Published 25 May 2015 ● Last Updated on 24 November 2016
For both parents and children alike, bed-time is the most important hour of the day. It’s the time when mommies and daddies finally catch a break and get to relax without Sponge Bob Squarepants squealing away in the background and children get to snuggle up and dream about pirates and princesses. This is the time of the day where everyone slowly winds down over a nice bonding session and an exciting bed-time story. As your child lays under the cover listening to you read about the adventures of Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate factory or the beautiful palace in Cinderella, you can feel them soaking up every word and using it as a building block to create their very own images to the story. Why not help your kids bring a bit of their favourite stories and fairytales into their own bedroom? Let them show you how their dream world looks like!
There are lots of amazing things you can do to turn your kids’ bedroom into a jungle, a world of pirates, fairies or dinosaurs. You could paint a mural of Neverland, cut out dinosaur foot stencils and create a trail all over the bedroom floor or make sock monkeys and hang them from the ceiling. But you could also start with the most important thing: Lighting. Ask any child what the weather or the sky is like in their imaginariums and they will have specific descriptions: It’s dark and grey with lots of snow or it’s magical and lit by glow-worms. Lighting is one of the easiest ways to create a special atmosphere for your bed-time stories. By now you probably have a few lamps you’re no longer fond of or ones that aren’t working anymore. Turning an old lampshade into something new and fun is really fun and simple and if you have several different lamps lying around, you can even mix and match stands and lampshades.
If your child is fairytale fan (perhaps a princess hopeful or Prince Charming himeslf?!) who loves all things glittery, pretty and sparkly, you could create a lampshade that evokes a sweet dream-world of butterflies, fairies and other mystical creatures. To show you an example, we just used an old voile scarf, some stickers, a silver pen and decorative butterflies. I happen to have hundreds of these butterflies lying around, but you can easily make them out of transparent paper or fold them origami style too. The fabric was glued onto the paper lampshade using a normal roll-on glue-stick. Things like the butterflies, beads or charms can be fastened to the lampshade using wire. Simply fasten the wire to your chosen decorative piece and cut two holes into the lampshade; pull the wire through and twist it into a knot on the inside.
For something more swashbuckling, just swap those butterflies for fishes and octopi and create a glittering sea-scape that both little girls and boys can adore!
Your children will have a blast designing their own bed-time story lamps and you will have the joy of watching them fall asleep with a smile on their face every night.
– Roxanne
Roxanne is a German/British Journalist/Author based in Spain who shares our passion for all things old and quirky.
0 Comments