baby question

March 14, 2005 3:33 PM

My wife and I are having a son in a few months. We've been working on doing something special for his bedroom. I've noticed that a theme can be forced on you if your not careful (someone gets your kid an Elmo doll and next thing you know, it's all Elmo all the time.) I'd like to avoid that. I was thinking about doing something sorta retro sci-fi... rockets and stuff... Anyone know a good source for 50's sci-fi decor? I know it's a little early to go crazy but, it's not everyday you have a son...
posted by Shanachie to home & garden (13 comments total)

Not wishing to state the obvious, but isn't Sci-fi a theme as well?
posted by gaby at 3:45 PM on March 14, 2005

My friends did an undersea theme in their new son's room with fish, rays, porpoises, corals and birds (pelicans and gulls) at the water surface, up by the ceiling. It came out great. I want a room like that.

I like the rockets and outer space thing, too.
posted by wsg at 3:56 PM on March 14, 2005

Quick word of advice, from someone with two of them--anything you do in terms of decor for the next two or three years is _purely_ for you.

I really don't mean to discourage you--I think it's a great idea to do this sort of thing--but I know from experience that it's easy to get carried away with visions of what he might like when he's a five-year-old, when in fact he's going to be completely oblivious for a good, long while. (At first, he won't really even be able to see well enough to even make it out, and then it's going to be at least a year or two before he has the foggiest idea of what a "space ship" is. By the time he starts actually forming attachments to things like dinosaurs, cars, etc., you'll either have moved, or you'll all be sick of the initial decor and ready to re-decorate with whatever he's actually obsessed with at that point.)

In our experience, the most rewarding nest-building exercises, by far, were the parts that had a strong home-made component to them. I stripped and re-painted this enormous old chest of drawers in bright colors when we were expecting our first one--it took an enormous amount of effort, but every day when we use it, it still feels great, six years later. Look for things like re-painting the room, making your own stencils, etc. for things that will really make you happy they're there down the road.

Finally, as a really practical tip, look for the "partial wallpaper" systems as a great way to add that kind of thematic detail to a room--you can either get a long, thin strip that you just run along the wall at chair-rail height, or a big horizontal strip that covers the bottom three or four feet of a wall with a pattern. I'm sure you could find some cool sci-fi stuff.
posted by LairBob at 4:06 PM on March 14, 2005

How crafty are you? There are a bunch of retro-modern fabric stores online. I have used both Reprodepot as well as contemporary cloth You could make a very cool quilt or curtains. Furnishings are going to be a bit harder. San Francisco has a couple stores I would send you to if you were here - are you?
posted by Wolfie at 4:07 PM on March 14, 2005

I'm not sure this is quite what you're thinking as a "retro sci-fi" thing, but Blik does removable wall decals. This is their space invaders theme and this is their giant robot theme.
posted by Melinika at 4:09 PM on March 14, 2005

Speaking from my own experience with my infant son, what LairBob said.

Decorate the crib all you want with baby-safe stuff, but make the rest of the room functional. If anything, spend the bucks on the ultimate diaper-changing station.
posted by mischief at 4:18 PM on March 14, 2005

This is a great fabric for the theme you're talking about. If you or your wife can't sew, someone in the family can, right?
posted by kmel at 4:36 PM on March 14, 2005

This is a great fabric for the theme you're talking about

If you live in the Village of the Damned, yes.

Thems is some creepy kids.

So long as it'll be somewhere away from prying wee-bairn-fingers, get one of the lava lamps with the 1940's rocketship base.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:06 PM on March 14, 2005

We're doing a space themed birthday party for my son's 5th and twins 3rd this weekend, and most of our party decorations consist of images from APOD put through the Rasterbator to make them really big. This would work well as a temporary theme for any room.
posted by grateful at 7:44 PM on March 14, 2005

LairBob is right. I spent way too much time doing stencils and decoupage and all that nonsense...and now that the boy is a little over two, he wants dinosaurs. Which is not what I did. Naturally. :)

Save the serious going nuts decorating until he's a little older and can help you pick a theme. Instead, spend the money on one of the cribs that convert to a toddler bed, get a good solid changing table...one for each floor if you live in a multistory house, stock up on nappies, onesies, and googly toys...but trust me when I tell you that you can save yourself much time and aggravation if you hold off on massive redecorating.

That said...removable wall decors, referenced above by Melinika look pretty darn cool. :)
posted by dejah420 at 7:59 PM on March 14, 2005

Thanks everyone! Your answers gave me a lot to consider...
posted by Shanachie at 8:34 PM on March 14, 2005

I've helped out with a few friends on their kids' room so from experience I would suggest you start with something fairly neutral (ok, baby-blue bland) and yes, removable/repositionable. Once the baby gets his bearings in the universe (like the Dalai Lama's "choosing 3 things" test) you can then begin thematic decoration. Congrats!
posted by azul at 8:48 AM on March 15, 2005

I second Dejah's advice. You can never go wrong with googly toys.
posted by googly at 2:26 PM on March 16, 2005