My oldest is somewhat of a sentimentalist. He wanted to keep a lot of things the same as he had them before the fire. He wanted the same color room, same Christmas stocking pattern, and same styles of anything he could find. So it ended up being a lot easier for him to make decisions than his brother who wanted nothing to be the same.
Throughout my blog you will hear me complain about the size of samples. This room ended up being a real shocker for us.
He wanted a color that was the same as what he had in the old bedroom. We picked out the sample that we thought looked so much like the old room. He chose Sherwin Williams Smoky Blue. The sample piece looked so much like what we remembered his old room being. When we saw it on the wall, it was not remotely like the color I was expecting. It was WAY darker. Don’t get me wrong, I love the color of it. It is deep and moody (just like a teenage boy) and it looks great with all of the dark wood that he likes. It is a very attractive color, just not what we thought it was going to be. He loves it though, so I'm not complaining about the end results.
He chose to go with gray accents for things since they looked nice with the deep blue.
Because we have really beautiful wood trim around the windows I chose to go with pull down blackout cellular blinds in the bedrooms instead of curtains. I was excited to find gray ones! His brother has the same on in blue. What is awesome about it is that they are both white on the outside, so when everyone is closed up tight we all look like we match.
Nightstand – Drawers! A place for chargers and cords, wallets and chapstick.
Comforter – I had both my kids get reversible comforters. It gives them the ability to change up the room if they want using what they already have. I’m all about multi use and being resourceful. So the teen room with gray accents light gray/white with abstract gray pattern option.
Storage cubby – I love storage cubbies for kids. They can use it as book shelves or to showcase trophies. And I usually get a couple of baskets for storing smaller objects.
Rug – He wanted something abstract. The placement of his closet gives him a long narrow room with a nook for a study area. With the shape of his room he liked the idea of a runner beside his bed rather than one taking up all the space.
Study Area
Because we wanted large closets in a square room we ended up with an L shaped area. My son calls it his nook. We put a light above his desk for him and he helped his dad make that really cool live edge walnut desk. It is gorgeous. (I'll make a post about it eventually.)
The Closet
Instead of buying dressers so end up with overstuffed and broken drawers hanging open, we decided to go with walk in closets in all of the bedrooms. The boys bedroom closets are 8 feet long and 4 feet deep. They have a double bar and shelves on the long wall and shelves up the side for stacking folded clothes. I did put a Sterlite drawer cart in them for socks, underwear, etc. In theory this is so much better than dressers. In reality they still have a terrible time keeping things clean. I’m holding out hope for this.
Note: This is the story of my decisions for designing our new house. I have listed many of the products and design choices that I have chosen because I find it so annoying to find something that I like and then am never able to find out what it was. So I have decided to use all of the work that I have done to share my story and hopefully help you make some of your own decisions. I wanted to give you a resource I wish I had. Happy Planning!
