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Boys Cowboy Bedroom Makeover


A child’s bedroom is more than just a room for sleep. It’s also a play area and a space they can claim as their own. As your child’s personality, interests and tastes develop, it’s important to involve them in the decorating process. This way, they can add their own unique stamp to their room. So if your child loves whooping it up as a cowboy or aspires to be a sheriff, decorate their room with a theme inspired by cowboys and the great wild-western frontier. Here are wagon-loads of mighty fine ideas.

Decorator’s tips

  • Paint the room in the colours of the North American landscape or be inspired by the decor of the famous saloons of the Wild West.

  • Let accessories and removable wall stickers create the theme so you don’t have large-scale and expensive changes to make when your child outgrows the idea of having a themed room.

  • For good luck, hang horseshoes with the open part facing up.

  • At this age, possessions tend to multiply, so ensure there’s plenty of storage. Tubs for small toys, coat racks for clothes, hats, caps and bags, and a tall bookcase will supplement wardrobe storage.

1 Let everyone know there’s a new sheriff in town with a name plaque hung on the door. Paint a wooden plaque with two coats of saloon-red acrylic paint, allowing each coat to dry and sanding between coats. Paint the MDF letters (which spell out the name) with two coats of white acrylic paint. Using PVA glue, stick the letters near the top of the plaque and a few tiny toy horses across the bottom. Next, have your sheriff pose for a series of close-up pictures (so the townsfolk can recognise him). Print them, then attach three of the best photos across the centre of the plaque. Attach a small length of rope to the back of the plaque for hanging, then hang on the door for all to see.

2 Cover bare walls with four small themed canvases hung side by side. Using wall paint, paint two 30 x 40cm stretched canvases blue and another two saloon red. Paint four star-shaped MDF placemats blue or saloon red. When dry, centre and glue a saloon-red placemat to a blue canvas and a blue placemat to a red canvas. Glue toy sheriff badges in the centre of the placemat and at the corners of each canvas. Attach a rope hanger to the canvas and hang from a wall knob decorated with a painted star.

3 Remove wardrobe knobs, paint them blue and, when dry, reattach them. Paint wooden stars (from craft shops), saloon red and, when dry, glue them onto the knobs.

4 Cowboys often shared sleeping quarters, so a pair of bunk beds (ideal for sleep-overs) fits right into the design. Dress the beds with a Western-themed quilt-cover set. Use the bed linen as inspiration for the wall colours. Here, two walls were painted saloon red and the other two a sky-blue.

5 Mask off the lower third of a large canvas and paint it with two coats of saloon red, leaving the remaining two-thirds of the canvas white. Remove the masking tape. Pencil a cowboy greeting, such as ‘Howdy’, across the top third of the canvas. Draw a loosely knotted rope circle with a cactus in the middle. Using a hot-glue gun (or tacky glue) and rope, glue the rope onto the drawn design. Attach a horseshoe just below the first and last letter of the greeting with construction adhesive. Attach a rope hanger at the back of the canvas.

6 Transform ordinary lamps so they’re in keeping with the western theme. Buy a pair of cowboy boots (try charity shops or car-boot sales) and, using a hole-saw bit, drill a hole through the ball of each sole (A). Insert the shaft of the lamp base through the hole (B). Allowing a 2cm hem and overlap at the back seam, roll the shade from the back seam across a cow-print fabric. At the same time, mark the top and bottom arcs as you roll. Allowing 6mm allowances at the top and bottom, cut out the fabric. Press a 1cm hem along one back edge only and hold with double-sided tape. Spray glue on the shade. Line up the shade’s back seam with the unhemmed back edge of the fabric. Working sections at a time and using the marked arcs at the top and bottom of the fabric as a guide, cover the shade with the fabric, smoothing out wrinkles and air pockets as you go. Trim the allowances at the top and bottom to make them level with the shade. Glue red fringing around the top and bottom of the shade to conceal the raw fabric edges.


7 Run up a cow-print beanbag so your sheriff or cowboy can enjoy their down time in comfort. Enlarge the bean-bag pattern (left). Cut out the pattern pieces, then use them to cut the fabric pieces. With right sides together, stitch all six panels together, leaving a 30cm opening in the middle of one side. With right sides together, pin, then stitch the base circle to the lower edge of the sewn side panels. With right sides together, pin, then stitch the top circle to the sewn side panels. Turn beanbag right side out, fill with beanbag beads and slip-stitch the opening closed. Vacuum up any stray beanbag beads as they can be hazardous if inhaled.