No matter how old we get, our inner child gets excited when we walk into an elaborately themed place. Pirate ship restaurant! Spacecraft hallway! Soviet dance club! Submarine bar! I love themed spaces. Theme parks like Disneyworld are extravagant examples. On a smaller scale, bed and breakfast or beach house rentals often feature uniquely themed guest rooms. To some degree, people decorate their entire home according to a chosen theme. My home is loosely themed as a beach house. And while I haven’t made any extra effort to distinctly theme every room, I did name one themed room. The Captain’s Quarters fell into place quite by accident, and that process is what we will discuss here. Even if you don’t have the budget to create a paradise of your choosing, you can get crafty and work with what you have to hone in on the right theme for any space.
complete with in-house pirate accordion music? Yes, please!
Decorating with abandon is an indulgent fantasy for most of us. It is fun to read design magazines featuring outstanding renovations and lavish design projects. However, most of us cannot afford to fashion the interior of our home to quite that extent. We usually have a much smaller budget to work with, and that’s perfectly fine because there is still plenty we can do!
Modify Furniture Selection as Needed
When you create a themed room, the most difficult and expensive step is the first: assess your furniture situation. If you hate the look of the same forty-year-old plaid chair and want to barf every time you see it, then maybe it’s time to go. Don’t just toss it to the curb – somebody else may love 70s plaid. Ask around, post it on Facebook marketplace, or donate it to a charity that offers furniture pick-up. Then, find a suitable replacement!
Quality furniture is expensive, but used furniture can be more affordable. Always ask around, as people often have dormant desires to replace something but simply haven’t gotten around to it. You may need to check out some secondhand shops or online markets but you will very likely find something you like. If you already have a theme in mind, then search for something complementary to that. If not, then whatever you find may initiate a new theme! Of course, consider the room’s purpose and what type of furniture you actually need. Do you really need another chair? Would a desk or floor-lounging cushions be more appropriate? Think about the purpose of the space and go from there to rearrange, remove, or acquire furniture.
Embellish with Decor
Once you have the furniture you desire for the room’s purpose and have arranged it accordingly, it’s time to establish the theme and embellish the look. Start from the largest and most prominent pieces or materials, such as curtains. Some people like curtains; others don’t. I find that drapey fabric tends to soften a room and make the area more three-dimensional, but I am not a fan of curtains. There are other ways to incorporate fabric, however. If it suits your theme, you could hang a decorative scarf or piece of fabric from a portion of the ceiling to emulate a billowy tent. You could also hang a pretty throw blanket or tapestry-like piece from the wall. A thin scarf could be hung on either side of the top of a door frame to create a tent-like entry.
Pillows are an easy, beautiful, and affordable way to soften a room and to fill the space with something substantial. Having a baby and being a floor-lounger, I always use a lot of pillows. Most rooms of the house have at least a couple at hand, and it is no accident that some of them are quite pretty. If you buy used pillows, make sure they are washable. This is less important if the pillows will be purely for decoration but pillows that people will handle should be washable.
Of course, the majority of the content inside of a room depends entirely on what someone will do there. Decor simply follows suit. If you are theming an office, then you may not need pillows or fabrics. You may instead want to keep items minimal and ensure that decor is not distracting but a pleasant and passive aesthetic. A few choice wall hangings – or even a perfect coat of wall paint – could work for your space. Placing plants around the room, so long as they get sufficient light, is an excellent way to invigorate an office. Your theme may simply be a colour. Should you choose pink, for example, you could buy pink accessories. Pink magazine holder, pink mouse pad, pink chair, pink wall decor, pink coffee mug. Marry your chosen theme with the function of your space.
An Organically Created Themed Room: The Captain’s Quarters
Our guest room is called The Captain’s Quarters, and it did not start out that way. I didn’t choose a theme for the room and then purchase or arrange furniture and materials to fit that theme. Rather, I observed the room’s contents and continued to add and refine in the manner already apparent. In other words, I noticed a theme to the guest bedroom and embellished accordingly. It is the most masculine room in the house. Unlike most other rooms, it lacks beachy pastels and instead hosts darker shades of brown and nautical blues. The most imposing piece of furniture is a large brown cabinet in which we keep linens and random items like camping equipment. Because this piece is so large and dark and the room is small by comparison, I imagine the room to be where the captain of a ship (possibly a pirate ship) sleeps.
There is a nautical painting above the bed, a rustic iron compass rose on the opposite wall, and a Chinese needlework picture of fish above the large, bronze stained dresser. All of these touches add a more geometric and structured vibe than the beachy whimsy across the rest of the house. To add more nautical elements, I hung a fishing net from the corner of the ceiling where a sea star, sand dollars, and other shells hang magically suspended from above. I placed (empty) rum and wine bottles atop the giant dresser – the captain’s libations of choice, of course. The bedside table is draped in cartographic-print fabric scraps. I imagine a captain sitting in the room, sipping rum and studying bathymetry charts.
There is a different feel to the Captain’s Quarters than there is anywhere else in the house. It has the least amount of stuff sitting out. It is so small and contains such large furniture pieces that there simply isn’t room for much else. Plus, it is currently a guest room, so there aren’t personal belongings strewn about. It is therefore quite a calm and relaxing room (though the queen bed is also my toddler’s favourite bed on which to romp since he can climb up onto it). It is fun to designate that space with a name based on a real feel.
The Takeaway: Creating a Themed Room is Achievable and Fun
You can be as elaborate as you want when creating a themed room. It may be something as simple as displaying your favourite turtle figurines in various places and calling it the Turtle Room. Or, you may get very crafty and acquire all sorts of materials to create a Glowing Cave of Treasure as your child’s bedroom. There is no shortage of ideas on Pinterest or other sites, but you can easily choose a theme by asking yourself what has made you happy since you were a child and what can you also live with in your house now. Perfecting your themed room may take years if you take your time to modify and acquire its contents leisurely instead of immediately. Whatever route you take, enjoy it and create your own magic!