An Alice in Wonderland bedroom looks best when it borrows from the book, not the gift shop. That means using the original illustrations by John Tenniel, a color scheme of cream, black and rose red, and some real things that Alice encounters, such as the tiny door, the golden key, the tea party, and the roses painted red. Below are 15 Alice in Wonderland bedroom ideas, each tied to a scene in the book, with the sizes, costs and safety notes most lists skip. After the list you’ll find versions for kids, teens and adults, plus a budget plan.
Here is one thing that you need to consider before printing anything: the illustrations by Tenniel created in 1865 are considered to be public domain material, which means you can use them for free. The characters of the 1951 cartoon movie, however, are still protected, so you can’t copy them yourself. If you want those, buy licensed bedding and decor.
Start With Color, Floor and Art
These three decide whether the room says Wonderland or just “quirky.” Get them right and everything else can stay small.
1. Take Your Palette From the Pictures
Tenniel’s pictures are black lines on light paper. Start with this: cream or warm white walls with black frames and details. Then choose one bold color. Rose red would be the natural choice, considering the Queen of Hearts and the painted roses. Light powder blue can be used for a more tranquil room.
A rough split of 60% cream, 30% black and 10% red keeps an Alice in Wonderland themed room from turning into a costume. When a themed room looks busy, it’s usually because it has five accent colors instead of one. That single rule does more for an Alice in Wonderland bedroom than anything you can buy.
2. Lay a Checkerboard Floor or Rug
The checkerboard pattern is inspired by the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). In it, Alice travels through a land laid out like a large chessboard. Nothing says Wonderland faster. Here are your options, from easiest to hardest:
- A checkerboard rug. Select one large enough that the front legs of the bed rest on the rug.
- Peel-and-stick tiles in black and white. Many can be easily peeled off when you move out.
- A painted floor. It’s the commitment option. Use low-VOC floor paint and make sure to ventilate properly. “Paints, varnishes and wax all contain organic solvents,” says the EPA, which advises: “Increase ventilation when using products that emit VOCs.”
3. Hang a Tenniel Gallery Wall
The Library of Congress has digitized the 1866 edition “with forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel.” The rights information provided by the library states that it “is not aware of any U.S. copyright or any other restrictions” with respect to this particular collection. Works published before 1931 are in the public domain in the US, Cornell University Library reports. So you may freely download the images and print them out for the cost of paper and ink.
Select six to nine images and print them onto matte cream paper. Put them into mismatched black and gold frames, and use one oval frame for a looking-glass look. The picture of the Cheshire Cat sitting in the tree, the illustration of the Mad Tea-Party and the illustration of the croquet game work nicely printed big. Read our guide on bedroom wall art.
Details Straight From the Book
Fans notice these first. They’re small, cheap and very specific, which is what makes an Alice in Wonderland bedroom feel like the book rather than a party store. They’re also the best Alice in Wonderland room decor you can make yourself.
4. Add the Little Door
Alice pulls back a curtain early on and finds that “behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high.” Make one! You can use a fairy door at the baseboard, a door sticker, or even a small wooden door from a dollhouse kit that you paint yourself. One person who made an Alice-themed room for their kid installed a dollhouse door under the nightstand, as if it leads somewhere.
5. Put Keys Everywhere
The glass table in the hall holds just one item: “there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key.” Use brass key holders near the door, keys that can be hung from the closet doorknob, or even just one very large key mounted on the wall. One crafter took a wooden key they found and spray-painted it gold, then brushed on black paint and dabbed most of it off with a paper towel for an antique look. It cost around $5 and took two hours.
6. Paint the Roses Red
Three playing-card gardeners in the Queen’s garden paint white roses red, since “this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake.” Do the same. Purchase white artificial flowers, paint them red, and attach a miniature paintbrush to the stem of one of them. This is precisely what one parent did for their child’s bedroom. If you’d rather not craft, use rose-print wallpaper on one wall.
7. Label Things DRINK ME and EAT ME
The bottle reads DRINK ME, and the cake reads EAT ME. Create hand-lettered kraft tags and tie them to a glass bottle and a lidded treat jar. In a toddler’s room, make sure that the bottle is empty and out of reach. A DRINK ME label can be an invitation.
8. Write the Best Lines on the Wall
Quote walls are inexpensive and personalized. Choose two or three lines, rather than ten:
- “Curiouser and curiouser!”
- “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” (the Cheshire Cat)
- “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” (nice over a desk)
- “Off with her head!” (for anyone with a sense of humor about siblings)
Apply vinyl lettering or write with a paint pen over a printed stencil. Serif fonts look more like the book itself than curly scripts do.
Furniture and Wall Ideas for an Alice in Wonderland Room
These are the bigger pieces. Choose two or three, not all seven. An Alice in Wonderland room with everything at once stops being a place you can sleep in.
9. Turn the Bed Into a Canopy
The feeling of being under a sheer canopy is reminiscent of the garden that Alice wants to find. Screw a ceiling hook or canopy ring into the ceiling right above the center of the bed and drape white voile from it. Include fairy lights, but make sure that only LED ones are used. As per the United States Department of Energy, LEDs “emit very little heat,” whereas “incandescent bulbs release 90% of their energy as heat.” Keep plugs and adapters off the bed and away from the fabric. Soft light like this makes an Alice in Wonderland bedroom feel restful instead of loud.
10. Set Up a Tea Party Corner
At the Mad Tea-Party, when the Hatter and the March Hare spot Alice approaching, they shout, “No room! No room!” despite the massive table that could easily seat more guests. Illustrate this humorous scene using a miniature table with too many cups on it. Utilize thrift store teacups to make your own pen holders or flower pots. Next, set a clock to six, since “It’s always six o’clock now.” This corner is the heart of most Alice in Wonderland room decor, so put it where you can see it from the bed.
11. Build a Book-Page and Playing-Card Wall
The Queen’s soldiers and gardeners are all playing cards, so a card-themed display fits. One fan on a forum took apart their own copy of the book for the display: “I’ve taken apart one of my copies of the book (I know, it hurt me too) so that I may decorate using the pages, as well as using my card set.” They attempted to make two different shapes: “I tried to make a heart with pages and a diamond with cards, do you think it worked?” Another member pointed out the problem: “I do like the display, though I don’t see a heart but rather a diamond, which still works with the card theme.”
A simple solution for the problem is marking out the desired shape on the wall using painter’s tape, filling it in with pages and cards overlapping the tape and then peeling the tape off. Use removable mounting putty or washi tape to hang everything and save the walls from being damaged. You can use any secondhand copy of the book, so your favorite edition stays in one piece.
12. Sit on a Mushroom
Alice peeks over the edge of the mushroom and sees “a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded.” Mushroom-shaped stools or a pouf give a little kid their very own seat, and a mushroom lamp fits right on the nightstand. Get a lamp that uses an LED bulb, and hide the cord behind the furniture.
13. Add a Croquet Flamingo
In the croquet game played by the Queen, “the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes.” A pink flamingo in one corner with some hedgehogs around its legs is a feature that die-hard fans adore. Garden store flamingos are the simple way out. As one parent wrote, “I couldn’t find a flamingo figure for under $100.” So they bought a gray garden stork instead, reshaped it with cardboard and tape, and spray-painted it metallic pink.
14. Hang a Cluster of Looking-Glass Mirrors
In the sequel, Alice climbs through the mirror over the mantelpiece into Looking-Glass House. Group three to five thrifted mirrors in different shapes above a dresser, or lean one big ornate mirror against the wall. Mirrors also make a small Alice in Wonderland room feel bigger. They’re heavy, though, so use hanging hardware rated for the weight, and strap any leaning mirror to the wall in a child’s room.
15. Hang the White Rabbit’s Clocks
The White Rabbit will always be running late, holding a pocket watch. Simply buy several cheap wall clocks, paint their frames to blend in with your color scheme, and set them all to different times, as one parent did. Alternatively, suspend an old pocket watch from a hook at the entrance to the room. Remove the batteries from your decorative clocks; you will quickly tire of a ticking wall above your bed.
Alice in Wonderland Bedroom Ideas for Kids, Teens and Adults
An Alice in Wonderland bedroom works at any age. What changes is how literal you go.
For Kids
Kids like characters they can point to, so this is where plush animals, a tea set and the little door earn their place. In a kid’s Alice in Wonderland themed room, two safety rules matter more than any decor choice.
First, secure large pieces of furniture. Since 2000 there have been “581 tip-over fatalities involving furniture, TVs, or appliances,” and “472 were children,” as stated by the CPSC. The CPSC’s advice is clear: “Anchor TVs and furniture, such as bookcases and dressers, securely to the wall.” A bookcase filled with various editions of Alice is exactly the kind of furniture that needs a strap.
Second, in a nursery, ensure teacups, figurines, and string lights are out of reach. For those who adore a different character, our Hello Kitty room ideas use all of the same techniques.
For Teens
Teens usually want a room that feels like theirs. Lean into DIY: the book-page wall, a quote wall in their own handwriting, thrifted teacups on a shelf. Most of the best Alice in Wonderland bedroom ideas for this age are things they make themselves, which also keeps the cost down. If they love more than one story, our Harry Potter bedroom ideas show how to add a theme without letting it take over.
For Adults
An adult Alice in Wonderland bedroom skips the cartoon. Go darker and more Victorian: Tenniel illustrations in black frames, rose or damask wallpaper on one wall, a checkerboard rug, an old-fashioned mirror and genuine teacups on a tray. It will be quite close to a dark academia bedroom, but with humor. Keep the obvious props of Alice’s world, like the DRINK ME labels or the flamingo, to one or two.
A DIY Alice in Wonderland Themed Room on a Budget
You don’t need a big budget for an Alice in Wonderland bedroom. Here’s how the ideas above break down by effort, so you can build a diy Alice in Wonderland themed room over a few weekends.
Completely or almost free
- Print Tenniel illustrations using the scan from the Library of Congress.
- Set a clock to six o’clock.
- Hand-letter the signs “DRINK ME” and “EAT ME.”
- Choose teacups that you already have.
A weekend craft project
- Paint fake roses red.
- Build a wall of book pages and playing cards, using a secondhand copy of the book.
- Spray-paint a found key gold (about $5 in one craft project).
- Repaint some cheap clocks.
Pricier ideas
- A checkerboard rug or peel-and-stick floor tiles
- A canopy and LED fairy lights
- Wallpaper with roses on one wall
- A large ornate mirror
Start with one thing from each list. A diy Alice in Wonderland themed room usually looks better built slowly, because you add pieces as you find them instead of buying a matching set all at once.
Alice in Wonderland Bedroom FAQs
It doesn’t have an official name. It’s most commonly referred to as the Wonderland or whimsical aesthetic. The design incorporates elements such as Victoriana, playing cards, teacups, checkered designs, roses, and just a hint of madness. The gentle aspect of it can be considered similar to cottagecore, while the darker side is similar to our gothic bedroom ideas.
What Art Style Is Alice in Wonderland?
The original artwork is in the form of the black and white drawings by John Tenniel, wood-engraved for the first edition published in 1865. They are rich in lines and cross-hatching; therefore, the theme works best with black, cream and an accent color. The 1951 film adaptation also has its own colorful and rounded look, which is used most in merchandising.
Can I Print Alice in Wonderland Art for Free?
Absolutely, if it is the art by Tenniel himself. Anything that was published prior to 1931 is in the public domain in the US, and the artwork of Tenniel was made in 1865. There is even a downloadable scan available from the Library of Congress, which you may freely print out. The 1951 film characters, however, are still protected, so buy those as licensed products instead of printing your own.
How Do I Make My Room Look Like a Fairy Tale?
Pick one story and use its details instead of a pile of themed products. Then soften everything with a canopy, warm LED string lights, natural fabrics and a few handmade pieces. The same rules behind a good Alice in Wonderland themed room work for any fairy tale.
What Are Some Unique Alice in Wonderland Themed Items?
The unexpected ones include: a fifteen-inch door near the baseboard, a pink croquet flamingo with a hedgehog, a golden key hanging from a hook, teacup pots, an old secondhand edition of the book and a clock stuck at six. That kind of Alice in Wonderland room decor gets noticed because it comes from the book, not the film.
Is an Alice in Wonderland Bedroom Too Childish for an Adult?
Not if you skip the cartoon versions. An Alice in Wonderland bedroom for an adult works with Tenniel prints in black frames, dark rose wallpaper, a checkerboard carpet, and an old-fashioned mirror. Use one or two props so that it looks like a well-read, slightly strange bedroom and not a child’s room.