Five Tips for Decorating an Anxious Child's Bedroom
Raising an anxious child can be hard on both the parent and the child. However, there are steps you can take to make your home into a calming oasis for your child. Start by focusing on his or her room. Here are five ideas to consider:
1. Use peaceful paint colours
The colours on your child's wall can have a big impact on how your child feels. Avoid high energy colours such as red and orange, and embrace anxiety-reducing palettes in earth tones. Alternatively, blue can also be a helpful colour as shades of blue are known to reduce heart rates, slow breathing and generally boost feelings of calmness. For more information or advice, contact a business such as Brett Wallner Painting.
2. Consider integrating a wall mural
When you hire someone to paint your child's room, you don't just have to stick with colours. Instead, you can have a mural commissioned for your child's wall. Stay away from stories that have potentially stressful themes – for example, Noah's ark may be a fun animal story for some kids, but for an anxious kid, it could feel like a sad story about drowning animals and the destruction of the earth.
Talk with your child about what kind of images make them feel happy or upbeat. The mural could encompass a story, or it could just be a display of objects your child enjoys, like moons or stars.
3. Create light in the room
If you have a child who is anxious about the dark, make the bedroom lighter for him. Consider adhering glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, or use glow-in-the-dark paint to create a fun twist. Alternatively, use lava lamps, night lights or even strings of twinkly lights to make the room brighter in the evening.
4. Make an art space
In addition to decorating your child's room in a way that will help him or her to feel more calm, consider providing activities to calm your child as well. For children who have been traumatised by war, many therapists use art to help them heal. You can emulate this approach by creating an art space in your child's room. This space could consist of anything including an easel with paint, a table of building blocks, an indoor sandbox or anything else that boosts creativity.
5. Invent a hiding spot
In addition to calming activities, consider creating a hiding spot for your child. A small hiding spot makes many anxious kids feel more secure. This area could be a tent in the middle of the room, a small cubby hole in the back of a closet, a bed with a long canopy over it or the underpart of a lofted bed. If possible, consider painting the walls near this area in extra special calming colours.