Teen Boy's Bedroom Makeover

Jami from An Oregon Cottage submitted her son's bedroom makeover. It's awesome and I love the videos too! Here is her post:

Extreme Room Makeover: The Reveal

Finally, it's time to reveal our son's completely redecorated room! Be sure to look at the Introduction, Day One, and Days 2,3, & More to see the before video and some of the process we went through. Click HERE for her original post to see the reveal on video.

Here's the review in pictures with commentary and the cost breakdown:

The room viewed from the doorway before.

The room from the doorway after.

The new, larger bed is now against the wall as our son has wanted for awhile (I have no idea why...). We had to move the dresser to the foot of the bed as well.

The corner of the room before, complete with overloaded shelves and desk (and floor...).


The same corner after.

This picture really shows how cool the bed is that Brian made. We had to purchase the pine for the side rails, special large bolts to hold it together (and enable it to be taken apart to get it in and out of the room), and the fancy post caps which totaled $51.96. All the other wood and the paint was from previous projects.

We found the double mattress and box spring on Craigslist for $20, so the total for the bed was $71.96.

Of course, then I needed linens to cover the mattress. Sheesh, I've never bought all the needed linens for a bed at one time before, it's usually just the cover or the sheets, so it was more than I was thinking. I was hoping to find one of those "bed in a bag" type packages, but they were all funky patterns (what's up with that?). So the total for mattress pad, sheets (including one to cover the box spring), and a comforter came to $72.23, bringing the grand total for the bed to $144.19.

The bedside table before.

Wow, the whole skirted-table look was just not working for him. We definitely needed something with at least one drawer. And that could be easily dusted.

Bedside table after.

The table with a drawer came from Target and put us back $79.99 (we already had the basket- isn't it cool how it just fit?). Having never shopped for new furniture other than our couch and a mattress, we had no clue what a nightstand would cost. And this is fairly inexpensive in the world of new nightstands. Most were closer to $100.

And don't even get me started on the ridiculous prices our local thrift stores (and I visited five!) were charging. Most were broken (drawers, handles, huge wood chips) and they still were asking $40 to $50 dollars. The nightstand is the area that really could've benefited from advanced planning.

I've already written about the lamp transformation, but in this picture you can also see that I used the bronze spray paint on a clay pot to hold pens and a formerly white plastic waste basket.



The closet wall before. I'm sure this is typical of teens...right? Please say yes...

Closet wall after moving the bookshelf (made by Brian) and bulletin board that I made a few years ago. See? We really don't shop for furniture much!

I love how the creamy white paint contrasts with the light khaki walls in this photo.

Here's a view of the inside of the closet.

We continued the floor and paint, but just used what he already had (yes, those cool vintage gym baskets were in the before picture!). We donated a ton of stuff and organized his clothes.

Now we'll see how long it lasts.



The bookshelf and dresser before.

The dresser after.

Again, we couldn't find a dresser better than this one, although we looked for a wood one that would be big enough and be in our budget.

So we kept this and I touched up the paint job I had done years ago (eight?). This dresser was a find on the side of the road and was so beat-up even a paint job wouldn't have covered up it's flaws. This is a tissue-paper technique I did and then painted and glazed (my inspiration was old 50s suitcases). Over the years the tissue paper texture had torn off in a few places which made me think it was ready to be replaced, but in the end it cleaned up pretty well.

I know this is a long post, bear with me as I share just a few more things!

I LOVE the new curtain rod ($13.99 at Target!) and how it coordinates with the light fixture I spray painted. The same curtains look new on them.




Target came through again on the rug. It's a large 5x8, but only cost $39.99 because they called it a "remnant." It's just what I was looking for to cover my floor that didn't turn out the way I'd hoped and all the other rugs this size started at $79.00. Whoo-hoo.

And you know what? The floor isn't that bad with the furniture and rug. Only a little of it shows anyway.

And my son told me that one of his favorite things is the floor...he thinks it looks cool.

Ah...life is good.

And the total cost for the room makeover? $394.73

I was hoping to be closer to $300, but some things were just more than I anticipated (nightstand, $50 for polyurethane, and such). But I'm still happy with the outcome for less than $400, since just to recover the floor with normal carpet or wood would've cost about that!

I'd love to know what you think!

-Jami

Jami - I think it's awesome! I love his reaction and you did an amazing job on a tight budget! I love the textures and natural feel. It looks like a comfortable relaxing retreat! Great job!