Design a train themed bedroom

Does your child have an affinity for trains? Here are some ideas that will help you create a train themed bedroom.

Walls: A train themed bedroom is an excellent excuse for painting a mural. Draw a curvy line around the room at a height for easy viewing, resembling small hills. Below that line, paint the walls green or any other color you please like red or blue. At the line you have drawn, paint a thin black line. Paint another line 2 inches beneath that. Then draw lines perpendicular to your parallel lines creating a train track. On one of the walls in the room, add 8-10 train cars to the track. Start with a simple engine; add oil cars, passenger cars, coal cars, and finally the caboose. On one or more of the larger cars, you can add a saying, alphabets, or your child's name.

Furniture: Any number of furniture styles will work well in a train themed bedroom, so long as it is not too formal. Purchase strong solid pieces of furniture built to last and take all of the abuse a boy can dish out. For a young child you can purchase a 'Thomas the Tank' bed, but the child will eventually out grow it. If you want a special train bed, it might be best to carve a train shape (either the front or side) our of plywood, paint, and shellac it.

Bedding: There are many styles of bedding you can purchase in the train theme. Do not go overboard buying every item in each bedding line. Purchase the comforter, and a couple of throw pillows, and a window topper. The sheets, other pillows and curtain panels can be solid colored pieces that match your set. Mixing and matching generic items with your set will save a great deal of money.

Accessories: You can purchase a floor lamp shaped light a stoplight for the room. Install a train track around the top of the room by building a continuous narrow wooden shelf all the way around the room over the doors, closets and windows. At no place should there be a break in the shelf. On this shelf, you can install a working train set, or display old wooden trains. Add framed pictures around the room above the mural painting of trains. Do not forget to hang a conductor's hat prominently in the room.

A different view: Instead of designing the room around looking at trains from the outside in, you can flip the idea and design a room that resembles the inside of a train car. The bed would be a captain's bed with trundle drawers underneath. Multiple children can have bunk beds, concealed by fabric curtains. You can paint a series of square windows across the wall showing a view of the countryside as it whizzes by. You can do this by painting a simple view and then adding light streaks on top of it. Other furniture in the room could be a booth table like you would find in the dining car. The dresser could be painted black to resemble a large traveling trunk and you can add stickers with the names of different cities on it.