by Natalia Jones

Created on: May 25, 2009   Last Updated: December 22, 2009

The trick to creating a fantasy bedroom for your kids is to try to remember what it was like to be a child. Adults often look for practicality and function. But for children a bedroom is a place to escape. It is most likely the stage for their games and the backdrop for their imagination, so it should be inspirational.

Of course, it must also make the adults happy by coming in within budget and hitting all the right spots when it comes to storage and longevity.

So before you get swept away in the moment and whip out your card for that absolutely adorable castle bed or the racing car cot your little one is craving, stop a moment and consider - is there a way to make us both happy for a long time?

Children change their interests faster than Microsoft can design a new version of Windows, so do you really want to spend lots of money designing a bedroom that may satisfy your child for a few months, if you're lucky?

There is a way to give your child a bedroom that will fuel their imagination and express the things they love at the moment without going for broke.

Know What Your Child Likes

The first step, of course, is to make sure you are up to the minute with your child's interests. You may have had an impassioned conversation extolling the greatness of Dora the Explorer last week, but who could have foreseen the explosion of Hannah Montana? Lesson number one is to have the conversation of what your child's fantasy space will entail and try to capture the essence of what they really want.

You may hear them go on and on about how cool Hannah Montana is, but maybe what they are drawn to is the singing and fashion on the show. This can be captured in your design without painting a huge Hannah Montana mural and buying every imaginable gadget and gizmo with her face on it.

Boys can be equally fanatic and just as fickle. It can be Ironman on Monday and by Friday the new Superman movie is due to be released, and guess what? Superman reigns supreme for the weekend. Try to capture the essence of your child's superhero fantasy without getting too literal.

Buy Sensible Furniture

In keeping with the idea of not going into theme overkill, invest in timeless furniture that will grow with your child instead of the tiny car bed that he will outgrow in a year, or the princess bed your little girl will some day in the very near future refuse to lay her head in because she is not a baby. The big ticket items in the room should be sensible and sturdy enough to withstand the

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