Creating a Pirate-Themed Room for the Littlest Pirate in Your Life

I am a lucky woman, I have a 9 year old son who is NUTS about pirates! So much so in fact, that he requested his room be re-done in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme (not to be confused with a Captain Hook theme from Peter Pan...too sissified, don't you know).

So, I got out my thinking cap and began to search the internet for ideas. This proved a lot harder than I originally imagined, as it seems there is little or no decorating advice available in terms of a pirate theme bedroom. After searching (mostly in vain), I finally resigned myself to the idea that I was going to have to start from scratch.

So, as to help other parents who might have a budding pirate in their midst, I decided to explain WHAT I did to make his room a pirate's delight, HOW I did it, and WHERE you can go to get items for that pirate "wanna be" in your life. I will include costs, merchants I used and approximate costs of each item. I also will share some of my "techniques" and ideas for using items to enhance the pirate theme.

Pirates always have a plan!

The first thing on the re-decorating list was to decide upon a basic color scheme. Since my son's walls were already painted blue, we decided that we would leave them as they were to simulate the sky and water. The other colors used were basically black and white with red and tan as accent colors. The flooring is wood, so it fits great with the theme of "planks" on a pirate ship deck!

The first planning stage for me, was to break the room down into areas. Since my son has a loft bed, I decided that this bed would be his "ship". The find of a buoy at my local Hobby Lobby in cream and red was perfect for the end of the bed, as was some fish net I found at the same store. Painting his pirate moniker on the buoy was all that was needed there. So after adding a black quilt I found in the college "back to school" aisle at TARGET, the bed was done! This part was simple, yet effective and easy to assemble too with the simple tying of the buoy and net on the end of the bed with twine.

My son originally had a lazy boy chair under his bed for reading and since I didn't have extra in the budget to change the chair, I decided upon a red bandana print pillow with a skull and crossbones design for the chair. That dressed up the chair and left a comfy place to read for him as well. Later on we changed the chair out for a small denim love seat. Since it had a "masculine" look, it also worked well with the over all theme of the room.

My oldest son remembered some left over skeleton light Halloween decorations, which we hung from the edge of the loft bed. Lit, they give an eerie sort of glow, yet aren't scary enough to give my son nightmares...exactly want we wanted to accomplish. Up by the ceiling, all around the room, we hung a banner which had a black background and a skull and crossbones design on each flag. This looks great especially when his window is open and the flags flutter in the breeze! Above the closet doors I hung an "antique" looking sign with a skull and crossbones design which pulled the theme into that hard to decorate area quite well.

Under the bed are shelving units at the head and foot of the bed. My son uses them primarily for books but the top shelves were brought into play, by placing a small wooden cabinet, several trays and a Kleenex box, all decorated in the pirate theme. This was a real hit with my son, especially when he realized he could store "treasure" in the drawers of the cabinet!

My sons each have a high shelf on one wall, up by the ceiling, so we decided to use the shelf to display some decorative pirate items. These included skeletons, skulls, a figurine of Johnny Depp, a Lego model assembled by my oldest son, antique books, notebooks and even an empty box of "Pirates of the Caribbean" cereal! All of these items added an air of "piracy" to the room and can be added to or changed as we see fit.

On top of the dresser, we kept it simple with a lamp, clock and a light up skull I found at TARGET as well. The look of the dresser is trim, yet it has the air of a pirates cabin too. Hanging from the ceiling fan is a parrot (named Wally) who swings on his own perch, giving a jaunty air to the area and adding fun when he accidentally collides with folks walking through the room.

Around the room, are a clock and light switch cover both of which I covered in "Pirates of the Caribbean" wrapping paper, a doorknob sign, a framed poster (as well as another one on hall side of the door), a corkboard with a drawing of a treasure map on it, and a sign hand lettered with his name, spray painted black for added character. I found some inexpensive broadswords and a black sash with a skull design for dress up and promised a complete costume as soon as I was able to assemble it.

I also used the treasure map theme on a cream denim pillow and a square rug sample to stretch the pirate theme even further. We also added a couple sandy colored throw rugs, a lampshade which I covered with a black fabric printed with glow in the dark skeletons and mats of the same fabric on the dresser and book cabinet as well. With the addition of cool hats, telescopes and some great pirate "booty" sent to my son, by a friend in New York, we were ready to go!

The room was relatively simple to assemble once I gathered all the items together. The creation of several of the items I admit, was time consuming but the look on my son's face was worth the hours I spent painting with the tiniest brush imaginable, small skulls on the knobs of the chest.

That's it....a room meant for the smallest of pirates! I urge any and all that have a youngster that is enamored of pirates to try their hand at decorating. It isn't hard and since pirates are so much fun, there is a lot of creative license that can be taken when designing this room!