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Your child's bedroom is the one room in the house where decorating takes on new meaning. Here you can enter the world of fun and fantasy and allow your imagination to run wild. As with any other room in the house, I would start with a story board. This is where you build an idea for a room using paint, swatches of fabric, magazine cuttings, and anything else that inspires you. It is important that you do this as you don't want to find yourself part way through the project and find you cannot get the accessories to complete the look. If you need inspiration for your theme, who better to consult than your child? What is their favorite toy or book character? Do they love dinosaurs, spaceships, ballet, princesses, football, trains, cars, animals? Start with your theme and then build your story board around this. Think about the finished look you are trying to achieve. Do you want it to be a stimulating environment to learn and play, in which case you might opt for bolder, primary colors. Or do you want it to be a peaceful place where they go to rest, in which case you may prefer to stick to calmer neutrals and pastels.

Lighting is an important factor to consider. Both my children like to sleep with a nightlight. My son has a wonderful light that rotates and projects patterns on the walls. For my daughter, I opted for a string of lights with heart shaped covers which are wrapped around her bed post. She also has a pretty bedside table lamp for reading. Alternatively, adding a dimmer switch to the overhead light means you can alter the mood for bedtime or play.

Try to add accessories that will add texture to the room. You can create the overall look with paint but this can be really enhanced and even interactive if you use velcro to stick items to the wall that go with the overall theme. Adding soft furnishings, such as a cosy armchair for bedtime stories, also adds texture and softness to the room. Here are some ideas to get you started!

The alphabet - you can create a lovely, simple theme for a young child or baby's room by stenciling the alphabet around the walls. You can add a three dimensional aspect by adding pre-formed letters above their bed, perhaps spelling their name or the word sleep'. Hang an alphabet sampler on the wall and decorate shelves with wooden toys and traditional building blocks.

A town - this look is inspired by the lovely town on the isle of Mull in Scotland where the childrens TV show Balimorie is set. First sketch out your shapes in pencil

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