• Although your child may have decorated every inch of wall, floor and shelf space available in her room, there may be two large spaces left open for a creative display of personality--the bed's headboard and footboard. With a few supplies, you can turn those pieces of wood or plastic into fun games or let them reflect your child's artistic side.
  
  

Bean Bag Archery

• Turn your child's bed's headboard and footboard into a miniature archery beanbag target range. Archery, a sport usually played with bows and arrows, involves aiming at a large, round target complete with multiple layers of colored circles. A strike within any of the circles gains the competitor points, with more points awarded to strikes closest to the center of the target.
  
  Use red, white, yellow and blue paint (paint a single layer first, marking sections off with masking tape, then peel the tape off when the paint has dried) to create the circles on the head and foot boards. Kids can use bean bag animals, balled up socks or even foam balls to hit the targets. Siblings can play together (each facing an opposite direction) or your child can invite a friend over for some competition.
  
  

Comedy Tragedy Masks

• If your child is into acting, music and performing, turn his bed into a theater venue with a decoration of comedy and tragedy masks. The masks date back to Shakespearean time, when actors wore the masks so audiences could tell their facial expressions even from far away. They've since become a symbol of the theater, with one happy face and one frowning face joined together.
  
  Paint the headboard and footboard white, then draw the happy mask on the headboard and the frowning mask on the footboard with the child's favorite color. Posters and castings (plastic, plaster, vinyl and heavier materials) are available for purchase if you'd prefer less-permanent decorations. Your child can face the direction of the mask he is feeling that day (facing one way for happy, the other for sad).
  
  

Night Sky

• Your child can fall asleep with a view of the stars and solar system when you turn her headboard and footboard into the night sky. Paint each board completely white or yellow, then let it dry. Next, let your child cover the boards with star stickers (the kind teachers often place on assignments or chore boards, found in office supply and mass merchandise stores). Then, paint the boards a dark color--such as black or deep purple. When the boards dry, ask your child to peel off the stickers, which will leave star-shaped designs showing through with the lighter paint color. Reattach the boards to the bed. If you don't want to commit to permanently painting the boards, add stick-on plastic glowing stars and shapes all over the headboards for a bright night.