Need budget ideas for 12yo boy room makeover

[leagirl12]

It is time for DS12 to have a bedroom makeover. He has had a sports themed room since he was about 5 and he is tired of that. Just not sure what to really do theme wise for a 12 yo boy. Maybe no theme and just go with a color scheme...but then what do you put on the walls????

He is into Lego's and Video games...that's really about it. Although his newest love is anything to do with Greek Mythology thanks to Percy Jackson.

Any ideas will be SO appreciated. If you have pics of your tween boy rooms please share!!!!!!!!

 

[Mom2Ben02]

Well, he is not a tween, but here is my son's room for some ideas:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147411&id=748198071&l=c59fae6c38

I have a Cricut, and a program that I can use to download fonts online. I found the "correct" font for the star wars crawl, as well as the SW logo. I used vinyl for the walls and the lamp.

Ben's favorite part is the kite on the ceiling. It was cheap ($10-15), makes a huge statement, and will be super easy to remove when we want to change the room.

BTW, I did this in one day while he was at school - it was AWESOME.

 

[turnlisa]

We just redid my oldest DS's room - he turned 13 in November.

The walls went from blue with Spongebob to silver with navy trim. For what to put on the walls, he put up a Pirates flag and also small black mirrors that I picked up at Ikea. We got him all new furniture - new loft, new dresser, new desk with chair, new futon/couch thing with cover. Everything cost us $800 and it looks so cool. Even my nephew, who was home from college, said that it looked incredible. Definitely a great investment since some of the furniture he can take to college.

 

[Kitzka]

We just redid DD's room. She did want some sort of theme but i was concerned that in 3 or 4 more years she would want me to redo it again!

So, i had her look through catalogs like Potterybarn teen, potterybarn kids, etc. I also had her visit bed bath and beyond and other stores that carried bed sets. the main thing i had her do was to find a bedspread she liked and then we went from there. The one she liked was white with polka dots in bright colors. from there we discussed painting the walls, putting fur on the walls etc.

finally we decided to go with a color theme. her room has 2 walls that are white. the other 2 walls are split into 3 sections. each wall had painting tape put down from top to bottom and then across. each rectangle is painted either a bright, pink, neon green or bright aqua blue. when we peeled off the tape the area between the blocks was white. it makes for a really cool effect. i am not going to put anything on the walls in terms of art as the paint pattern itself is the art.

also i would suggest talking to your son and to make sure he knows what he wants. my daughter decided to redo her room in aug and we finally did it this past week or so.

lara
good luck

 

[indimom]

When my kids started to outgrow their rooms, I took them to Home Depot and we looked through the magazines that show room designs, we picked a few that we liked, and bought them. They spent more time looking through the magazines and home and chose the pix of what they liked and we went about trying to "match" that color scheme and style. I think they turned out great.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

Wow- that star wars room is cool.
I would suggest a color theme unless he's sure he wants to live with it for awile. I changed my room alot when I was younger and I learned a few things:
Current accessories can be changed with spray paint
Curtains are cheap when you make your own
Storage is key

I dont know if your son is into DIY but I loved going to second hand stores and buying things to "redo". My favorite peice was a dresser I got for free from my grandmas basement. It was HORIBLE. I painted it black and turquoise and it looks wonderful. Ive had it for 10 years now

 

[tinkermom23]

I am just starting to redo a room for DS10. He had a Buzz Lightyear room that had three different shades of blue so I kept the darkest one and painted the other two a deeper blue.
Then I made copies of old looking maps and made torn, rough edges and "glued" them to 1/2 of one wall like wallpaper. I stenciled his name with "World Traveler" and made a bulletin board that looks like a field journal & a dry erase board for notes.

It was sad to take out that little kids' stuff and his stuffed animals, posters and such, but he really wanted a change.

 

[sameyeyam]

Use old CD's, turn them around and use the colorful silvery back to make a wallpaper border around the top of the room.

My nephew did this using the free CD's to sign up for internet service that you used to see all over the place. Any old CD's work...music, free ones sent in mail, etc... He just used double sided sticky tape to hang them on the wall.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

You can pick up some really neat items at Hobby Lobby too. Normally things are on sale 1/2 off and if they are not, wait a week or so.

 

[dizneechic]

Is your son mine just a few years older?

Granted my kids are a little younger but we did their rooms in a denim theme. So the curtains, pillow shams, bead spread etc are all just a dark blue denim and we change up the theme by updating artwork and the sheets/pillow cases. It's not overly fancy, but it's easy to update on a whim and much of the time we create the artwork ourselves.

 

[apnep]

We finally moved our DS-6 to his own room and so I needed a bed for DD-8. I LOVE the Pottery Barn catalogs because they have such great ideas for decorating and storage. I picked up a teen catalog and flipped when I saw the cost of the beds. So, I decided to make her one. The whole bed including the cost of the mattress and bed linens and baskets cost me $500.

OP, I would check out the PB catalogs, they are great!

Ang

 

[3boymthr]

Your son sounds like my son.

We're in the process of doing Oldest DS' room on a semi-budget.

I did buy the quilt and sham from PB Teen, but as that was the only expensive item I can't complain ($150 - on sale). We did the green and brown striped quilt http://www.pbteen.com/products/guys-henley-stripe-quilt-and-sham/?pkey=cguys-quilts I found similar ones for less money elsewhere just not in green and he had to have green with brown sheets from TJ Maxx ($20/set) and brown curtains ($6) also from TJ's. The walls are going deep apple green with off-white trim. Cost of paint is $30.
His carpet is coming out when we're done painting (it's bright red and icky over 20 years old so it's our drop cloth). We have hardwood underneath so at this point nothing's going back down - but if the room is too echo-y without the carpet I may pick up a 5x8 brown throw rug for cheap at BJs or Target.

He also plays guitar so I so got him an extra pillow for $4 at Walmart and bought a sham with a guitar on it from PB teen for $12.

To decorate the walls he's putting up a couple of posters. He's also got a calendar that he's putting up; the Girls of Maxim - the hormones are kicking in .

Nothing elaborate and no theme. Works great and he's really really happy with it.