Teen Boys Bedroom Makeover

Some projects take longer than you care of admit. Like an entire year before you get around to getting them done. Last January I shared a post on the long list of projects I planned to tackle in our new-to-us home, and this morning I took a peek back at that post to see what kind of progress we had made. Most of the items on the list we have accomplished like painting the guest room and girls bedroom- and others we may never actually do (like removing the 1970's-era air conditioning units from the bedroom walls). But the project that took us too long to get around to doing was the teen boys bedroom makeover.

When we closed on our house, we immediately had new carpet installed in this loft area before we moved in- because we knew that once the movers got the beds and desks up into that area, that would be it! So we allowed Kyle and Spencer to choose what they wanted- which was this rich plush slate grey carpeting- and they've been thrilled with it. 

But it looked pretty awful against the mustard-colored walls (and in my opinion, pretty much everything looks awful against mustard-colored walls).

So this fall, Steve decided he would finally start painting the boys room. But there was so much patch work to be done on the walls (the prior homeowner had cut holes in the walls to string a cable TV wire up here), and trying to find a couple of hours here and there on weekends meant weeks of the boys living with beds and furniture dragged to one side of the room or the other as Steve worked on one area at a time. (And one thing we realized is that the ceilings were also painted a tint of mustard yellow as well- so even they had to be re-painted!) What started as a November project ended up stretching well in January!

After much collaboration with the teens, we decided to paint the walls a soft grey and the trim a deeper grey. But what the boys really wanted was a contrast wall in bright red (my friend Amy refers to these as “BAM” walls!). We ended up doing two contrast walls in red (this is a long rectangular space) and the boys also wanted their closet doors painted in the red color as well (which I think looks a little like a locker- but it's their room!)

Heating and cooling this loft bedroom has been a bit of a challenge- because there are no heating vents up here, and the window air conditioning unit we used last summer just didn't cool the space. We are going to try some other solution for air conditioning this year (and I am open to any suggestions you can share!), but we addressed the cold bed problem by getting the boys heated mattress pads. The guys love them! (And honestly, it's not until the house cools off in the middle of the night that they were feeling cold in bed… because the heat in our home rises right up to their loft!)

We bought these desks and chairs for the boys years ago from Target. I love the cubbies that surround the desks, and how they are perfect for holding all of the boys' treasures!

I love using vinyl cling wall art to personalize a room because it makes a big impact- but it can easily be removed later without damaging the paint on the walls when you decide you want a different look. Spencer's side of the room shows his love for football:

The Quarterback Wall Decal and “Football Is Like Life” quote were purchased from Amazon.

 And Kyle's side of the room reflects his love of soccer:

The Soccer Player Wall Decal and “There is only one way to succeed” quote were purchased from Amazon as well.

Now even though the boys were living in the bedroom throughout the painting project, we did have a few surprises up our sleeve- the first one being the vinyl cling sports figures and the inspirational Vince Lombardi quotes. The second was this awesome LED lighting!

Steve needed to add a trim piece to the wall to hide all of the cords that ran through this space, so he figured- why not do something totally cool with it? He found this awesome LED light strand that just sits behind the trim piece and reflects upward giving the teens this cool “studio vibe”.

And they love how it reflects on to the other side of the room, setting the perfect mood for a little one-on-one Bball!

 I am really pleased with our teen boy bedroom makeover- and glad we (finally!) got it done!

If you liked this room makeover, you can check out a few of our other room makeovers below:

So… I'd love to hear… what do you think?