‘Room’ for art

When my daughter Gabrielle was 11 and a budding Picasso, I wanted to find something new to inspire her artistic talents. After much thinking and consideration, I hired a local muralist to create a tapestry of color in Gabrielle’s room.

Gabrielle worked side by side with the patient and talented artist, and was left with both a solid love for the arts and a room with quite a view. It took three days and a few cans of paint to complete the masterpiece, but together, they transformed a dull, beige wall into a beautiful window sill garden.

“Creating a mural was an interesting experience,” Gabrielle, now 22, recalls, smiling. “It was so empowering to work with a professional artist while only in middle school. It was exciting, and the end result gave the room much more personality.”

Her room, which is now shared by her two teenage sisters, became happily alive with the new artwork. She even added her hand prints to the wall as her signature.

Looking back on the experience, Gabrielle’s advice to other budding artists is to pick a theme, and let your imagination run wild. In her case, she used the lamp on her wall as a focal point, and created a cascade of flowers around it. The window scene added a vivid landscape of color and brightness to an otherwise plain wall.

“It’s important to give children a world of their own to experience a retreat from everything else,” Gabrielle says. “My room has always been a reflection of my personality. This artistic freedom has given me confidence, independence, and a sense of pride.” Her siblings share this philosophy and add that, “Decorating is self-expression.”

More recently, my teenage daughters have experimented with chalkboard paint in their rooms. This special paint allows you to write on the walls with chalk and clean by just dampening it. For Christiana and Angelica, the walls have become message centers, and when friends come over, they write and doodle on the chalkboard. My 9-year-old daughter Jacqueline and her friends play tic-tac-toe on her walls.

In addition to, or instead of, painting a room, you could try adding bulletin boards. Sometimes a fresh coat of paint is all you need. Many local home stores offer workshops with decoration tips and projects to bring out anyone’s inner creativity.

“Furniture can be moved around if you get bored,” says Gabrielle, who feels that children’s rooms are works in progress. “The room should grow and evolve with your child as they grow and evolve. It should be a favorite place to wind down from a busy school day.”

In just one weekend, you can experience a room makeover. This fall, why not bring out the budding Picasso in your family and transform her room into a winter hideout? A few colors, brushes, and a bit of imagination can bring a springtime garden to your bedroom, too! And, like Gabrielle and I, years later, you can recall the sense of accomplishment that your child experienced.

Mary Tomasulo-Mariano is a freelance writer and mother of four daughters. She resides in Brooklyn and recently became a grandmother.