🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🌿 Environmental Stewardship — Using natural or recycled materials in decorating builds awareness that beautiful things don't require purchases — and that the natural world offers abundant creative materials that connecting to it reveals.
- 💬 Vocabulary & Self-Expression — Explaining decorating choices — why this color, why this placement, what the arrangement is meant to convey — develops descriptive language, aesthetic vocabulary, and the confidence to articulate personal preferences.
- 🎨 Aesthetic Sense & Design — Making decisions about color, placement, and composition develops aesthetic intelligence — the ability to create visually pleasing arrangements — that connects to art, design, and the appreciation of beauty across all domains.
- 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Deciding where things go, how they fit together, and how to use available space develops spatial reasoning — the mental visualization and spatial planning that geometry, architecture, and physical design require.
By Lorri Mealey
Shabby Chic may not be the first idea that comes to mind for a preschooler’s bedroom theme, however old fashion prints and vintage furniture are great for a fun bedroom. Faded floral prints and lace trim are a beautiful backdrop for any little girls bedroom. Vintage furniture is easy to find at local flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores.
What You Will Need
Step One: Shabby Chic Bedding
For sheets, look for floral prints from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. You can find popular rose prints in a variety of shades of pink and green. Don’t be afraid to mix and match prints and colors.
Look for old quilts, chenille spreads or printed coverlets to act as bedspreads, in shades of muted greens, blues, pinks, and yellows. For extra warmth throw on a colorful afghan or knitted blanket.
If you can find original textiles in good condition, consider buying vintage reproductions, which are very popular right now.
Step Two: Shabby Chic Walls & Floors
Paint the walls a soft pastel shade, picked from your Shabby Chic bedding, or purchase reproduction vintage wallpaper with a floral design from the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s.
Paint old wooden floors with a couple of coats of heavy-duty paint in pale green or grey-blue. If your preschooler’s room is carpeted, or you don’t want to paint the floor, add some faded floral rugs or colorful rag rugs.
Step Three: Shabby Chic Furniture
Look for old metal beds, popular in the late 1800s through the 1940s. Usually most brass or metal beds need only some cleaner, polish and lots of elbow grease. Paint the bed a fresh, crisp white, or add some color with vintage shades of pale pink, sky blue or butter yellow.
Old dressers and armoires need little work to look shabby chic, so long as their top coat of paint is not flaking off. Other ideas for storing you preschooler’s clothes include old metal locker bins or open shelves hung with pretty curtains.
Warning: When selecting any old furniture for a preschooler’s bedroom, be sure the piece is free from lead paint, rust, sharp edges or missing parts. When in doubt about lead paint, sand the piece of furniture in a well-ventilated area and apply new paint.
Step Four: Shabby Chic Accessories
Look for unconventional storage for your preschooler’s toys and games, such as wicker baskets, old wire bins, or old wooden packing boxes. Shop flea markets for some old vintage toys, such as rag dolls, teddy bears and wooden animals to use as functional decorations. You could even pull out some of your own childhood treasures- a favorite Cabbage Patch Kid, or a collection of Strawberry Shortcake Dolls, and let your own little girl enjoy playing with them.
Hang some vintage children's posters, or frame some paintings done by your preschooler for some Shabby Chic wall art. Give your preschooler some poster sized paper and some paint in shabby chic colors, and see what she creates.
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