His arms shoot out wildly as he points out each piece that he, his parents or a relative picked out to complement the theme of his room. There’s a JumboTron light fixture hanging from the ceiling, pillows, curtains, shelves holding collectable hockey figurines, light switches, magnets and much more – all boasting the Flames trademark blazing C.

“This is why we decided to do this,” laughs Ross’s dad Mike, glancing down at his excited son, who is now sitting on the edge of his bed patting his Calgary Flames blanket. Ross pipes in to explain that the blanket, which was a gift from his uncle, started the MacRae family on the renovation road and led them to create their son’s dream room – his very own Calgary Flames oasis.

Ross’s excitement is exactly why many parents decide to decorate or create a theme in their kids’ rooms. It’s a great way to give kids a place that reflects their interests and, as it was with the MacRae family, decorating a child’s room can be a fun family project.

The family decided to embark on the project last yeah after Ross, who was nine at the time, began complaining that he was growing out of his Winnie the Pooh themed bathroom and animal themed bedroom.

TIPS FROM A PRO
While neither Mike or his wife Bonnie had any training in design, the couple instinctively followed many of the same guidelines that professional designers like Julie Punter, of Avi Homes, follow.

Punter, who designs kids rooms for Homes by Avi and the Stampede Lottery’s Rotary Dream Home, says it’s important to take the time to plan ahead and buy as many of your supplies as possible before you get started. She usually spends three months planning a room, which includes gathering inspiration from the rest of the house or thinking about what is currently popular with kids. Then she decides on paint colours, wallpaper or borders and then finally she sets out to shop for perfect accent and decorating pieces.

But she doesn’t automatically head to specialty shops when she’s ready to buy. When it comes to decorating kids' rooms, she says you should let the theme dictate where you buy supplies and decorations. “We find things at HomeSense and Winners for cost effectiveness and we also fill in with Toys R Us. But we’ve also done a cute dog theme, and for that room we got some accessories from a pet store,” she explains.

This relaxed and fuss-free method is exactly how the MacRae’s approached their decorating project.

GETTING TO WORK
After deciding to decorate Ross’s bathroom and bedroom in the theme of his favourite hockey team, Mike and Bonnie gathered supplies for six months before getting down to the work of redecorating. The couple found that places like Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Costco and Wal-Mart were great for finding things like a Flames bathmat, pictures and pillows. And IKEA had the perfect grey steel cabinets to capture the locker-room feel they were looking for.

Specialty shops such as Flames Fanattic and Dick’s Collectables were good sources for hard-to-find or special items like Ross’s cherished McFarlane collectable hockey figures.

Once they had enough supplies they kicked off the project by redecorating the bathroom in February. Over three days Mike painted the walls the team’s official yellow colour while Bonnie and Ross added touches like a new Calgary Flames shower curtain, Flames towels and bathroom accessories that were jazzed up with Flames stickers.

In April they moved on to the bedroom. While the project was a lot of fun for the family there was definitely some work involved – especially when it came to painting. Opting to paint the walls in Ross’s 12 foot by 12 foot room using Home Depot’s official Calgary Flames red and yellow NHL paint colours was a great idea but not an easy task.

“The painting took a long time,” laughs Mike. “Four coats of yellow, two coats of pink primer and three more coats of red. It took a week to paint the room from beginning to end. But we were never in a hurry.”

Both say gathering the supplies is as fun as actually decorating the room and the end result is something they’re all very happy with. Especially Ross who says his friends are amazed when they see his room for the first time.

ADDING PERSONAL TOUCHES
What makes the room really special is that it highlights family heirlooms such as a wooden plaque created 25 years ago that displays NHL pucks including a puck from the first year the Flames played in Calgary. The plaque belonged to Ross’s grandfather and hangs on the wall at the foot of his bed.

As a gift, his grandmother also gave him special edition Franklin Mint cars with a Calgary Flames theme, which Ross proudly displays in his favourite part of the room, his Flames shelf. The shelf is where he houses all of his collectables including a puck signed by his favourite player, Jarome Iginla.

The room also boasts some ingenious design tricks, such as hockey sticks added to the corners where a red wall meets a yellow wall to help the walls blend together – they also do double duty as a place to display Ross’ sports medals.

Another great idea was using Calgary Flames banners they found at a Loonie Store as drapes. The banners cost a total of $50, but as Mike explains, it was still less expensive than buying new drapes or having something specially made. In fact the entire project was fairly inexpensive. “It didn’t really cost a lot to buy it all bit by bit,” he explains. “I think at the end it cost maybe $700 for both rooms.”

HOW CAN YOU GET STARTED?
If you’re interested in decorating your child’s room but need some inspiration and ideas, Punter recommends you first consider what your kids like and what their interests are and then try to come up with fun themes based on their likes.

“Look at books at Chapters, look at artwork that might inspire themes or if your child has an idea of what they might like, try to find fabrics, or wallpaper to play off that theme,” suggest Punter.

If you want your child’s room to be unique but still match the rest of your house, try using a colour palette that is similar to the rest of your home. A room she created with a surf theme, that included a thatched roof over the bed and a surfboard mural on the wall, was inspired by the muted beach-like colours that were used throughout the rest of the show home.

Whether the theme of the room is sports, fairytales, the beach or something totally different, remember that the end goal is creating a space that reflects your child’s personality – while having some family fun.

“I like to create fun rooms where the kids walk in and their imaginations just go wild”, says Punter.  NL