We spent six weeks updating a room with paint, floors, furniture, and more. It’s time for our teen bedroom makeover reveal.
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The One Room Challenge
We’re on the last week of the One Room Challenge! Check out Week 1 Planning to see what we’re tackling for this six week home decor project and follow along through each post in this series. Be sure to check out the rest of the bloggers and designers on the One Room Challenge blog.
After six weeks of blood, sweat, and tears it is time to show you how our teen bedroom makeover turned out.
To be honest, this was one of the most challenging remodeling projects we have done. Most of the big projects at my house end up taking more than six weeks. There are always things that don’t go as planned, but when you’re working on a deadline, that can really throw a monkey wrench in things.
Teen bedroom makeover recap
Overall, the whole bedroom looks much calmer and tidy. Of course, we could’ve decluttered and organized without spending anything at all.
We started this project by carrying everything out of the room. Most of it ended up in boxes in the garage and there are still a few out there waiting to be organized.
The hardest part of this (and every) project is the budget. Going into the holiday season, I set our budget pretty low. That means we hit our limit before my Ikea trip, so new bookcases will have to wait until the spring.
Teen bedroom tour
The biggest changes in the room were replacing the carpet with wood laminate flooring and repainting the walls. My teenager was adamant about painting a space mural on one wall, so we made sure to do that near the beginning.
The bedding is a mixture of things we already had, like the turquoise sheets, and new items like this super-soft gray throw blanket from At Home.
Texture played a big role in our designing process, so the blanket and the rug are both crazy-soft and cozy. The rest of the room has a calm, clean feel to it that adds to the relaxing atmosphere.
The most time-consuming part of this teen bedroom was refinishing the furniture. If you remember from earlier posts, we inherited a vintage Drexel bedroom set that grandma painted green.
Altogether, it has taken about 30 hours of scraping and sanding over several weekends.
The area rug is from Home Depot. It feels amazingly soft, like faux rabbit fur. It’s perfect for lounging and doing a puzzle. The floor pillow is from At Home.
Right now, the dresser and the bookcase headboard are holding books and dolls. Once we’ve added bookcases, those things will probably move and we can reorganize.
It’s a bit difficult to see the color and texture of the furniture, but it turned out nice. It has a golden honey color that’s close to the original. There are plenty of nicks and in a few places you can see hints of green.
The refinished vintage furniture looks much better… and it all matches!
Overall, I feel like the room is a balanced mix of childhood and adulthood. The definition of being a teenager, right? And with this new look, it will be easy to transition from high school to college in a few years.
Our house was built in 1961, so there aren’t a lot of windows in any room. This teen bedroom has one, so I took advantage of it as a light source. On sunny days, it’s plenty bright.
The silk curtains are from At Home.
We already had the floor lamp and butterfly chair. The purple star pillow is from At Home.
Teen bedroom workspace
The focal point of the room is actually the workspace. We refinished the vintage vanity, which doubles as a desk. The corkboard displays artwork and the rainbow rolling cart holds all kinds of art supplies.
My teen attends a STEM academy that tends to give a generous amount of schoolwork, as well as a personal love for art, comics, and creativity. It was important to me that there is plenty of room to work on projects for school and fun.
The center section of the vanity/desk flips up and has space for storage.
There are two cabinets on either side of the desk with space for vertical storage, two shelves, and a drawer. It’s small but lends itself to organizing.
Teen bedroom closet
We haven’t updated the closet much itself. We replace the floor along with the rest of the room.
I have an Ikea closet organizer planned, but for now, we have modular wire shelving on one side and the original clothes rod on the other.
While I’m disappointed that we didn’t get everything finished the way I imagined it done, I’m also pretty happy with how it turned out. One of the things I’ve learned in the past five years of remodeling our vintage house is that nothing ever goes exactly as you plan.
If you’re planning a teen bedroom makeover, here are a few quick tips:
- Set big goals, but remember that even if you don’t reach them, you’ve made great progress.
- Stick to your budget. You can always do more later.
- Have fun! Your home is your haven, so make sure you are making it a place you love, even if it isn’t what the “experts” say is best.
Follow along on our teen bedroom makeover!
Week 1: Planning | Week 2: Paint | Week 3: Flooring
Week 4: Furniture |Reveal (you’re here)
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Congratulations on getting so much work done!! I think you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished in such a short time. Remember: “Perfect is good, but Done is better!” Your teen must be thrilled ?
Thank you! You are absolutely right. And I feel pretty good after checking such a big task off my to-do list. We’ve been planning to refinish that furniture for almost 5 years!
Love it! I know it is Her! in and out. Great job on refinishing too. Removing green has to be one of the hardest colors to get rid of not knowing what kind of paint was used. Here’s to several years of enjoyment. Love the gray rug and bed throw too.
Thank you! The teen is happy, which in the end is the most important part.
That desk is everything! It makes my MCM-loving heart go pitter-pat! Beautiful room!
Thank you, Angela! I love mid-century modern everything, so it was really important to me that this furniture got as close to its original gorgeousness as possible!
I really love one-room challenges. Follow this journey throughout all four posts, and then this. It looks very fitting for teens indeed. Thank you for sharing this journey!
Thank you! We had some stressful moments, but overall I’m thrilled with how the project went. And most importantly, so is my teen!