Weekend DIY: Give Your Kids' Rooms Some Pop With Pompoms
These fun and crafty ideas will add colour and personality to bedrooms fit for babyhood through to the teenage years
Adding a colourful homemade touch to a child’s room is a little reminder that you love your kids enough to put time and energy into doing something just for them. If you’re like most parents, however, you have time constraints that make it impossible to make everything from scratch – cooking included. These fun pompom ideas are quick and easy to make, and will add some one-of-a-kind character every child will love, whether they’re babies, toddlers, tweens or teens … and you just might be inspired to add a little pompom magic elsewhere in the home, too.
Most of us made pompoms as kids, but if you’ve forgotten, here’s how: cut out two same-sized circles of cardboard with a hole in the middle. Secure some wool around both layers of cardboard, then push a ball of wool through the centre, wrapping it round and round the cardboard as you go until you can’t see any more cardboard and you can’t fit any more wool through the centre hole. Then use scissors to cut the wool in between the cardboard; run a length of wool between the two layers of cardboard, tie a knot, and leave a length for hanging. Remove the cardboard, and voila! A pompom. Trim your finished pompom with scissors to make it nice and round.
REMEMBER: The bigger your cardboard circles, the bigger your pompom and the longer it will take to make.
REMEMBER: The bigger your cardboard circles, the bigger your pompom and the longer it will take to make.
Felted pompoms, balls really, can be fun to make, too. You’ll need a felting needle and some roving wool (also known as felting wool) – then simply shape and poke a scrunched up ball of roving wool over and over with the felting needle until it mats into a ball. It can be quite therapeutic, but take care not to stab yourself – felting needles are sharp! Thread the balls onto cotton or embroidery yarn with a needle, tying them off at your desired intervals. If you’re feeling REALLY creative, you could take it a step further and tackle a felted animal next.
TIP: If time is short, simply wet some wool in warm, soapy water and shape it into a ball by rolling it in your hands.
TIP: If time is short, simply wet some wool in warm, soapy water and shape it into a ball by rolling it in your hands.
Mobiles need not be restricted to a baby’s room; they can add a fun punch of colour to playrooms and older children’s bedrooms, too. Put your imagination to work and see what you can come up with. Remember, your son or daughter will love it no matter what it looks like simply because you made it.
Make paper fluff balls
Paper can be just as effective as wool when it comes to pompoms. Some tissue paper, scissors and string are all you need to add festive fun to playrooms, bedrooms and birthday parties…
How to make a playful paper pompom
Paper can be just as effective as wool when it comes to pompoms. Some tissue paper, scissors and string are all you need to add festive fun to playrooms, bedrooms and birthday parties…
How to make a playful paper pompom
String pompoms into garlands
String a series of colourful felted balls onto wool or fishing line and you’ve made a garland any little girl will love (choose your son’s favourite colours, and he’ll be just as chuffed). Mini pompoms made with wool can work just as well for this project as felted wool balls – the balls will just be a little bigger.
String a series of colourful felted balls onto wool or fishing line and you’ve made a garland any little girl will love (choose your son’s favourite colours, and he’ll be just as chuffed). Mini pompoms made with wool can work just as well for this project as felted wool balls – the balls will just be a little bigger.
Pompoms needn’t be trimmed to perfection. These pompom garlands have been given a boho edge with raggedy wool strands left hanging.
Sew on pompom fringing
Pompom fringes can be bought ready-made from craft and sewing shops – just sew on to fabric for an extra dimension of pretty. Pompom fringing is a cute addition to this child’s play kitchen.
Pompom fringes can be bought ready-made from craft and sewing shops – just sew on to fabric for an extra dimension of pretty. Pompom fringing is a cute addition to this child’s play kitchen.
Pompom fringing on the curtain makes this gorgeous room all the more so. Use a colour that contrasts with the curtains and pair with linen or other natural fibres for extra texture and character. This bedroom is just as suitable for an older child as it is for an adult.
Hessian lamp: Pottery Barn
Hessian lamp: Pottery Barn
Sewing pompom fringing along the bottom of a Venetian blind adds something special to this child’s bedroom and brings out the pink in the wallpaper.
No sewing is required in this easy project; just use a hot glue gun – available at craft stores – to add a pompom fringe to the bottom of a lamp shade.
Read more: Fun With Fabric: 15 Simple DIY Projects Worthy of Display
Read more: Fun With Fabric: 15 Simple DIY Projects Worthy of Display
Look for pompom opportunities elsewhere
If you’re green with envy once you’ve made pompom garlands for your children’s rooms, why not spread the love? They can add a cheery touch anywhere in the house.
TELL US
How have you put pompoms on display in your house? Share your ideas and images in the Comments.
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If you’re green with envy once you’ve made pompom garlands for your children’s rooms, why not spread the love? They can add a cheery touch anywhere in the house.
TELL US
How have you put pompoms on display in your house? Share your ideas and images in the Comments.
MORE
Make Do and Mend: Enjoy the Savings of the Simple Life
Christmas DIY: Mini Advent Village
10 Clever Ways to Reinvent Wooden Pallets
Nifty Thrifting: 19 Inventive Repurposing Ideas
This project is a great way to give wings to your creative side. There are no rules on what to do; just dangle pompoms on colourful string or wool alongside big wooden beads and shapes available from craft stores. To create a look like this, hang them from an embroidery hoop wrapped in wool or thread. If this design looks too complex to recreate, try thinking like a spider and spinning a web to make a dream catcher – run thread from edge to edge, crossing over in the middle, then weave a spiral in and out of the radius threads from inside to outside – it will look great, and your children will rest easy knowing any bad dreams will be caught in the web, too.
TIP: Your kids can get involved in this project with you. Have them help make the pompoms, then pile some beads, feathers, buttons and ribbons on the table for them to thread onto the wool or string. Isn’t this what memories are made of? When my son was three, he and I made one together, dangling several decorated wool lengths from three sticks tied together into a triangle. It still has pride of place on his bedroom wall almost two years later.