Colours/ideas for decorating a teenage boy's bedroom?

[VelvetSpoon]

The teen in question is my DS1 (17).

He has no real preferences - hence asking him what he'd like has not borne much fruit!

For various reasons he's never had a properly decorated, 'nice' bedroom. Admittedly if he goes to uni next year he'll only have it for about 9 months, but he said this is what he wants for Xmas...

There will be a cream/beige carpet (all bedrooms have same), but I have nothing else yet (other than his bed - wardrobe is built in). He would like a desk too. Oh, and a chandelier .

Room is 12x12, not including wardrobe.

Can anyone inspire me please?

(I should add every wall in my house is white or cream because I don't trust myself to pick a colour that looks good )

One of more successful rooms is DS2s bedroom. It's predominantly white with dark blue accents, one wall is painted F&B Drawing Room blue. He has blinds with a navy & stone stripe and navy check bed linen.
it's essentially a Ralph Lauren-lite look and is quite stylish.

Sadly a smart bedroom doesn't mean he keeps it any tidier

Pinterest is definitely worth looking at.

Could you find a duvet cover, blind or curtains or even a picture he likes and take inspiration from that?

My boys rooms are probably similar in size or a bit smaller and this is how they have them - albeit they are 14 and 15 not 17.

Those photos are from a while ago and DS1 has ditched the Minecraft poster now in favour of some Manga prints and has rearranged his room a bit and extended his desk and has multiple PC screens and a big white leather chair.

DS2 has just covered his in gaming posters.

Dark blue is a safe bet. Just done ds2's room. Beige walls and one navy blue. He has and blue striped or checked bedding and a navy blind which is on one of the beige walls. Paint was from wicks. The beige was called biscuit but can't remember what the shade was for the blue but basically the darkest blue they do.

Pick a colour you like then go a shade lighter in the colour charts.
Pick up one item cushion, bedding or curtains then use that for wall colour. Show him some bedding, and let him chose, lots of specialists online.

This is the colour we have just painted DS's room. He is 11 but we wanted something pretty grown up as I don't intend on changing at again any time soon.

We also have beige/cream carpets and the colour works really well with it. It looks more grey in some lights and more green in others and is a genuinely really lovely colour. DS's room is quite big (16x18) but is built up into the eaves with 1 proper window and 2 veluxes so it can be quite dark at times and we therefore wanted to avoid any dark blues which is what he really wanted.

He has a John Lewis mixit wardrobe with oak sides and grey gloss doors.

His curtains and lightshade are also from John Lewis and are in this fabric www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-minna-cylinder-lampshade/p1891540?colour=Dark%20Grey

He has this bed and had grey and white bedding with small amounts of yellow on it. (I can't link it as they don't sell it anymore) Loads of nice grey/white bedding in John Lewis

I like navy with pops of orange in boys bedroom. Perhaps with a bold stripe.

We have dark grey wallpapered walls with heavy velour grey curtains and a flash of orange in a roman blind. We also have beige carpets but I bought a rug in grey and orange for his room.

Our inspiration came from a Habitat bed throw.

This is the chandelier from our last airbnb apartment which I think would work well. I'd do three white walls and one deep blue one but would have real or orange bedding and a nice desk like this Ikea one:

Sorry...desk like one of these depending on how big it needs to be

There are loads of ideas for "teen boys' bedrooms" on Pinterest or just plain old google.

My boys are younger (12 and 9) but I tend to show then a couple of duvet covers that I have short-listed. Once they choose that then I pick colours from them and decorate.

So Ds1 chose a striped duvet cover from Debenhams, I picked out a neutral base colour and then striped one wall with 3 accent colours. I also managed to find some accessories in the same bright orange (Ikea) as one of the stripes.

If you look on Pinterest you will see that lots of interior designers do that. I did interior design as night class many many years ago. You start with what you cannot change, then choose furniture, lamp shades, cushions etc and then you choose paint colour. There are hundreds of paint colours to enable you to pick a match, contrast or tone.

My oldest (15) has mid-grey walls, a feature wallpaper which is pen-and-ink skyscraper pattern a Plumen light fitting (black cord with one of those curly exposed lighbulbs), and red and grey tartan bedlinen. Dark grey blinds and white, with a thin black stripe thin curtains (Ikea)

It's grown-up but still fun