I have a quilt hanging on the wall by my sons bed. Quilt clips are available on ebay and etsy, or you could just make them. The ones I have are balsa wood cut into animal shapes and glued to the plastic clips from a pants hanger. They hold up the quilt without damaging it, and simply hang on nails. My son has pulled his quilt down with no danger to himself or the quilt.

I have no immediate ideas for the wall but I love the quilt on his bed currently! Where did you get it?

A wall decal was my first thought. You can get ones that are photographs or have one made from your own photo. A quick google search turns up lots of options.

I second the wall decal idea - that was my first thought as well. There are so many great sellers on Etsy that can do wall decals and would probably even do something custom if you wanted.

Thanks for your ideas! For the time being I put up some frames I found at Walmart ($11 each) especially for children's art. They are hinged on the side so the artwork can easily be switched on a regular basis, and they have plexi-glass in them JUST IN CASE they fall off the wall. What do you think?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisamfb/5617012362/in/photostream

Jules248 - the quilt came from JC Penney, believe it or not!!

A bunting might look nice draped there too!

You could pick up some alphabet or number cards that are printed on heavy card stock and put them up with double sided non marking tape. We have these above our changing table and if they fall off no big deal. http://www.eeboo.com/product.php?cat=30&prod=34 I'm sure you could find something similar in a more "big boy" appropriate theme.

Otherwise I echo the other ideas of a wall mural.

I have the same layout for my son's bedroom and I put up a vintage alphabet poster. There aer plenty out there to choose from. I hung mine with little metal clips I purchased on-line at the museum store. The clips just clip onto the poster and I hang from a small nail. You wouldn't need to worry about something heavy falling off the wall onto your son. Cute bedroom by the way!

We have a super colorful giant map of the US next to my son's bed on a similar wall. Every night we tell a story about a state and he has to point out the state and show us how he would get to that state from our state. It's a great learning tool and he loves it. We have also marked on it where he has been and the road trips we have taken. He just turned 5 and he can tell me where most of the states are.
It's a very light map (not framed) so I don't worry about it falling on him at night. I have nailed it into the wall at certain points so it never would fall on him anyway.

I have the same bed/wall situation in my daughter's room (she's about to turn 4). I saw a post on AT a while back where someone stenciled a phrase from a song onto a big sheet of luan plywood and leaned it against the wall and I thought that might be cool. I bought a sheet on luan plywood, some letter stickers and a can of cool turquoise paint. I choose the phrase "All you need is love, love, love is all you need"- stuck down the stickers the way I wanted it read then painted right over them. Before the paint was completely dry, I pulled up the stickers. The luan is really thin so I screwed it to the wall at each of the four corners and it doesn't stick out too much. I'll try and get a picture. Good luck!

Love the bed, and the quilt! I second the idea about the alphabet card or perhaps a soft alphabet hanging thing hung high enough that it won't fall, and if it gets knocked down it would at least be soft. But I would live with the room for a bit and see what strikes you. It looks great they way it is, simple.

I posted about this on another AT page: use giant-sized binder clips to hang quilts. Even if your son pulls the quilt down, there's nothing heavy that could hit him. The quilt on the bed is beautiful, by the way--is it another handmade one?

My son's room looks like the same layout as yours. We have a low window and vent in the exact same spot. Right now we have a changing table where you have the bed, and our crib is pushed down further against the big wall, but I suspect we will put my son's big boy bed where you have yours when that time comes.

Anyway, we have decals of hot air balloons and airplanes we found on etsy on both walls, and the big wall also has clouds painted on it. It fills up that big space without having to hang anything over the bed.

http://underwatercondo.blogspot.com/2010/09/sebastians-room.html

Hi,
Looks great. I'm totally stealing the idea about the frame. Did you buy them ready made or put the hinges on yourself?

i like the wall decal idea. another thing you could consider is to hang a mobile toward the end of the bed . . . that would visually fill in the space without having stuff on the wall itself.

Same problem in my daughter's room! She is 4 and can be a little rambunctious so I have hung anything that could be knocked down AWAY from her bed. She also snuggles up to the wall. It just seems like this huge looming blank space. I am thinking about bunting...

AWillow - the frames were ready-made. $11 at Walmart, although I've also seen them at Target:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/182-9225338-8233642?asin=B0018N4RLQ&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=B0018N4RLQ

Don't hang a bulletin board. That went very badly for Flat Stanley.

I'd LOVE to see LoveTheMeeps' photos - it sounds really creative, yet simple.

Hi Lisa!
I got these for my kid's room and it's perfect because it's something that takes up space and has a purpose, but won't come crashing down.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2221851103P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM2221851103

I LOVE your quilt and bed spindle combo. I will say, however, when I saw OB I couldn't help but giggle thinking of mine ;)

If you don't want to go the decal route, you could use something like the OOK kid-safe/earthquake safety picture hooks -- they are really secure, and if you used plexiglass and a light frame, I think you'd be safe hanging a large poster. (I used them for all the pictures in my son's room because he has a tendency to bounce all over and throw stuff and I didn't want anything, especially the smaller frames, getting jostled loose!)

And I also love the quilt and black spindle bed!

Lots of good suggestions above, but don't rule out book slings. I just made and installed mine and with the right screws and wall anchors they are really sturdy. Plus, he can access his own books when he wakes up.

I love the book sling idea. I also think a flag banner would look great. You could make one yourself if you are crafty or they have some beautiful ones on Etsy.

I think a big map would look great with the colors you have going on in the room!

I have the same room set up, right down to the spindle bed and I hung up oversized counting /animal cards from eboo with some raffia twine and clothes pins from the dollar store. Super cute, large scale and lightweight! And you can always change it out with their own art work, photographs or other pictures if you want.

How about a wire or string to clip photos, kid drawings and other treasures too. The art is lightweight (just paper) and easily interchangeable. You could even do a couple of rows.

@Ms. Jillian: ROTFL!! Totally running out to the library to get that book for my son!

♥ the bed!
maybe just make that an accent wall...paint stripes or something. i used to have a small floating shelf at my son's level with light things on it that wouldn't hurt if they fell...a flashlight, toy cars, stuffed animal...etc.
also with all the ornate tacks you could just tack a cool map up there!

My friend has a great wall in her sons room, it looks like a flowing pattern but its 3D... it looks incredible. It was a wood type material and she painted it after it was mounted to the wall. The 3d panels were sent by a company called cutting edge doors, in pa or nj I think
I also saw a youtube video from them that was wild! Try www.cuttingedgedoors.com

Good luck with the room!
Mike