Boy to Teen Room Makeover

My youngest son turned 13 in August! It is official: we have all teen boys in our household now! (Plus, a perimenopausal 45 year old, but that’s a story for another day! 🙂 ) His birthday and the first day of school fall on August 9! Poor kid!! I swore to him I did NOT plan this when he was conceived, so to make it up to him, ( and to make sure he believed me ) I decided to give his room a makeover complete with a new bed, more mature bedding, and accent pieces. He had been asking for a new bed for a long time. Turning the big 1-3 seemed like the right time. 

His room had neutral walls, with primary color accents. He previously had Pottery Barn dog sheets, quilted shams, and thin wale corduroy duvets on his bunk beds, which were later replaced by these striped comforters. We worked those bunk beds in almost every way possible. We got our money’s worth, that’s for sure! And honestly, if my son hadn’t asked for a new bed, I’d probably still be trying to use those bunk beds! They really do work great for small spaces and when friends sleep over, I must say.

My starting points for my son’s room were these turtle shell Giclee art prints by Nostalgia Fine Art in Douglasville, Georgia, and the ikat fabric. One of the owners had a booth at our local antique mall, and I fell head over heels for his prints! Many of their prints have been used in showhomes here in Atlanta. They offer antique prints, custom framing, and Giclee prints. Their work is beautiful! Choosing only 2 was the hard part! I knew my son wanted me to incorporate some items from our favorite Gulf beach spot that we vacation at every year into his room, but these turtle shell prints were screaming at me! I originally wanted to do 3-4 of these turtle shell prints in his room- there were prints of the topside and underneath of many different types of turtles, and they ALL were antique, masculine, and interesting. But I wanted to ask my son what he thought of them. He let me know that he was ok with a few turtle prints, but he also wanted some other art, like wildlife photos from the Gulf such as fish,etc. This helped me to narrow down my choices. ( I reminded myself to always listen to my client, even when the client is my own son. It is his space, and I am just helping bring it all together in an attractive way.Remembering this really helped me stay focused on the outcome of the project!)
I found the camel ikat fabric at another vendor that same day at the antique mall. She is a local lady who offers wonderful fabrics, but some she only has 1-2 yards of, and others she has a bolt. There were 2 yards of this ikat, so I knew that would be perfect for a couple of large throw pillows.

I started thinking of paint color for the walls after I had the art and fabric choices made. The walls were already Duron Crisp Khaki, and I liked the way the neutral walls looked with the curtains. I had lengthened the curtains not long ago, so I wanted to keep those. The curtains and walls being the same or similar colors helps visually enlarge a room, and I wanted the focus to be on the bedding and art, which were going to be the main focal point of the room.
 I also knew I wanted to repaint the red dresser/ gaming console, so that was the next step in choosing the room’s color palette. I started looking at different gray paint swatches next to the prints and fabric, and the charcoal gray instantly won me over!
 Next, I found the tealish colored quilt and shams at Target, and LOVED the color, and the combination of tan, charcoal, and teal.
 I wanted a stripe to go with the ikat fabric, which was going to be the bedskirt, and I lucked out finding a remnant of 3 yards at Hancock Fabrics. ( I will do a separate post on how I made this easy bedskirt soon!)
 Finally, the solid linen at the top was for the upholstered headboard we wanted to make for Colby’s room. It is actually a Belgian linen curtain panel that I found on clearance at Restoration Hardware. I am fortunate to have a RH outlet store near my home!

This project got a little tricky with all the tans I chose. As you can tell, they all coordinate and blend together, but they are each a little different, which made getting the paint color a tad challenging! Remember I told you the walls were already Crisp Khaki? Well, it blended well enough, but there was too much of a red undertone when I held up the linen headboard fabric next to it. That drove me crazy every time I kept talking myself out of asking myself whether repainting was necessary. I failed to mention that we had to spackle and sand alot, I mean ALOT of places in his room after 11 years in this house. Many little dirty footprints on the ceiling ( hey, that’s how little boys have fun! ) and many dings and scuffs that Mr. Clean Eraser couldn’t even help. So, I began my paint sample quest for the perfect shade of tan with not too much yellow or red undertones. Not an easy task, as seen below!

This is only a FRACTION of how many samples I bought for this project!! Neutral tans are tricky to find without red or yellow undertones, then there’s time of day, direction the room faces, and lighting to consider. In the end, I used Sherwin Williams color, Basket Beige, but in a Behr paint with primer. I’m really loving the flat enamel right now, because flat gives you the truest hue, without the light playing games. It’s also washable! Even though I did alot of work repainting a tan room tan again, I really like Basket Beige for its’ true color. Beige is kind of a misleading word with various beiges having different undertones, but this particular shade is pretty much a neutral tan. In my son’s room, I noticed an ever so slight green undertone, if any, but that will vary with time of day, lighting, room furnishings, etc.  ( sorry, I forgot to post a picture of all the samples on the walls!) The color in the can looks nothing like the final result, but you get a sense of the shade….

  I sanded and was hoping to get that waxy layer off, and then paint with a flat latex. NOPE! It started peeling, so I sanded it with a sander, and then also had to use mineral spirits, and sand again. This is the point I decided that I like my flat paint, glaze, and polyurethane way of painting alot better! Don’t get me wrong….it is definitely a matter of choice, and there are times when I love chalk paint, but the wax can be difficult, and I don’t always like that finish on every piece. I feel like I can get that aged look by sanding and using a medium to dark glaze. And it is so easy when you’re ready to repaint.