by Roberta Velyn

Created on: November 11, 2007   Last Updated: December 29, 2008

When my son was about ten, he and his sister traded bedrooms. She had chosen the paint color not long before, and the room didn't need painting, so I told him we'd have to decorate around the color she'd chosen, which was a soft periwinkle blue. He wanted something more dramatic and after discussing several options over a period of time, we were at a stalemate and the room remained a pretty blue.

I had been looking for premixed tempera paint for my nursery school class and came across large bottles in a rainbow of colors, so bought five of them - red, yellow, blue, black and white - with the intention of giving the children the opportunity to experiment with mixing primary colors. When my son saw the paint he asked if he could use it to do a mural in his bedroom. I agreed that he could paint the door wall - the one that couldn't be seen from the hallway. He got up early on a Saturday morning and began the project, painting straight onto the wall.

I had no idea what to expect, but since the painting would be visible only from within the room, I was able to relax and let the boy do his thing. As soon as he finished he proudly invited me to view the project. He'd been wanting a dog for some time, and I had been resisting. The mural expressed that desire: it covered the entire wall, with the blue wall paint becoming the background sky for "SuperDog" in a cape flying through the air in a typical Superman pose! My son had spent the entire day mixing paint to arrive at the colors he wanted, and had plenty left over for additions and touch-ups, as well as for my nursery school class.

I bought some brightly colored pillowcases and storage bins to match some of the colors in the mural, and the room became a child's personal fantasy world. Many a time I walked past the bedroom door to see my son and a friend stretched out on the bed with their arms behind their heads, facing the mural and taking turns making up adventures for SuperDog.

When my son outgrew the decor we simply washed the mural off the wall and touched up a few splatters of black paint on the white ceiling and the room was once again neutral enough for an occupant of any age or gender.

I've never seen a child take such pride in a project, and I highly recommend this approach to personalizing a child's room. Cost is minimal, all the work is done by the child, and it's completely reversible with a bucket of warm soapy water.

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