Ideas for cool bedroom for 11yo DS

[StaceyAndTracey]

He wants a "cool" bedroom but hasn't the faintest idea what that might look like . Neither have I.

I've looked on Pinterest for inspiration , but most of the " teen boy bedrooms" are very grown up style with a random pice of sports equipment stuck on the wall . He does like sports , but plays tennis, so none of the football themed rooms would do . Besides I think he's a bit old for kids themes.

He already has a high sleeper bed with a desk underneath and we would be buying new fitted wardrobes ( from ikea natch ) . So I'm hoping for a look that can be done cheaply with emulsion and creativity rather than ££££

We decorated our son's room last year before he started year 7.

He has a multi-coloured striped duvet from Debenhams so I picked 3 colours from that.

He already had Dulux Kiwi Burst 4 on all his walls, so a mild lime green. I horizontal striped the walls with the 3 accent colours plus the kiwi burst in different thickenesses, the darker orange, mid blue and a darker lime green.

As you love Ikea so much he has those wooden magazine files, and I have painted them using the accent colours. I should say that they were mixed paint Dulux tester pots and because I wide striped the orange I needed 2 of them but only 1 pot each of the other 2 colours. The magazine files are labelled with Mon-Fri for his school work. I also used orange paper to cover an Ikea pin board.

He has an Ikea bonde unit (ikea has revamped this as "Kalax") and has the bright orange Ikea Drona boxes in it. And a huge world map on the wall.

One day I'll take photos and upload them onto my profile. Right now we are using his room to stash stuff from the lounge in whilst it is being decorated.

Ooh I love the stripes idea, could you please post a photo of the walls ? I proomies to ignore any mess . Or is the room piled high with stuff ?

DS has now helpfully informed me that he doesn't like lime green and black aftre all . He likes blue - pale blue .

When I pointed out that's what he has right now ( mid blue and white ) he looked bemused .

So I've concluded that he doesn't know what the heck he wants . Sigh

no idea, but my son moved out of his old room when he was 11 (so his baby sister can have it) and moved into a den when I converted into a bedroom. it had lawyer paneling (pine wood).. So I just brought some modern ikea black furnitures and he was fine with that. His baby sister kept his old white furniture. his room was bright sky blue.

We've done a lot of ds's room. I still think pinterest is useful for bringing ideas to the surface.

We have a black round magnetic board from either IKEA or homebase which is quite cool. An IKEA desk was essential IMO as they have adjustable legs - ds is going to grow a fair bit unless genetics is a lie. Likewise a bed without a footboard. I think blinds are cooler than curtains (ds still has curtains, we can't afford to replace them yet).

Will take photos later today and upload, as will have cleared the room back out. It isn't messy just has 2 Ikea wooden chests from the lounge in it! In fact he is a very tidy boy.

The stripes were inspired by something I had seen on Pinterest, and I liked the differing thickness of the stripes. I planned it on paper then just marked the wall gently with pencil at different heights, used a spirit level to take the mark the entire width of the wall.

I used the yellow Frog tape and marked just one stripe at a time as I didn't know if it would pull the wallpaper off from underneath (inherited with the house and I just painted over it years ago) I did the tape in one long strip by wearing the tape like a bracelet on my right wrist and just pulling out more as I worked my way across the wall. It isn't like other tape, if you stick it to itself you can pull it apart with no damage to the tape. Then when you have the line, go over it with a credit card to smooth it down so there are no bleeds.

I did the paler colours first so that the brighter colours and the second I had painted the stripe I immediately removed the frog tape. It is fantastic stuff. The paint dries on the tape so again, unlike removing any other masking tape.

I realise when I post the pics it is like Ikea threw up in his room, from the Pax wardrobes, lighting, shelf, galant desk etc. The galant desk has adjustable legs like meand says (I now have the song in my head) so he has had that desk since he was 7. He grows a bit, and we adjust the legs and the chair, also Ikea

Must decorate then I will be back!

Thanks so much for all this useful information on doing stripes. They have a room set in our local ikea a bit like this - White with pink and purple stripes. But I hadn't worked out how to actually do it .

Did you do the bits between the tape with a mini paint rolled or a brush ?

And did you line up the stripes with an object in the room, like shelves or a desk ?

How do you work out the correct proportions for your room?

Right so pics are here (had to ask IT husband how to resize them on my Chromebook)

I used a paint brush for painting the stripes mainly because I could control the amount of paint. I painted the middle section of the stripe and then when the brush was needing a reload I painted the bit above and below the bit I had just done next to the tape to avoid bleeding. Almost dry brushing.

We knew roughly where we wanted the shelf above the desk (got Ds1 to show us reaching over the desk where he could reach to up the wall) and Dh just lined up the shelf with the stripe.

Proportions wise, I sort of eyeballed it, ie I saw this on Pinterest, and liked the look of it but knew that was a lot of work, so cut it down a bit.

My rooms are modern so only 2.35m tall. As I am always planning stuff so I drew a to scale wall plan, I just used A4 white paper portrait orientation. Used 1cm to = 10cm in real life and experimented in different thicknesses of stripes. I coloured them in with pencil crayon.

I was really nervous about using the frog tape because the house is 15 years old and it was the show home so I knew that they had put the wallpaper on immediately. I didn't want to have to strip the wallpaper and no doubt get the walls replastered. The first stripe I did was low down behind the bed and only about 30cm of wall. That way if it ripped the wallpaper I could sack it off and hide it behind the bed

I should also say that we wanted to ensure that homework could be done easily, hence the files labelled with days of the week. I read all the secondary school threads on MN, so every night he empties his bag out and puts his books into the correct days.

I printed out his timetable and laminated it, he has one in the kitchen at the breakfast bar so he faces it daily before school and one is pinned to his noticeboard. I have pre-cut paper that he writes his homework on ie Science draw and label plant cell, and then he pins it up on the day it is due in. It makes him see which homework is a priority and at a glance we can see how busy he should be.

The magazine files are labelled by me, I have a Silhouette Cameo (put that into Pinterest search) if you look closely you can see Nox/Lumos on the Ds1's light switch, again cut vinyl.

Hope this helps.

Thank you SO MUCH for the ohotos and all the info . Your sons room looks FAB, the decoration looks so professional

You are a very talented and organised mum !

Ds 13 has a teeny weeny box room with sloping eaves. It is painted bright green so like the inside of a pea - and bout the same size. He has hooks everywhere ( as we have no storage) and these hold gadgets and hats. A small corkboard for footie ticket stubs and photos. An iron man poster. A sticky dartboard thingy for Nerfgun practice. A poster of the inside of an engine. Crime scene black and yellow tape.HisXbox. if you look carefully you can see the small furry form of "beany tiger" next to his pillow!

Stacey, I grew up in a very disorganised house, didn't even have a desk in my room and had to do my homework on my bed. So it has made me want to give my children the tools to succeed. I got a degree 20 years ago despite my upbringing not because of it.

Both DCs are like mini Dh. He is in IT so organised and methodical. It is what I love about him.

I did a interior design course many many moons ago. Start with what you can't change in a room, whether it is carpet or a sofa, have a main colour and then accent colours. But all this goes out the window in kid's bedrooms and that is how it should be. It is their space. Be crazy with colour. Think about what you need to hide away, what you want on show.

demented that room sounds very cool indeed. I love the description of a pea!

Also I am a SAHM with 2 children in school. I have a lot of time on my hands that I fill with all this sort of planning.