Batman in your bedroom?

If you want to get creative, read this first

I read two stories about Star Trek themed houses this week. Both of them (surprise!) in the USA. One fan spent $300,000 on converting his New York basement into the bridge of the USS Enterprise. The other did an entire house in Florida. Surprisingly, at least one of them was still married.

But themed bedrooms for kids are getting more popular over here. If you’ve chosen to follow nature’s path and create a family your kids will, sooner or later, demand Buzz Lightyear or a pink princess on their walls.

At a party last year I stumbled into what at first looked like Aladdin’s cave. It was a New York skyline at midnight with what seemed like a million twinkling lights… and coming at me from one corner was none other than the dynamic duo, Batman & Robin, chasing a laughing Joker across the busy city. It was the most fabulously decorated room I’d ever seen! Once the jealousy had subsided, I cornered the host & he told me it wasn’t difficult to do at all. He said the options at first seemed endless; from bright colours to paint effects and themed murals to bespoke beds & furniture. But he just wanted to give his son a room to remember. 

If you’re thinking about something similar you needn’t spill the beans to your offspring right away. Here are one or two suggestions as to how you might go about it:

1. Arrange for your child sleep in a different space while you’re doing their room. This way you get to see the unforgettable look of surprise on their face when the new look is unveiled.
2. You may be a dab hand at painting or drawing yourself, in which case you’re in luck – but be prepared to spend quite some hours sketching your characters lightly in pencil on the walls before you even start to colour them in with paint. Alternatively look for a muralist, but be prepared to pay quite a few hundred or even a thousand pounds or more to achieve the look you want. You should be able to settle on a fixed price for the job.
3. You can augment the look with themed furniture. Just about anything is available with a bit of internet searching: racing car beds, the Batmobile, Thomas The Tank Engine and ponies and princesses by the score.
4. If you want to take things further, you can commission something more grand. A child’s room can easily be turned into a castle, a cave, an enchanted forest – you name it. Anything’s possible with a little carpentry, some coloured paint & the right furnishings.

Don’t forget though, special paint effects need to be on properly prepared & correctly coated surfaces. Plaster and woodwork needs to be made good and a good neutral base coat will be needed. So before you hire Damien Hirst for the clever stuff, be sure to give us a call. We’ll be happy to give you a quote to get your project started.

I love my workmen dearly, but if they offer to pose for the Superman sketches you might want to politely turn them down. 

Best regards

Geoff Parvin

PS: What are the odds of my good wife Holly letting me re-do the living room with astro-turf and a replica Liverpool stadium at one end?