When Flea came home from uni halfway through her second year, she got a real shock. It turns out that if you take all of your favourite books, posters, clothes and other items to your uni flat, then your room at home starts to look a bit – well – bleak!
Flea complained that coming home and staring at four white walls was depressing, and she found it really hard to live with. The problem with a white decor scheme is when you take out all the stationery and the personal touches, it looks a bit… bleak!
So I decided that when Flea went back to uni, I would make over her room as a surprise for her Easter trip home. I was on a strict budget, so I couldn’t afford to buy much in the way of new furniture or decor.
So what did I do?
Refreshing the Bed
The most important part of any teenager’s bedroom has to be the bed! Flea’s bed was a cheap and cheerful buy from a high street store and over time, the mattress had sagged terribly, and the headboard was somewhat stained and dusty.
I ordered a simple upholstered headboard from Amazon, which cost around £50, and some new M8 bolts to connect it to her existing bed.
I replaced the old DFS mattress with a new hybrid mattress from Simba, which has been a huge improvement on the old, saggy affair. It offers a 10-year guarantee, which gives me some peace of mind, and the hybrid mattress we chose combines spring and foam layers, to make the mattress relatively light, while still offering a medium-firm feel, and a cover that helps Flea to stay cool.
Our Simba mattress came packed in a handy box – you need to unroll it in place and give it a few hours to expand to its full size before using it!
I particularly like that the cover can be removed for washing – because it’s not a teenager’s bedroom until they’ve spilled some sort of food or drink all over the bed, am I right?
Adding some Colour
After the bed, I wanted to replace the plain white walls that Flea was tired of. Since I was on a budget, I used what I found in the garage, which was most of a tin of Farrow & Ball paint in Green Smoke. I used two coats for the wall behind Flea’s bed, which I turned and repositioned in the middle of the room.
This meant the existing shelf would now be above the head of the bed, and I stung some lights we already had above the bed, and added a few photo frames with new pictures I printed at Tesco.
Furnishings and accessories
Moving Flea’s bed meant there was no longer room for a desk in Flea’s room, but since we have a home office, I wasn’t too worried. I disassembled the Ikea desk and used one half to become a bedside table. This gives Flea some storage, and a place to lamp to read by.
The lamp was a find in the reject section at Dunelm and cost around £12, it’s no longer stocked but this one is similar. and I also bought a rug in the sale at Dunelm for £25, and a floor cushion in the same store at around £30.
After that, I dug around the garage and found an old “On Air” light from Flea’s YouTube days, and I used a large mason jar to hold string lights. My thought with all the lights was to give Flea the ability to make her room feel cosy when she was stressed out or wanting to relax.
The Budget
Overall, the room makeover has been a big success.
Many of the items I used to make over Flea’s bedroom were things we already owned – the bed, shelves, bedside cabinet and most of the lights were already in the house, and by using left over paint, I could really keep the cost down.
We did invest in the new bed headboard, and a few accessories like the rug, lamps and photo frames. Overall, I spent around £150 on the makeover – this doesn’t include the mattress, which was a necessary replacement we’d have needed anyway!
Flea is thrilled with her new room although obviously she has immediately removed the “cheesy” photos and replaced them with more aesthetic alternatives. You can’t get it all right as a parent, can you?
What do you think of our teen bedroom makeover?
