how to decorate your teenager’s bedroom on a budget

Decorating with a teenager in your own home 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.

Technically my daughter isn’t a pubescent teenager yet but she acts like it. She’s definitely pre-pubescent. 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 HERE 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 your teenager’s bedroom on a budget

Of course, every kid is different so I will talk about what worked for us.

Let’s talk Budget and decor decisions

Let her make a list of things she still likes in the room 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 things you have in your house or storage that she could incorporate.

My parents used to do this with me and are kind of where I learned to love antiques.

I named her numerous things we had in storage like the end tables, some 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.

I was trying to tell my daughter that the darker 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 bold color

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

Make room for enough storage

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 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 one of her broken shelves out.

{ Click HERE to see my post about how to organize slime supplies and a closer look at her craft cart}

Have fun with pillows

Why? Well because they are affordable and easy to change out. They 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.

Every room needs some black and white

 I had to sneak this one in. You know me. But I firmly believe that every room 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 is perfect for that.

From this:

to this:

End my final thought is.

My son’s teenage boy room was a much easier process. I showed him a couple of things to chose from and he chose and was happy. The end! (See his room by clicking HERE)

Most likely a girl will be a different process like it was in our case.

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

Good luck!

Tschüß