Teen Boys Room - Before and After

Jack turned 14 this summer. One more year of middle school...then off to high school!  His room hadn't been updated in quite some time so I felt like it was time for a change.  He needed more organization (or maybe just more closed storage to hide the mess that goes along with a being a teen).  

I got to creating a design board for some inspiration. And after a few tweaks, we ended up with the board below.

I knew I wanted a mix of patterns: plaids and stripes, a bold curtain. And I found the coolest metal bed (pictured above).  I wanted to room to be the a blend of mature, but fun.  

When I went to order the bed, it was no longer available, which forced me to alter the plan a bit.  I ended up going with an upholstered bed from Land of Nod in a gray (which you will see in the 'after' pictures below). In order to create a bit on contrast between the bed and wall, I went with a lighter paint color for the walls.

Let's take a look at some before pictures of the room!  

The dresser was solid and in good condition, but needed some updating.

Below you can see the need for some closed storage! Clutter, clutter, clutter. But what kiddo doesn't have that!? I know it's normal. But I was hoping to hide it, if possible.

Over the years,  Jack has put his own touch on the room. And I was itching to tidy it up and give it a new look.

Once I nailed down the design plan, it was time to tackle painting the walls. I KNEW painting the chalkboard stripe would be a big ol' hassle to cover.  But I painted them anyway, despite my reluctance.   And all these years later, just as I suspected, it was a pain.  Simply painting over the stripes wasn't effective because you would see the line/edge where the paint color changed.  It was more than I wanted to deal with, which meant it was time to call for help.   I hired the job out and was so thankful I did!   They sanded down the paint line, then sprayed wall texture over the top, then sanded again, and more wall texture until the walls returned to their original state. It was a process - and a process I was happy to hire out.  Once the room was painted, I got to work on the fun part - shopping! 

The bed was ordered, the red dresser got a new coat of paint and fun fabrics were brought in.  Ikea PAX cabinets were purchased and put together. (By the way, I love the PAX system.  We have a few of them in our house and they are really quality! I highly recommend them.)

And without much further ado....here is the finished product!

We mounted the crates on the side of the cabinets to keep things off the floor.  It also gives Jack a place to keep books, glasses, water, etc.  Since the end tables were so small, I didn't want to occupy that valuable space with a lamp.  So wall mounted accordian scones were the perfect fit!  The light clicks on and off on the cord, which makes it easy to reach when he's done reading at night.

I chose a paint color for the dresser that I thought was the perfect 'not so black' color.  Turns out it was more of a 'not really black at all' gray.  I added some black paint to darken it and thankfully ended up with the right color.  The red wooden knobs were replaced with round metal pulls, which made the dresser look more fitted for a teens room.

Open shelving gave us a place to display a few treasured items.  And I upgraded these Target curtains with a privacy lining so the sun didn't bleach them out and gave them some weight to hang nicer.

We're all really happy with how it turned out! Clutter (mainly) stays behind the cabinet.  Clothing (sometimes) makes it into the hamper. And the chair (occasionally) stays cleaned off for sitting!  All in all, I count that a success.

If you'd like to see more pictures of this room, head over to my portfolio page.

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-jen