This summer I, along with the help of my father-in-law, completed the most complex wall hanging of my life. It was not a series of shelves for frames in the family room or hanging new shelves in the kitchen pantry. No it was an enormous decal of a T-Rex for my 2 year old’s room (see image to the right).

A decal sounds like a simple task until you actually have to install an 8 foot long decal and avoid having bubbles or wrinkles taking up the greater part of it. Now my son loves having the T-Rex in his room, which many remark is a bit frightening for a 2-year old, but honestly he has no issues with it. So all this got me thinking about the things that adorn the walls of a kids room.

As home owners, we now hang fancy pieces of art or photos of family and friends to add texture to our homes. But remember the pure joy of ripping a page out of a magazine and posting it on the wall to stare at as you drifted asleep? Or the $5 posters you’d have to flatten out on the dining room table so it would curl back up into the tube shape it had been packaged in. Simpler decorations for simpler times.

The wall of a child’s room is sacred territory. It’s reserved for the heroes and imaginations that will stay with a child forever. Right now I can remember every single poster I ever had hanging in my room. The 6 ft. tall poster of Mets’ outfielder, Darryl Strawberry, that was behind my door. The original “Dream Team” (circa 1992) above my bed next to a shot of the Spurs’ David Robinson appearing to be dunking over the Alamo.

Whether it was Betty Boop, Batman or the Backstreet Boys on your wall, I guarantee you remember exactly what was on your bedroom wall as a kid while you probably can’t remember the decor in the rest of the house. Your parents may have tried to hang a special frame or artwork to add some class to your walls but you probably loved that page from People magazine you ripped from a mag in the doctor’s office with your favorite heartthrob just as much, if not more.

For those who have children, let’s remember how much we loved what hung on our bedroom walls before we try to talk them out of sticking up a poster in favor of a nicely framed piece of art that fits the room’s “color scheme.”

But what I want to hear most is what was your favorite thing hanging in your room as a kid? Whether it was a poster, a page from a magazine or a memento of times past, share your favorite in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr user eren {sea+prairie}