Interior Decorator Tips: How to Style a Teen Boys Room

Designing a bedroom for teen boys room can be a challenge. As your little man reaches teenage years, he’ll no longer want a bedroom decorated with dinosaurs, trucks, or any previously loved childhood icons. The ‘perfect space’ at this stage of their lives is one that expresses their current personality and psyche.

I get asked a lot about design/decor ideas for teen bedrooms and my response is this: a teen bedroom simply needs to fulfil three functions: sleep, study, play. And speaking of play, it needs to have the cool enough factor for the perfect hang out spot so they can feel confident having friends over .

If it’s time to upgrade your big kid’s bedroom into the ideal teenage-young adult space, then consider the decorator cues below. Before you begin, remember to involve your teen in the design process from the get-go. Their ideas and input will ensure their preferences are reflected in their space; the last thing you want is to go through the revamping process only to get a grunt of disapproval, gorgeous as the revamp outcome may be. Hopefully by the end of this blog you’ll feel more confident about tackling your teen boy’s space.

Let’s decorate!

Part 1. Prioritise Function

Hobbies and Activities

What will your son be using the space for? Prepping for the day/night? Sleeping? Watching TV? Playing Video/computer games? Entertaining friends? List these functions down as a guide to purchasing the must-have furniture and décor pieces. Nothing worse than wandering aimlessly around the store for hours only to emerge with the wrong things!

Maximise Storage

Study Space

Aside from a bed to sleep in, this is next on the priority list. Homework, coursework and exams are realities for teens so having their own desk/workspace is crucial for studying without noise interference from around the house. Study space is a good area to be creative, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Use cool wall hooks and pins for hanging headphones, personal mementos, notices, stationery, and even hats.

Lighting

Part 2. Decor; The fun part

Let’s discuss boys’ preferences

The decor scheme for a boy’s room should be streamlined. Just a few key pieces of furniture and minimal decorations that are not just decorative but also functional is what to aim for; boys like it simple. One must-have I always suggest for boys’ bedrooms is a feature wall or ‘wall of fame’ where they can display wall art, their favourite books, mementos, and photos of friends and family to make their space feel personal.

For the décor elements, consider:

Colour/Pattern

For a masculine look, consider using darker colors and bold patterns. Darker shades of grey, blue, and even green are great, paired with accent colours like mustard or red with touches of black to balance the theme. I like to pair these choices with mid-toned timber for furniture (bed frame, bedsides, desk etc). This combo is masculine but age appropriate for the teenage phase.

For patterns, plaid, checks, stripes, and camo prints are popular choices for boys’ rooms. These can be incorporated through bedding, drapery, rug, cushions etc.

I love these options of area rugs for boys’ spaces.

Textures

Textures such as leather, timber, suede, and metal are pretty popular with boys. Incorporating these into the room will create a more dynamic and well layered look. Keep the softer textures for sleep and hangout zones and the hard ones for storage and task areas.

Your Decorating Mood Board

Mood boards are not just fun, pretty pictures of furniture and decor for social media consumption, they are a useful tool to start with when creating a cohesive scheme for any interior space. They help you put together all the elements discussed so you have a clear picture of how your decor scheme will look. Why not start with a board, there are many free apps and programs that allow you create gorgeous mood boards to decorate with, examples being Canva.

I’ve put together this mood board showing examples of items which could be used for decorating your teen’s room. Your shopping list can then be generated from the board.

Example of Teen Boy Mood Board

From your mood board, your shopping list might look something like this for a start:

• A double or queen size bed (checkout my top 10 recommendations here)
• Bedding + Bed Linen
• Bedside table/s
• A desk and chair
• A chest of drawers (optional if there’s ample closet space)
• Bedside lamps or pendants
• A pin or notice board.
• A comfy armchair or bean bag (find some cool options here)
• Wall art, so pop those on the list as well
• Floating shelves
• Storage cubes/baskets
• Area rug
• Window blinds/curtains
• Greenery

Please note, all prices and item stock are current as of blog date, please contact stores for any enquiries.

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