Home Decorating For Kids: My Daughter's Jungle Room Makeover!

Hello, Creatives!

I'm sharing with you my latest creative home decorating project, my youngest daughter's new African jungle safari themed bedroom, complete with a new mural!

The mural requests were: jungle themed and needs cheetahs and a python in it.

The big paper mache tree was made a while ago in my girls' previous bedroom, but as they're growing older I felt they needed their own space and so a new bedroom was made free, and the tree found it's new location in this room. I have received many questions about the construction of the tree in the past so I will elaborate on the how-tos in a future blog post.

I'd always dreamed of doing up my own kids rooms before we even had kids. The problem is they're so quickly growing and won't be kids for much longer, so I thought, it's now or never!

My youngest used to have a pretty white iron bed, which didn't really fit into the new bedroom's theme. Husband wasn't keen to buy a new bed considering she had one already that was working perfectly fine. Then by a strange coincidence, a friend showed me a photo of the bed below at school one day saying she was getting rid of it, and would I like it, FOR FREE. She also threw in the green wool rug AND the 10 metres of white fabric. Friends that declutter are the best! Thanks, Steph!

I tea-stained the fabric by soaking it in the washing machine with all of the tea bags from my canister brewed in boiling water and then tipped into the mix. After 24 hours of soaking, I put on a spin cycle. I didn't bother rinsing as I wanted to keep as much of the staining in as I could. 

I then sewed the fabric into a tent to fit over the bed. That sounds so simple, but it was blood, sweat, and tears! I remembered whilst sewing why I tried to con my Mum into making it for me, with no luck. (She is such a good sewer though, it would have been a piece of cake for her.)

Someone feels right at home in her new safari tent bed. My daughter likes it too! :)

The gorgeous snow leopard art print on the wall is by the super talented Sofia Moore. I absolutely love how it's a snow leopard, but it has prettiness about the illustration too. Because even though my little girl is into leopards and pythons (bats, lizards, and spooky movies) she is also very much into pink, sparkles, and pretty too! When my daughter saw this print, she made cutesy noises and wanted to cuddle the leopard :)

The tree needed some paper mache repairs to it and a bit of fresh paint. It's big enough for a kid to sit and stand in, and the little 'windows' have ledges so that toys can sit in them. The kids can also peer out of them from the inside, too. 

Oh, hello there little tiger!

The room is now perfect for my girl's ever-growing cat soft toy collection :)

I didn't want to cover the whole wall with the mural, as I wanted some space for furniture underneath.

A handmade mini tree ornament we found at the local Arts Market doubles as a jewellery holder.

I found both the curtains and the vines on eBay for a steal. Other than buying a tonne of paint to cover the previously dark walls (about 5 freaking coats!), this project was pretty budget friendly.

I recorded the whole painting of the mural in time lapse! Which you can see on my very first youtube video:

The curtains were such a happy find. They are just cheap ones but they really compliment the room and fit the theme.

Detail of a corner with some personalised touches below. My girl's treasured Steve Irwin shirt from the year she raised money for wildlife as a Wildlife Warrior, a little shadow box for collections (also from Steph), and a customised anime picture from a good friend.

I also painted ombre walls in the colour of a pale African sky. (Which would have matched my original African plains theme, but whilst we were buying paint youngest informed me it needs to be jungle themed. Oh well, go with the flow!)

I had such fun decorating this room!

I have a lot of work ahead of me completing new bedroom #2 for my eldest daughter, my new studio (as we're doing a room swap), and the main bedroom that the husband and I have just moved into. Oh my! Almost makes me want to sit in bed and binge watch Netflix it's so overwhelming!

The old suitcase used as a side table belonged to my Grandpa. A sentimental touch :)

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our new African-jungle-safari themed kids room as much as I enjoyed making it. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them below.

Cheers,

Jules :)