To Theme or Not To Theme?

Yes, it's getting to be that time of year when I'm kind of over the current school year and am already making plans for next year.  It's not that I'm giving up on this year or anything like that...  I'm just already looking forward to a fresh start.  I love that I'm in a career where I get a fresh start each August.  I'm not completely stuck doing everything the same year after year.  If you know me, you know I like change in my home, my wardrobe, and my classroom.  I can't keep things to same for too long before I get bored.

We've done school-wide themes the past 4 years...  Western, stars / space, jungle, and sports.  I like this, but only to a point.  Our new principal, who's been around for years before this as a teacher, has been surveying our staff about themes.  It sounds like we're leaning towards not having a school-wide theme next year.  I try not to spend a lot of money on theme decorations, but I do still have boxes of theme items I probably won't use ever again.  (Uh, western?  I may live in Kansas, but I am about as far from a cowgirl as you get.)  Ideas were thrown out to let teachers just do whatever they want or maybe select a grade level theme.

I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, I want to do with my classroom next year.  Why am I thinking about this already?  I like planning ahead and knowing what I'm looking for when I'm out shopping.  If I spot something on an amazing sale, I can snatch it at a good price.  I can also be lurking around on Pinterest and the blogs gathering up ideas as well.  Let's just admit, Pinterest has put me into idea overload and I need some time to just work on those projects!

Here are some of my ideas and "themes" so far and links to give you visuals:

• Poppin' Patterns - This isn't really a theme, but it's totally my decor scheme right now.  It's from Creative Teaching Press and I'm pretty sure this line came out right around the time I started teaching and has just grown since then.  I was attracted to this collection because it's pretty versatile and I can make it work with most other themes.  The advantage is I already own TONS of stuff from this line.  In fact, when I Google'd "Poppin' Patterns classroom" pics of my room came up in the images!
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/c-68-poppin-patterns.aspx
• http://betterbulletinboards.blogspot.com/2011/03/polka-dot-word-wall.html
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/t-photo-contest.aspx
• http://bulletinboardideas.org/2769/best-of-the-bunch-apple-themed-welcome-display/
• Zebra / Hot Pink / Lime Green - This is super tempting, but I know that I would end up costing me a lot of money.  I've found a lot of cute ideas on Pinterest and I think this would be super cute, but I'm not really sure I want to take on the task of a COMPLETE classroom makeover.  I'm still trying to keep my school spending to a minimum and I know my OCD everything must match brain would go into overdrive.  Still, it's super cute and there's a lot out there to go with this theme.  (And where was all this cute stuff last year when it was "Wild About Learning"?  Nowhere to be found...)
• http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zebra-Zone
• http://www.mardel.com/store/group.aspx?groupid=151
• http://flipflopteacher.blogspot.com/2011/08/2011-2012-classroom-still-under.html
• Black & White w/ Some Brights - CTP has a new collection of black and white items that is super cute.  Tommie over at Tommie's Tools has a couple great posts that I linked to below on decorating a classroom with black and white.  She showed tons of other accessories that you can get to coordinate with the CTP items.  I definitely have the black and white thing going on in my classroom already, so it wouldn't necessarily be as much of a dramatic change if I wanted to go this route.  
• http://tommiestools.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-and-white-designer-collection.html
• http://tommiestools.blogspot.com/2012/02/celebrate-birthdays-in-black-and-white.html
• http://www.creativeteaching.com/ctp-search.aspx?catId=523

If you haven't been able to tell already I'm not really into cutesy little animal or character decor schemes.  (Nothing against that kinda stuff...  It's just not my thing.)  I'm more of a pattern and color scheme girl.  

So, friends, help me make some decisions!  

What do you think I should do in my classroom next year?  

Please give me your vote in the comments below!