters from a favourite comic bookrecreated on the wall, there's no two ways about it: Doing up the children'srooms is far from child's play.Said interior decorator Jyoti Panse: "In the last few years, there has been a definite increase in the importance accorded to children's rooms. In all this, the children themselves have clear ideas what they want."So, it's dolls and fairies for a little girl,an automobile theme for a little boy, complete with a bed shaped like a sportscar, play areas with slides, ladders and basketballs for that outdoors feel, andpunching bags and images of their favourite sportsmen for health-consciousteenagers. "We recently did a room for a teenager who has just completed std X.A total science enthusiast, he was thrilled with what we did for his room: ascience lab with real apparatus and test-tubes. The room was much more than athemed room, it represented his aspiration of making it as a scientist someday,"she said.Artist Ketaki Pimpalkhare points out: "Doing up a child'sroom well is an important effort towards making the time he/she spends alonemore meaningful, rewarding and interesting. It reflects his/her personality, andprovides an artistic and intellectual stimulus." Pimpalkhare, who painted alittle girl's walls with butterflies, flowers and fences, said the latterderived great joy from it. "The visual stays with you as an important aspect ofyour childhood, even when you grow up.""My son is nine, and he hasdefinite ideas about what he wants. Sure, we were conscious that he is likely togrow up, and his tastes would change, but some things we let him have his way,"said homemaker Nupur Rathore. "For instance, he loves mountain biking with hisdad, so we had an artist create images of the Tour de France, apart from puttingup pictures of his favourite cyclists. These were interspersed with strategicimages of his pictures on him and his dad, with tiny little spot lights on them.The hand-painted bedsheets had sporty images as well, matched by the rug on thefloor.Public relations professional Zubair Poonawalla points outthat investing considerable thought in doing up his son Mikhail's room went along way in getting the five-and-a-half-year-old boy to become independent. "Asa toddler, he would sleep in our bedroom. But it was necessary to gradually gethim used to the idea of his own room. We noticed that on our trips abroad, heloved to sleep on bunk beds - when atop a bunk bed, he didn't seem to miss hismother," he said. "So, we got him a bunk bed; and decided to get an artist to doup a wall with the little one's favourite characters from Jungle Book. Ofcourse, Mikhail had quite a few inputs to offer on the subject as well," hesaid. The Jungle Book theme, complete with a life-size Mowgli, Bagheera andBalloo is greatly appreciated by him and his little friends. They relate to thecharacters, and it's a very child-friendly and colourful space," saidPoonawalla. "The edges of the furniture are rounded and there is aspecifically demarcated space for his toys. Of all the rooms in the house thiswas the hardest to do up, for it was necessary to provide the right stimuli fora child in the process of growing up."The budgets for the roomsusually extend upwards of Rs one lakh.