The conundrum of decorating a teenage boy’s bedroom – how I created a space that feels stylish, cool and practical
For me, the key has always been creating a space that can evolve
Screen printer Hannah Carvell is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on colourful home design for a creative family to live in. See the rest of her articles here.
Children seem to accumulate things at an extraordinary rate. School bags and sports kit multiply, trainers appear in ever-growing numbers, and somehow Nerf guns, treasured holiday souvenirs and collections gathered over the years all end up needing a home. Storage is always high on my list when it comes to designing my son’s bedroom.
When decorating his room over the years, I’ve always wanted it to feel like a stylish space. While I’m sure he would have loved Spider-Man wallpaper when he was younger, it was never quite a look I could fully get on board with. Instead, I’ve always tried to take note of the colours he loves and incorporate them in a way that works for both of us.
When he was little, that meant sky blues with splashes of brighter colours like red and green. As he moved into the tween years, we evolved the palette, keeping the blue but adding cooler touches with neon yellow and pops of orange, and updating the artwork on his walls.
His small vintage Victorian sleigh bed (sob!) eventually made way for an Ikea double, and now that we’re two years into our new life in Somerset and firmly in the teenage years, I no longer get to dictate the look entirely – the space has become much more of a collaboration.
Although his bedroom could probably do with a repaint at some point, we were lucky when we moved in that the bones of the room were already great. White walls make an easy blank canvas, and floorboards will always be my preference. I love bringing colour and texture in through rugs, and there’s also the practicality of being able to clean the floor easily while washing rugs from time to time.
The room also came with a very bold orange feature wall – a leftover from when the house was previously run as a B&B. Fortunately, orange happens to be my son’s favourite colour and we both enjoy bold interiors, so it became the starting point for the room’s style and helped make the space immediately feel like his.
Furniture has been another exercise in compromise. Having outgrown the little vintage school desk I found him a new one on Facebook Marketplace and paired it with a mid-century vintage chair I’d picked up at auction.
However, he recently requested something more practical – the arms were getting in the way when he wanted to play his guitar, and comfort ultimately won out over my love of vintage pieces.
After browsing some rather enormous black office chairs, we settled on a sleek modern design from Dunelm: adjustable, armless, not too expensive and thankfully not ugly (my priority).
The same sort of compromise has happened with rugs. I have a long-standing love of vintage textiles and years ago sourced some beautiful dusty blue rugs at a theatre sale. They’re a little threadbare in places now, but my teenager still likes the familiarity of them – even though he’s drawn to a neater, more modern look.
Our solution has been layering. We introduced another rug from Dunelm in orange to tie in with the feature wall, but one that still gives a subtle nod to mid-century styling. It feels like the best of both worlds – practical, stylish and budget-friendly at just over £100.
Storage, however, remains the real challenge in any teenage bedroom. Years of accumulated “treasures” – tiny toys, shells from beach walks, holiday trinkets and beloved childhood objects – had been hiding away in drawers and shoe boxes at the back of cupboards.
Rather than letting them gather dust, we came up with a project that turned them into something meaningful. We repurposed a large pine mirror from his childhood bedroom, painting the frame in a bright yellow gloss, and spent a weekend using a hot glue gun to attach all those small keepsakes around the edge.
Not only was it great fun to make together, it was surprisingly nostalgic to see all those memories again. The finished piece is colourful, completely unique and something he genuinely treasures.
My son enjoys a creative project almost as much as I do, so I’ve encouraged him to take control of another upcycling idea. I found an old vintage filing cabinet, which he’s currently transforming using Posca pens and bold graffiti-style designs. Once finished, it will provide the perfect storage solution for his impressive collection of Pokémon cards, something he may technically have outgrown but isn’t quite ready to part with.
Artwork is another essential ingredient in making a room feel like home. When we moved into this house, we hadn’t done much decorating yet, but the moment the removal vans arrived, hanging art on the walls instantly made the space feel like ours. My children’s bedrooms are no different.
My son’s room has a wonderful mix of framed artwork that has evolved over the years. A Ben Eine print my husband bought when he was a baby still hangs proudly on the wall, just as vibrant and stylish 14 years later. We’ve always had dachshunds in the family, so a large David Hockney print of his famous sausage dogs is another favourite. A few of my Screen Prints get requested from time to time.
Over the years we’ve swapped out some of the prints from his younger days and replaced them with pieces he’s chosen himself — including neon lighting (another nod to Dunelm where we go this one!) and practical requests such as a wall hook for his electric guitar.
The ornaments on his shelves are slowly changing too. Lego models are gradually being replaced with plants on the windowsill, a bonsai tree was on this year’s Christmas list alongside the inevitable bottles of aftershave and hair wax that signal the transition into teenage life.
For me, the key has always been creating a space that can evolve. A room that still feels cosy and familiar with a touch of nostalgia, while gently bridging that transition from childhood to teenager.
It still has to feel stylish too. I admit I’m not quite ready to embrace oversized gaming chairs or black painted walls. And while the days of me dictating the look of his room are definitely fading, my influence seems to have lingered for now at least.
That said, while I’m drawn to old houses, antique furniture and a mismatched, characterful aesthetic, my son tells me his dream home would be something entirely different: sleek, modern, glass-filled and immaculately minimal. So perhaps our tastes aren’t quite as aligned as I’d like to think.
