What to do if a child draws on wallpaper

When a child appears in a young family, then, naturally, life becomes not so easy when there were two of you. And this applies not only to the daily routine, nutrition principles, and distribution of household chores. When a child picks up a pencil or marker and realizes that this thing can draw interesting curls, the first to suffer are doors, furniture and, of course, wallpaper.

What to do when an apartment turns into an art space, and is it possible to somehow protect the interior? Or is it still time to start saving for new renovations?

Why do children like to paint walls so much?

All children are born right-brained, that is, with inherent creative abilities. It is only later, as we grow older, that the left hemisphere develops and becomes the dominant one.

In addition, the child is not given the opportunity to understand where the boundaries of what is permitted are. Awareness (even a small one) begins to come to them already at the age of 3–5 years. A one-year-old baby is unlikely to understand what you want from him and why you forbid him to draw on the walls. In the end, all children love bright colors, they especially like contrast - that’s why they make their drawings on light-colored wallpaper in black or any dark color.

All this leads to a simple result, so to speak, ordinary household arithmetic: creativity is in the child’s blood. And since the child’s psyche is still immature, the most convenient way is to transfer your fantasies to the walls.

What to do if a child draws on wallpaper?

Naturally, everything can be fixed.

Firstly, you should start by creating a comfortable place where the baby will be comfortable to draw. For example, if you currently have a large table at home, but a small one is only in the plans, then you should take care of buying a comfortable chair. There are excellent growing models that adapt to the child’s growth and will last you a long time. Secondly, if the baby is two years old, then it’s time to buy him a “workplace” - a table and chair, where he will not only draw, but also play board games and engage in developmental activities.

However, if you want to create comfortable conditions for the child to develop creativity, then you can arrange separate drawing corners in the house, which the child will undoubtedly like more than a standard table and chair.

Easel

Children are interested in drawing on large sheets of paper, which is why they often choose wallpaper for themselves - there are no boundaries at all and you can create as much as you like. Try setting up an easel, but don’t limit your child to a standard A4 sheet - let him draw at least on whatman paper. Or you can go even further and offer the young artist a whole roll of paper. It is mounted on an easel, and the drawing area can always be shifted, thereby continuing the drawing.

Special coating

If you are not planning to do any repairs in the near future, but really want to protect your wallpaper, use water-based acrylic varnish. Essentially, it is used for flock liquid wallpaper and other surfaces to protect against abrasions and water. In this simple way, you can transform regular wallpaper into washable wallpaper. And if you also choose a matte varnish, then such a “revision” will be completely invisible.

Blackboard paint

In the child’s room, you can cover some part of the wall with paint that is used for blackboards at school. In general, according to psychologists, this is an ideal solution. In addition, it is one of the most long-term, since such an idea will become a salvation even when the child goes to school - you can leave notes for the child, explain the material, solve examples, and use it as a draft.

Wallpaper for drawing

This method has its own peculiarity that cannot be ignored.

So, on sale you can find wallpaper models that are specifically designed for coloring. Often they are bought for a child’s room so that the baby can reach his potential, and parents do not worry about damaged linens in the living room or hallway. Usually they depict plants, animals, fairy-tale characters and other silhouettes that may be of interest to the baby - take it and sketch it, even with a felt-tip pen or marker.

However, we should not forget that a small child is not yet able to understand why he can draw on the walls in his room, but it is prohibited in his parents’ bedroom. In other words, such a restriction will irritate the child, because from the point of view of an immature psyche, the principle applies: either you can paint wallpaper in all rooms or you can’t paint it anywhere at all.

However, for children over 3 years old, such wallpaper will be a real salvation, because at this age you can already explain to the child why you are guided by the rule “draw only in your room.”

come to terms

Perhaps the easiest way to solve the problem with painted walls is to let the child do his own thing and look at the situation more prosaically. Yes, if you have just completed the renovation, it will look very sad, because everything was planned completely differently.But, whatever one may say, with the arrival of a baby in the family, everything changes radically, so why not come to terms with the fact that cute curls and not yet clear letters with numbers have appeared on the wallpaper.

It is clear that not everyone will like this situation. But if you did the renovation a long time ago and plan to correct this situation, then don’t scold your artist - let him paint. And when the child grows up a little and there is new wallpaper on the walls, then you can explain why you can’t draw. But by that time, it is better to provide in advance a place where the child can realize his fantasies - be it an easel, a separate table, special wallpaper or a board.

These are simple ways to protect your walls from a child if you don’t plan to do any repairs in the near future. Do you allow your child to draw on the walls? If not, how can you justify the ban?