If you are a new foster carer awaiting the first child to be placed with you, chances are you are wondering how to prepare their bedroom. You want it to be something that will be warm and inviting to them but as you’ve yet to meet them, what would that be? While you want the room to be something appealing to them, you also know that in short-term fostering the kids may be with you only for a time usually up to two years in duration. Knowing that another child will probably be in your care after the first and another after them, you may not want to be redecorating that room every year or two. This is where a few tips on bedroom décor for foster children may put you at ease.
Neutral Colours Work Best
One thing you may want to do is keep your colour scheme neutral. This would make a room suitable for any one of any age. This time around you may have a primary school age child and, unless you’ve stipulated a preferred age group, the next may be a secondary school kid. With that in mind, neutral colours can be embellished with bits of décor we’ll get to in a moment.
Also, you might want to stay with colours suitable for the region in which you live. For example, fostering in Brighton when working through the independent agency of orangegrovefostercare.co.uk would mean that much of the local atmosphere would most likely be nautical and in colours associated with the sea.
Do Only What Is Necessary at First
What you could always do is ask your social worker if they have an idea of the age group in which they are thinking would be best suited for your family. Quite often they have that in mind based on what you’ve shared with them as to your preferences in the ages you feel most comfortable with.
Before you’ve met the children intended for you, the best advice is to do only what is necessary at first. Limit your ‘décor’ to basic things such as bedroom linens, window treatments and the furniture required. Embellishments can come later after you’ve actually learned more about the kids.
Let Them Have a Say in the Final Bits of Décor
Once you’ve met the new addition to your family you can let them have a bit of a say in what they’d like for their own personal space, their bedroom. Maybe they would like posters of their favourite bands or perhaps they’d like a desk if possible so that they can do their homework or chat with friends on a mobile device if they have one.
It always pays to let them have a bit of input in how they’d like their room to be, within reason that is. This is how teens, for example, will begin to feel like it really is their personal space and it will help them loosen up to the carers who want them to feel at home. In other words, if you want them to feel at home, let them add a few finishing touches. This may be just what it takes to set them at ease in this house you want them to call a home.