My daughter loves all things mermaid. She’s dressed up as a mermaid for Halloween for 3 out of 4 years of her life. She loves mermaid tea parties, mermaid activities, mermaid coloring pages; anything that has a girl with a tail. So of course she wanted a mermaid room when it came time to sell her little sister’s crib and update our girls’ bedroom. I kept our kids’ bedroom redesign pretty simple and I’m excited to share our fun kids’ mermaid themed room with you! We also discovered two products for use with our kids’ bunk beds that have quickly become must-haves; The Shrunks inflatable bed rails and QuickZip sheets! Read on to discover why these products make life with a bunk bed so much easier!
Mermaid Bedroom Highlights
DIY mermaid pennant banner – I love sewing and I spent one evening whipping up this cute pennant banner. I cut out “scales” from silky fabric, added a layer of quilt batting and sewed each pennant onto a ribbon. A top stitch gives each mermaid scale pennant a neat border. This simple project which I created in an hour or two is a beautiful focal point in our kids’ mermaid themed bedroom!
Simple accessories – I didn’t spend any money on new decor for my daughter’s room. I gave her an old vase filled with corks and some pretty blue faux flowers. Her inflatable mermaid pool toy makes a fun decor accent, along with a Packable Pail (rescued from the sandbox) to hold small toys. Packable Pails are cool because they collapse completely flat for easy storage and expand into a large kids’ pail.
Twinkle lights are a fun decorative accent, very inexpensive and available in a wide variety of colors. I stock up on the black light twinkle lights on sale after Halloween, and buy white lights with white cord and colorful lights with green cord on sale after Christmas. The days after the holidays are the best time to buy discounted Christmas lights for decorating all year long!
Interactive toys are the best kind to keep around. My girls love their kids dress-up vanity we purchased at a consignment toy sale and our Cloud b constellation night light which has lit up many bedtime ceilings. Cut the clutter and keep the toys that inspire interactive playtime.
My Fairy Bag
This fun Fairy Bag monthly box allows girls to receive new accessories in the mail every month. The Fairy Bag we received had press-on fingernails, a pretty pink hair bow, fuzzy key fobs, lip gloss, a sparkly ring and more! This girl-focused subscription box is a super fun gift to give once or every month, at a very affordable price of $10!
Custom Mermaid Themed Accents
DIY mermaid blanket – I finally made my daughter a mermaid blanket, after seeing tons of them trending on the internet. It’s actually pretty easy, I just cut out the fin, making sure to leave plenty of width where the fin attaches to the tail so my daughter can stick her feet through. I then sewed a tapered sleeping bag shaped pouch and attached the fin to the bottom. She loves her mermaid blanket, and I made it big enough so she will be able to enjoy it for a long time as she grows. ♥
Re-purposed painted trunk – I found an old roughed up trunk at a garage sale a few years ago and finally sanded it down and painted it this year. Of course my daughter requested I give it a mermaid theme, which fits perfectly with her room. Another inexpensive DIY project (I just had to buy new hinges).
Repainted cork board – I had this bulletin board in my office since before kids. I gave it a face lift with a simple coat of eggshell paint. White paint for the cork board and a dusty aqua border. My girls will love hanging up their art on this pretty display board!
Related Post: Genius Kids’ Bedroom Solutions »
Must-Have Bunk Bed Basics
Two ingenious problem-solving products have made life with kids in a bunk bed so much easier. My kids (2 and 4) still occasionally have bathroom accidents and still sometimes fall out of bed. Neither of these situations are fun to deal with in the middle of the night for the kid or for mommy or daddy. The Shrunks inflatable bed rails keep kids cozy and secure and QuickZip sheets are an amazing bunk bed sheet changing solution!
Inflatable Bed Rails
The Shrunks Inflatable Bed Rails makes it SO easy to keep your kids in bed without the use of bulky gear that has to be installed or attached to the bed. These inflatable bed rails slip right under the sheets and act as a cushy barrier against falling out of bed. They are easy to inflate and come with a small pump. I’ve had ours inflated for a few weeks at a time without having to add more air. Temperature can affect the air pressure, but it’s easy to add more air as need. Plus when you are traveling you can take these inflatable travel bed rails along to use when sleeping at hotels or relatives’ homes. If co-sleeping (or more than 1 kid in a bed), you could use these portable bed rails in the middle of the bed to divide the bed in half.
My daughter cuddles right up against her inflatable bed rail from The Shrunks; she obviously feels very secure and cozy with it bordering her bed. The flat bottom keeps the inflatable bed rail in place, while the curved top provides a substantial barrier against falling out of bed or rolling against the wall.
The Shrunks portable bed rails are even easier to slip under the sheets if used with these awesome QuickZip Sheets. These zip-on sheets are lifesavers for having a bunk bed. It is SO hard to change a standard fitted sheet on the top bunk, and I have to change the top bunk sheets semi-regularly in the middle of the night with my 4 year old sleeping up there.
QuickZip Zip-On Sheets
QuickZip Sheets are an ingenious solution for bed sheets. They have two parts; (1) a base that slips around your mattress (there’s a fitted base style and a wraparound base style that encompasses the whole bottom of your mattress) and (2) zip-on top sheets! Once you have the QuickZip Sheets base in place, you unfold the top sheet, position it over the mattress, line up the zipper tab on the QuickZip base with the receiving tab on the QuickZip sheet, and zip on the top sheet. The zipper goes all the way around the edge of the mattress and ends where you started, completely zipping the sheet onto the mattress. QuickZip zip-on sheets come in all the typical sheet sizes. For our twin beds, we have the luxe top sheet and the velvety soft fleece top sheet, which my daughter loves because it feels like sleeping on a plushy blanket. After struggling with changing sheets on a bunk bed, it would be really hard to go back to not using QuickZip Sheets!
QuickZip Sheets easily zip onto the mattress base, making sheet changes fast and easy! WellieWishers Doll Camille and our “You Are Beautiful” wood sign add darling decorative touches to this little girls’ room.
Easily zip on kids’ bed sheets with Quick-Zip Sheets, even on the top bunk!
My kids love spending time playing in their rooms and it’s fun to design an imagination-inspiring kid’s room to play in!
I hope you enjoyed our Mermaid Themed Kids’ Bedroom reveal! My girls will have so much fun growing up together in this fun and simply designed bedroom. If I’m brave next summer, I just may paint their bunk bed with chalk paint to give it a mmy or daddy. The Shrunks inflatable bed rails keep kids cozy and secure and QuickZip sheets are an amazing bunk bed sheet changing solution!
Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 3 kids in beautiful Coeur d’Alane, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, DIY projects, photography, homeschooling my kids, traveling, and serving people. I’ve previously worked as a graphic designer, web designer, journalist and barista. I started Create. Play. Travel. to share some of our creative projects and family adventures. I hope you enjoy the highlights of our creative family life!
This is beautiful and makes me so excited to do my son’s room!