Older Boy Room Ideas

Our oldest son recently turned 20 and I really wanted to give his room an upgrade from boy to college age adult.  His room design hasn't been touched in 6 or more years so it was definitely time.  So, for many months, I've been planning and picking up items here and there and redoing them to put in his room. 

I finally had everything I needed, with the exception of a desk, which I'm still looking for, so we through out pretty much everything in there except the bed and then painted the walls Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore.  They were originally a very dark navy blue and it felt like a cave in there so making it lighter was the first thing on our list.

I'm going to be showing his room in stages as the other side isn't ready until I find that desk.  So, here's the side that is ready.....

While planning the room design, I needed to find a dresser, bedside table, book shelf and desk.  The dresser we found at a storage auction for around $10 and I blogged about that here.  The book shelf we actually found by the side of the road during clean up week but it wasn't for free, we paid $15 for it but I thought it was definitely worth that. 

It is a very solid bookcase, however, I'm not a fan of dark wood bookcases.  They are too, well, dark.  And I didn't want to paint it, so, I upgraded it by ripping off the back and using scrap wood that I painted black to make an X design in the back to give it a more open feel.

I LOVE the way it turned out.  Then I filled it with a few linen storage baskets and some of his favorite things.  Next up was the bedside table.  My hubby found this old rusty metal base last summer and it's been sitting in our storage building.  I worked on yet another piece of bowling alley flooring and put together this table for him. 

I was thrilled because this was our last slab of flooring and the size ended up working perfectly. 

I wanted to give him a more comfortable bed so I made a new upholstered padded headboard, blogged about here, and purchased all new bedding that was on sale at West Elm.  I also purchased new sheets there, as well.  The vintage wool US Navy blanket was found at an auction. 

Our son works part time and goes to college so I really wanted to make his room comfortable and relaxing for him.  I also wanted to design it to reflect a college age adult.  Finding design inspiration for that age group is difficult because most boys rooms inspiration pics found online are for younger boys and are theme rooms, which I'm not a fan of.  But I'm very very happy with how it turned out and more importantly, so is he.  :)

He didn't want curtains or wood shades so I left the windows with what he initially wanted which were these white wood blinds.  I might sneak some curtains in later.... ;-)

I've still got to find that perfect desk and finish up a couple more things for the wall for him and then I will blog about the other side of his room. 

What do you think?  Do you also find it hard to find inspiration for decorating older boys rooms?

Have a great day!
Diana