Kids Fun Rooms: Jungle Room

Long before my child was born, I had decided on a jungle theme for his bedroom. On my honeymoon, I’d bought stuffed jungle animals in a cheap souvenir store that set the tone. And the room that ended up being the nursery was already papered in a natural fiber, khacki colored walls and grasscloth wallpaper that inspired a jungle safari room.

When it came time to buy accessories and decor, I was overwhelmed with the choices. The jungle theme is a popular one, and there were tons of bedding and room accessories to choose from – from neutral colors to youthful, bright and cartoony prints.

In the end I decided that I wanted the room to look like a hut in the jungle, looking out over the rainforest, with neutral colors and repurposed furniture.

On wall one, I removed the wallpaper and painted the wall to look like a blue sky with puffy clouds, and stenciled a bamboo forest mural from Stencil Ease. On the remaining walls, I added the Turtle Walk stencil along the bottom to make the room a little more youthful. I painted my husband’s childhood toy box in a tan color and added the stencil to the bottom of that, too.

For wall decorations, I painted animal spots and stripes on some plain picture frame. Someone gave us a crossstitch picture of a tiger in a bamboo frame. I bought decorative twigs from a craft store and propped plush little jungle animals on them. A little hammock in the corner fit the theme and held more toys. My dream was always to add a real hammock or swing to the room, but we ended up with a second story – and a new bedroom for the boy – before he was old enough for that.
His bed was simple convertible crib in a light honey pine finish. We had a Noah’s ark quilt and sheets in a tan color. Later, I’d planned to get a plain metal bed, like a cot, and put mosquito netting over it in a canopy, or plain canvas fashioned into a tent.

I used an old bamboo table as a decorative piece, with a toy camping lantern on top. For a changing table, I used a plain folding table, with a changing pad on top. I covered the table with a grass skirt, the kind sold at party stores to use on tiki bars. Another party store item was a banner made of vinyl tropical leaves, hung over the window.



My favorite part of the room was my old armoire, which I dressed up to look like hut. I painted it brown, attached bamboo placemats to the front, cut pieces of bamboo to cover the handles, and attached little fake birds to the front. On top, I fashioned a sloping roof from Styrofoam and covered it with bamboo placemats in a grass color, then placed a large lion play blanket (my favorite baby shower gift!) on top.

While putting this room together, I came across many many products for completing the DIY projects, as well as bedding, furniture and accessories to bring my decorating ideas to life. All that Internet shopping was fun for me - I love putting things together and finding exactly what I need - but a lot of work! That is the inspiration for this blog. I am hoping I can share these finds and ideas to make decorating for kids easier on other parents. Many products to create jungle theme room are found on my jungle theme room shop page. Most are affiliate links to Amazon and other secure ordering sites, as well as some of my own products. Happy shopping! Enjoy your jungle safari theme room!