There are so many ways you can have fun, experiment with color, and do all the things you would have wanted as a kid. First you must channel your inner kid! Kids come with so many personalities, precocious, serious, funny, silly, scientific, dramatic, colorful, happy and the list goes on and on. My kids are very different. Jack is and always has been a serious little guy with a very outgoing yet logical personality. My daughter however, is dramatic, artistic and has a sense of style to rival a character on Project Runway.
Start with the color: Color is so much fun in a kids room! Stripes are a favorite of mine. I like to to do stripes at kids eye level, usually involving 3 different colors. The room above has green walls, a light pink ceiling and 2 bold orange and fuscia stripes to separate the colors. This way I could bring the ceiling color down on the walls. Try to paint the kids rooms with zero VOC paint colors. I prefer Harmony Paint by Sherwin Williams, very lovely colors and quite affordable.
Then add the bones: Buy furniture that is not too childlike, or else they may grow out of it too fast. I tend to like the clean, modern lines of Room and Board Kids or Ikea. I can see the furniture in the above room going from house to house and because it is from Room and Board, it may make it all the way to college. Figure out great ways to store kids stuff. I prefer cubbie storage from Ikea and then add baskets and containers to keep it organized. The room above has a great system in the closet to keep all of her toys for her small room.
Then the fun accessories!: Bedding, windows, bean bags, lamps...all of these add so much personality to the room! In the above room we were definitely working with little Kate's vibrant and precocious personality and trying to bring in nature and color. The bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids. The windows are a neat treatment. We bought black out roller shades from Lowe's and my seamstress sewed trim on the bottom. Then she created a small 4" valance to cover up the roll. Then we used light green and pink linen for the curtains with the same trim at the seam. The hardware is white wood to keep things light and airy.
Have Fun and Keep it Simple! After all, if we get stressed out with the kids rooms, what are we going to do with the living room?