A decorated bedroom is a great way for children to express their personality. However, when foster children first arrive with a new family, their foster carers don’t know them or their personality. This can make it challenging to decorate a foster child’s bedroom. When you throw in the fact that most foster placements are short-term, having a bedroom decorated for each foster child would be expensive and impractical. With this in mind, we’ve put together this short guide.
Neutral Colours to Begin With
Neutral colours are a great idea for decorating a foster child’s bedroom because they’re versatile and can easily be modified to suit different personalities. As well as this, neutral colours are relaxing and calming – why do you think hotels use so much white and cream?
Get to Know Each Foster Child
When you first start fostering in Stafford, you’ll have to go through an extensive training programme that will equip you with essential skills for building strong connections with foster children; you can use these skills to better understand how to decorate.
Once a new foster child arrives, you can get to know their personality by engaging in conversation. Then, you can add pops of colour with duvet cover sets, throw pillows, rugs, and blankets. Considering how adaptive neutral colours are, they will work extremely well with any pattern, so don’t be afraid to mix things up a little bit.
Create a Comfortable Atmosphere
Your home will be a large and scary new environment for your foster children, so it’s important to make sure the bedroom is warm, inviting, and comfortable. Before welcoming new children to your home, communicate with the foster child’s caseworker to retrieve details about their interests and hobbies. Then, you can head out and buy a few toys, Blu-rays, books, and other activities that they may enjoy.
Respect Heritage and Culture
Foster children come from a diverse range of backgrounds, which means you may need to incorporate different cultural elements into the bedroom decor. Doing this will help them feel more at home by connecting to their heritage. Here are some tips for integrating a foster child’s culture and heritage into the bedroom:
- Add artefacts and cultural artwork: Depending on their background, hang artwork or place artefacts on shelves to create a welcoming environment.
- Use traditional fabrics, colours, and patterns: If you fully understand the cultural background, you can introduce traditional bedding, rugs, and curtains into the room.
- Provide space for cultural activities: Some foster children may need space to pray, play instruments, or express themselves through dance.
- Have a conversation with the child: To make sure the bedroom is respectful, have a conversation with the child and ask how the room can be made more comfortable.
Fight the urge to go over the top when decorating a foster child’s bedroom; use natural colours instead and then add bursts of colours for personality. Remember, the room must be comforting, welcoming, and reflect their personality, including any cultural or religious heritages.
