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A Bedroom Makeover for a Teen Girl’s Room

Posted by Ragan Corliss on August 11, 2010 · 3 Comments 

A Bedroom Makeover for a Teen Girl’s Room

As discussed on the Pete and Brenda radio show, Aug. 11th and 12th, 12:40 and 2:40pm 9:40pm, PST

The teenage girl who owns this room made a wise choice to ask for a room makeover for her birthday and to be surprised by the end results.  This worked out very well, since we were able to first talk about her likes/dislikes, and make sure we understood what her wish list was for the room.   After that I created a design plan for the parents to approve, incorporating her wish list items while meeting the budget.   (We were fortunate in that she didn’t have a difficult wish list to meet.)  Then we all got to work on planning and preparations to have the room done in a one week time period.  As a result the room was completed quickly in the desired timeline.  Further, the decisions and work weren’t dragged out over a long time period, and everyone had a great time at the surprise birthday unveiling.

Click on photos for larger view

Before photo of teen room

Above:  The 15 year old teen tired quickly of her extremely bright walls, and girlishly flowered window treatments and bedding after living in this room for 4 years.  I see many young girls pick wall colors similar to the one shown above, which is fun, but they will tire of it quickly.  Consequently you may want to choose just painting one accent wall the bright paint color.  It won’t be quite so overwhelming that way, and much easier to change in the future.

Interior design plan

Above:  The parents were able to view colored renderings of the room in advance to confirm the colors, creative changes, and furniture choices.  This greatly helped with advance planning in order to get the room done in the short time period.   The wish list for the room design included the color blue, tropical and Asian decor, and a more grown-up feel to the room.   While lately this teen has been in love with blue, she was open to some other color choices, so I showed her photos of bedrooms and bedding examples to see what appealed to her and would make her happy.   Then the final decision was based on finding a great bed set that was on sale, and that happened to be an Asian theme in the blue tones.  It was just too perfect to consider the other color options…

Wash and wear bedding set puchased through Decorating Den Interiors. Click image for website.

Teen bedroom after

After

Above:  We added new bedding, paint, slip covers for the bed frame, custom window treatments, chaise lounge and accessories.   The parents had previously invested in a quality bed frame and they did not want to purchase a new one, so we covered it with slip covers, since the wood tone did not match the dark exotic wood tone of the new furniture pieces.

Key to Success for teen rooms:  Make sure they have a say in the decorating, and have an opportunity to choose from options.  You can narrow down the options available, but let them make the calls such as color choices and style.  The key is how you work those choices in the room. For example if they’re asking for the color black, you don’t have to paint all the walls black.  Instead you can incorporate the unreasonable color in less subtle ways, such as decorative window panels, throw pillows, accessories and art.

Save and splurge strategy: Most people don’t want to spend too much on a teenager’s room since the teens will be leaving home shortly.  A save and splurge strategy can be a great way to go for a teen bedroom, so that you can put your investment where you need it most, while saving on other design options to keep the total budget within a reasonable range.  Window treatments and quality bedding are  great areas to splurge on.  The bed set used in this room is quality bedding, yet reasonably priced, will last a long time, and has high thread count so it’s very comfortable and soft, plus it’s wash-and-wear!  I kept my bed set that I bought while attending junior high through my college years and even into my 20’s.  So splurging on quality bedding can still pay off for teenagers.   Additionally, quality shadings and blinds are important, since typically you want those to last for about 20 years.

Before

After

Before

After

The unveiling of the room

The proud helpers

A father who hates painting and handy work actually had a good time doing it!

Below:  A great mother-daughter project for the room, (after the initial surprise reveal), was recovering the boxes below with a decoupage using wrapping paper.  This also contributed to the “save” part of the makeover by renewing and reusing existing decor…

Before

After – A mother-daughter craft project

Another component of the “save” part of the decorating strategy included making a slip cover for the ottoman which has always received a lot of use by the teenager and her friends…

Before

After – A slip cover updated the ottoman in a fun way!

A very happy camper

Below:  The process for creating the window cornice boards shaped like a pagoda.  You can save by offering to do at least part of the labor yourself, with professional guidance.  The parents were able to save on the design by having me create the cutting template and then they profile cut it out of the wood, sanded and painted them….

Template for cornice boards

Cutting out the Cornice Boards

Dad assembles parts

Mom works on sanding

Ready to paint!

Further savings were achieved by purchasing sliding window panels from Ikea, as well as the sheer drapery panels.   There were quite a few parts and pieces involved in installing the sliding window panels, so a great deal of patience and technical aptitude is important if you go this route rather than purchasing through a blinds/shades specialty resource who also handles the installation for you such as Decorating Den Interiors…

Assembling IKEA panels

Here’s another great teen girl’s room:

This is the white and brown pre-made bedding set used in the above pink room. It came from Decorating Den Interiors.