Cheap ways to decorate a teen girl’s bedroom

There are many cheap ways to decorate a teen girl’s bedroom. In this post, I’m sharing with you the things I have learned while decorating my daughter’s bedroom with her without breaking the bank. Check out her teen girl bedroom reveal.

Decorating teen girl bedroom with the teen is definitely a challenge when you have different opinions and finding a happy medium seems impossible for some people. And before we started it appeared impossible in our household too.

My daughter is the typical 13-year-old…she is moody, annoyed, opinionated, and straight out rude at times. Having a discussion with her is a major challenge especially since she knows everything better. “No!”…”Ugh!” and eye-rolling always accompanies every conversation.

{sources: rug HERE | duvet HERE | throw from HomeGoods | bed tutorial HERE | similar headboard HERE | similar bed HERE or HERE | my Ikea home decor post HERE | curtains HERE | mudcloth pillow HERE or HERE | colorful diamond pillows from Ikea Germany |  lamps HERE | shades from Target not available anymore | light HERE or similar light HERE | desk Ikea or similar desk HERE | wooden stool from Ikea | shelving unit Ikea | magnet board Ikea}

That said, the decorating transition from childhood to becoming a teenager and young adult can be challenging. Or we should probably say is challenging. It wouldn’t be all that hard if there were unlimited funds but in most households, there aren’t. Even with money growing on a tree at home, most parents want to teach their child to make wise decisions and not throw money out the window, am I right?

How to decorate a teenage girl bedroom on a tight budget

Of course, every kid is different so I will talk about what worked for us during the process of decorating her teen girl bedroom.

Let’s talk about Budget and decor decisions…

Let her make a list of things she still likes in teen girl bedroom and a list of things she dislikes.

My daughter loves the color of her bed, light, desk, window cornice, and curtains but she hated the pale pink wall color and didn’t want my acrylic desk chair anymore.

Give her a list of furniture and accessories you have in your house or storage that she could incorporate.

My parents used to do this with me and this is where I learned to love antiques and vintage furniture.

I named her numerous things we had in storage like the end tables, some table lamps, and a few decor objects. She ended up picking the end table as the nightstand, some throw pillows, my Moravian star for her shelving unit, and a ceramic peace sign hand.

Make it clear from the start what new items you are willing to buy and make her understand that anything else she wants comes out of her own piggy bank.

I had told her that I was willing to buy the picture ledges, frames, command hooks, paint, and hanging chair. She ended up buying the craft cart and additional crafting storage I mentioned in my last post. She is actually really good with her money and thinking about it wisely.

Narrow down paint samples on the walls!

My daughter had picked several different blues and teals and made a list of the names. She was so focused on the names which drove me crazy. They didn’t necessarily mean they would look good on the walls in her teen girl bedroom.

We live in a small duplex home and she has a rather small bedroom. A lot of people are afraid of painting a small space a darker color and I’m here to state the opposite. Especially when it comes to bedroom design, I think darer colors are a great option becasue it makes the space feel cozier. Trust me!

I was trying to tell my daughter that the darker navy blue would work better than the bright blue she had picked originally. She was really upset about this one. So I applied the samples to the wall while she was at school and let her pick from the wall samples when she got home. No names were involved this time. She ended up picking the one I had told her to begin with. Once the room was painted, she noticed that the name on the can wasn’t the name she had originally picked and got a little upset with me. I had to remind her that this was the color she had picked on the wall. In the end, it wasn’t an issue because she loves the dark blue so so much. It’s her favorite thing about the room.

Don’t be afraid of a bold color palette in a teen girl bedroom

I know I was a tad bit afraid, remember. I reminded myself of my own advice that I give other people which is that paint is affordable and easy to change. So just give it a try and change it again if you don’t like it and aren’t afraid of a little extra elbow grease. And I mean a teen girl bedroom is definitely a perfect room to add some bold color.

If you don’t want to paint or have a bold color consider a large wall mural wallpaper or decal for a girl’s bedroom. Check out these HERE or HERE for inspiration. Such fun alternatives to painting the room.

The cheapest route is to check out the oops paint section at your local home improvement store or if you have a ReStore close and let your teen pick a paint color from there.

Having an accent wall is also an option. I would pick the wall with the headboard to feature a bold color. I do have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of accent walls because I think painting the entire room looks much better but it is preferential of course.

Make room for enough storage space

Giving kids, teenagers, and adults a place to store their things makes living easier and less cluttered and applies to all ages. It definitely makes a space more livable. Purge before you redecorate your girl’s bedroom to get a clear idea of how much storage you will need in the new space.

We purged so much that we were able to throw out one broken bookshelf. One shelf is remaining and while she doesn’t have many drawers, the bins are a great substitute for housing all the smaller knick knacks.

The wall across from her bed is now study area, craft area and storage area all in one with a variety of Ikea storage solutions. I love the picture shelves so she can easily exchange her artwork which she does frequently.

(Check out my post about how to organize slime supplies and with a closer look at her craft cart.)

Have fun with throw pillows

Why? Well because they are affordable, easy to change out and a great way to add another pop of color. The teens can easily express their style and likes with a couple of different pillows. My favorite places to shop for fun pillows are HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. Pillows are my favorite decor object and it’s the same for teenage rooms. There are so many fun ones out there.

The pillows in the above photos aren’t the typical fun teenager pillows but I gave her choices and instead of buying new things, she picked things we had, and suddenly some of her old pillows didn’t look so bad anymore. Choosing items we had meant that her mom was going to buy other things she wanted, like the picture ledges.

I love the different textures and colors the throw pillows add. There are velvet, jeans, furry trim and different colors which is a lovely combo.

TIP: I actually only buy pillow covers because they can be easily stored, washed and changed out.

DIY your bed

I DIYed our daughter’s bed from turquoise Ikea Sanela curtains and MDF board. Velvet fabric is super expensive and using the cheap velvet curtains instead of fabric by the yard was the perfect solution. You can’t find a queen bed for the money I spent on her bed. Check out the tutorial HERE.

Every room needs some black and white accents

I had to sneak this one in. You know me. But I firmly believe that every room and no matter what color scheme can use a black and white pattern. And in her room, it’s still her dotted baby blanket and black and white shams on her bed.

Area for artwork display

The last artwork display she had was perfect for when she was little (see it HERE and HERE). Easily changing out art with clips was a great solution. Now that she is older she wanted something more sophisticated, more sturdy, and grown-up looking that was still flexible and the picture ledge and frames are perfect for that.

Check out your local thrift shop for wall decor and old artwork that has beautiful frames you could use and if needed spray painted.

Let your teen create her own artwork or buy cheap downloadable art on Etsy and have it printed or print yourself.

Here are some of my favorites and not only for teen girls’ bedrooms:

This is how her gallery wall artwork display used to look when she was a little girl:

And now it looks like this:

Use Ikea products

I’m a huge fan of Ikea because their products are affordable, versitile, and stylish and I haven’t heard of any teen disliking Ikea. So if you have one close, check out their selection. Some items can now be shipped as well, either from their site or from Amazon. In the above photo, you can see the new Ikea chandelier I bought for $40. We all love it.

I like buying mostly white furniture because the color scheme can be easily changed out with neutral larger pieces of furniture and the white pieces can be customized easily. Check out my Ikea Besta grasscloth makeover as an example.

I wrote a blog post a while back about my 10 favorite Ikea decorating tips to give you some ideas.

And my final thought is.

My son’s teen bedroom was a much easier process. I showed him a couple of things to choose from and he chose and was happy. The end! That makes me laugh because I don’t think I have ever heard a mom say it was easy to work with her daughter and decorate her girl’s bedroom.

Update: We recently moved the French antique bed into our daughter’s teen girl bedroom.

Also, check out her affordable whimsy blush bathroom makeover. I worked with the 20-year-old tile, added some molding and paint to the vanity, and added some wall molding and crown molding.

Most likely decorating a girl’s bedroom with a teen girl versus a teen boy for his room will be a completely different process like it was in our case. Different tastes and a tight budget call for compromises and it’s a great lesson to learn in life for any kid/teen to make those decisions and work together. You really don’t need to be an interior designer to come up with a space that you are all happy with and can afford.

Take a deep breath during the process, meditate 😉 and try to keep it together.

Good luck!