As the mom, I have my own ideas for what looks “cool” in a boys room. You look online and in magazines and everything is just so perfectly matched and coordinated. It is just adorable.

So, when decorating my son’s room, I kept those things in mind and tried to coordinate and make it all work together. I picked out curtains and a bed set that matched and painted the walls to go with them. I thought it looked pretty cute. When he was younger, he didn’t care what his room looked like. However, as he has gotten older, I realized “cute” wasn’t very inspiring for him.

His cool blue striped wall–he thinks we should paint it red, and in general, that he should have more red in the room. Except red doesn’t match the tan, blue, and orange of his bed set and curtains! Red doesn’t fit in MY decorating plan.

I have to stop and remember that this is not MY bedroom. I don’t have to live in it. He does. I can make it absolutely adorable and make it fit my tastes for how a little boy’s room should look, and he can think it isn’t even cool.

Several months ago, while looking through a Star Wars sticker book in bed. He decided his walls needed some new decor.

I could have gotten mad. I hate finding stickers stuck to everything in my house. But I stopped myself. He likes them. He stares at them at night and makes up stories about them. They aren’t just randomly stuck up there. They have purpose and thought process behind it.

He thinks it’s cool. He has ownership over some of the decorating in his room. It doesn’t hurt anything for there to be stickers up around his bed.

I remember as a kid, I didn’t have the perfectly decorated theme rooms that we see now. I got to help decide the color a couple times, but as far as decorations, I chose based on what I was interested in. I put up pictures or put figurines on my shelf that I got as gifts. I don’t remember my mom trying to micromanage my decorating choices. It was my room, and I was the one who would have to stare at it.

I want to remember that as I think about the decor in my kids’ rooms and throughout the house. If I try so hard to make it look like what I think it should look like, then I am forgetting about the four other people that I live with that might have an opinion too.

So I encourage you to take a step back and give your boy some room to have a say in decorating. You could let him put stickers on the wall, or maybe just give him a section that is 100% his choice. Even if it doesn’t match the rest of the room.

Ship battle