Tween Room Reveal

My oldest son's tween bedroom is finally complete! Good thing, too, as he'll be a teenager this summer. Gulp!

I really enjoyed working on a more grown up, masculine bedroom. With 4 little boys, I've had my fill of decorating with light blue, dinosaurs and cars. As a mom, I'm not wishing those things away. But from a design perspective, I was up for a new challenge.

Here is a "before" shot of the room. At the time, it belonged to my youngest son, who had just moved out of a crib. You can see the room has a rather funky layout. It's the smallest of the bedrooms and the angles make furniture placement challenging.

We played a game of musical bedrooms, and my oldest took over this space.


Come on in and check out his tween digs ...

The room was designed around the antique bed I found on craigslist.

There was really no option other than placing it in front of the window. But, I actually like how the window frames the bed.

The bed is dressed with striped sheets, an ivory quilt and a tartan wool blanket. I knew I wanted plaids in this room, and after an exhaustive search I was lucky to score the blanket at Home Goods for $40.

I like mixing plaids. This pillow came from William Sonoma. I thought about adding more pillows and shams, but let's face it. This is a boy's room. The pillows will never find their way back onto the bed in the mornings. Best to keep it simple.

On one side of the bed, I stacked some vintage suitcases atop a small trunk.

I like the texture and character they add to the room.

This small brass lamp was hanging out in my parent's attic. I gave the shade a little makeover, and now it fits in perfectly.

On the other side of the bed resides a small dresser that was previously used in the nursery. You can spot it in the "before" picture above. I gave it a faux zinc paint job, which turned it from a sweet little boy dresser into a rugged guy dresser :)


There were other furniture makeovers as well. This campaign desk was a craigslist find that got a facelift with fresh paint.

The desk lamp and framed dog print are from HG.


This formerly blonde dresser has been passed down for generations, and I gave it a new look with chalk paint. You can see the transformation HERE.

The frame on the dresser contains a cork board. I painted the cork with graphite chalk paint.



You may recall that I had done a large chalkboard gallery wall on this side of the room. But, I have to admit.... it wasn't working for me. It looked too cluttered. And, the last thing I need in my kids' rooms is more clutter.

I decided to simplify and just frame out a section of chalkboard.

I put the mod podge initial I made in the corner of the chalkboard.

A couple of views toward the other side of the room...

Through the door back there is a jack and jill bathroom. (In this house, it's known as a jack and jack bathroom.) You might spy a sink area in the back right corner of the bedroom. I'll be sprucing up that area as part of the bathroom's mini-makeover.

You might have noticed we went with a bit of dog art in the room.

This one was a little memorial to our yellow lab, Sadie, who died in October...

Another piece of art that is close to my heart is this one of a Bainbridge Island ferry.

When my oldest sons were 3 and 2 years old, we spent several months living on Bainbridge Island. Sadly, they don't remember it. But, this is a nice reminder to me of an adventurous time in our lives.


Of course, I couldn't resist adding another plaid into the mix with this houndstooth rug. I scored a great deal on it at a local design shop's annual clearance sale.

And that's the tween room in a nutshell!

I love this room, and find myself just staring at it from time to time. I hope you like it, too. Because honestly, my son could probably care less. Oh, he's polite about it and tells me that he likes what I'm doing. But, I'm sure a mattress and a pillow would have been just fine with him.



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