Train Decor for Children’s Rooms

Your children can embark on a whirlwind expedition without every leaving their bedrooms. Train decor is an enduring classic for a child’s bedroom, incorporating machinery, gears, engines, toys, stations and railroad cars. Invite your children to participate in creating train theme decor by painting images of trains to hang on the wall or by filling their shelves with thematic books, toys and artwork.

Types

While Thomas the Tank Engine images seem like a clear choice for a train theme, you do have other options. Vintage railroad memorabilia such as signs, lanterns or crossing signals lend a train bedroom authenticity and a rustic look. Photographs and memorabilia of real trains complement a display of train models or toy trains. You can also make train decor part of a larger transportation theme in your child’s room, mixing it with images of cars, planes, motorcycles, trucks, helicopters and even bicycles.

Features

Some parents invest in a bed frame shaped like a caboose and a railroad engine-style toy box. However, you can also opt to keep your larger furnishings simple and then embellish with textiles, stencils, decoupaged images and accessories featuring trains. Railroad-theme prints may adorn bedding, pillow cases, window treatments and a central play mat. Create your own railroad accessories by painting, stamping or stenciling images of trains, train tracks, railroad signs, engineers and train stations on an accent wall or along larger furniture frames. Wall decals and thick vinyl stickers work well on doors, window frames, bookshelves and headboards.

Effects

Train decor gives a child’s bedroom a cheerful, somewhat retro look. Designs from books such as “The Little Engine that Could,” “The Little Red Caboose” and “Tootle” recall the heyday of the Little Golden Books series. The bright, primary colors of Thomas the Tank Engine toys and products work well with white and light wood accents, resulting in a clean, streamlined look.

Benefits

A top aspect about a train bedroom theme is that it accommodates a child’s interests. Many children play with toy trains for years, sometimes graduating from simple wooden or plastic toys to mechanical trains and intricate models. Train imagery in bedroom decor prompts children to imagine voyages and modes of transport.

Considerations

A train table makes an ideal centerpiece in a train theme bedroom. However, finished train tables, with their trap doors, pockets and other special features, cost quite a bit of money. Consider customizing a surface to serve as a train table. A simple play mat printed with roads and tracks can move from the floor to a tabletop. For a more permanent train table, paint a low, square table with tracks, surrounding landscape and space for a wooden box painted to look like a station. If your children are older, they can help create miniature landscape elements to attach to the table. Add a thematic backdrop of a train mural on the wall behind the train table to complete the look.