Guest post by Kelly McDonough.

With our youngest child turning 3 in just a few months, the time had come to stop holding on to the nursery (insert irrational crying here). From the crayon scribbles on my walls, it was pretty apparent that he had well and truly embraced the toddler life so it was high time I embodied this in his room (minus the wall scribbling).

Decorating a toddler room can be deceptively hard, with their curious hands and flippant interests. Yet it is possible to decorate a fun, beautiful and toddler-friendly room that works for everyone.

As it would happen, using Rhys’ multiple interests was the best starting point. By using his toys and current favourites as décor and shelf items, I could then decorate around them using my chosen colour palette.

Choosing the colours was easy – I found some cushions that I just had to have in his room, which then gave me some direction for the rest of the décor.

I chose a mixture of patterned and textured cushions, as well as the house cushion.  I love that these can form part of playtime, but also look fabulous sitting on a bed.  Plus, choosing a mixture of colours and designs means that many of these cushions will grow with your child, making each dollar stretch a little further.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match your décor – in fact, kids’ rooms are the best and easiest place to do this!  I chose some lovely timber products as my shelf items.  Choosing these as my base pieces equals more versatility when it comes to mixing things up in your toddler boy’s room.

There are so many beautiful toys among our collections these days, both old and well loved and brand new shiny ones. By rotating these toys on the shelves regularly, forgotten toys become new again and the room gets a fresh look each time.

More often than not, it’s the stuff we have shoved away that make the best décor! I choose to use costumes and cute shoes and hats to pop out on display to fill in a blank space. Not only do they look fun, they will inject a little piece of your toddler’s personality into the room without spending extra money.

Sometimes the hardest part is resisting the temptation to put everything out on display! Most times, I will choose a few playthings that compliment each other and then continue to work around those. As always, toddlers love to touch so it can never hurt having a little extra space on shelves for them to use.

We were pretty pleased with how Rhys’ room makeover turned out, and from the look on his face when he saw it, I’m pretty confident he’ll be happy with it for a while to come yet – as long as I keep an eye on him with the crayons.