Having trouble upgrading your son’s room from Kid’s room to Man’s room? Take a peak at this modern bedroom decor idea I executed for my college son.
Our sons go from playing with cars and trains to shaving their mustaches overnight. At least it seems to go that fast!
The challenge of creating a bedroom that fits their changing needs is real and it’s a tough one.
My oldest son moved 311 miles away to go to college. When he came home for Christmas, or was it Spring Break, my daughters convinced him to switch bedrooms with him because his room was about a foot longer or wider.
The girls have plans for their bedroom…more on that in another post!
I challenged myself to have his bedroom decor completely updated by the time the spring semester was over, which was the end of April for him. I rushed to get this room complete before I was to go help him move out of his dorm. I was vacuuming the floor when he called to tell me he had an accident and was at the ER.
“Mom, you’re not going to like this…” That’s how our phone conversation started!
Turns out, in an epic game of hide and go seek/tag, he jumped off a short platform and when he his feet hit the ground, the inner workings of his knee basically exploded.
So here we are with this beautifully redecorated room and a kid who couldn’t climb stairs to get to it for about a month and a half.
He had surgery on May 9th to repair all the damage (ACL, LCL, Tibia, Meniscus, etc.), but it’s going to be a long recovery. Will take a lot of patience and perseverance to try to get his body back in collegiate runner shape.
We have been really blessed with an incredible surgeon who prayed over our son at his first visit and who recommended a really great physical therapist here in town.
You’re only here for the details of this modern bedroom decor idea (and really you’re just looking at pictures)!
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Modern Bedroom Decor Plan
Decor Budget:
If I told you I sat down and planned out every inch of this bedroom decor, my nose would be growing like Pinocchio! I didn’t really have much plan.
My biggest intent was to reuse as much of what he already had in his room as possible, which wasn’t much.
In a little furniture switcharoo when we moved into this house, or maybe after he went to college, we moved his dresser to become a tv stand in our bonus room. I knew I was going to have to get a dresser, or some piece of furniture to act as a dresser.
Many of the items I did purchase, from Amazon of course, I was able to use some Amazon credit card rewards to cover. We use an Amazon credit card for lots of our big ticket purchases and then I use the rewards to buy decor stuff or other random nonsense!
I was able to keep his bed, bedding and the little desk and used most wall decor that we already had on hand.
Modern bedroom decor on a budget…always on a budget!
Color Scheme:
Since the bedding I didn’t replace is blue, blue became the main color! What’s more masculine than the color blue?
We also have an affinity for the color orange, being Auburn fans and now Milligan Buffalo fans! And even though it could come across as being an Auburn themed room, I definitely wasn’t going for that.
I’m also a big fan of leather – caramel or cognac – shades, which lends itself to a great accent for the orange.
These dark, almost burnt orange-ish, curtains add a huge depth of color, especially next to this dark blue wall and give that leathery accent that I love!
After I was almost finished with the room, I noticed the yellows in the rug and decided that we could use some pops of yellow in the room and it still be suitable as a bedroom for a guy.
So the color scheme for this modern bedroom decor is Navy, Rusty Orange, Yellow and a soft bluish-gray.
Accent Wall:
One of the first projects I did in the Yellow Cottage was a navy blue accent wall in Maverick’s room. We loved that wall! I’ve been itching to do another since we moved and now was my opportunity!
This was a simple plan to add a little bit of a feature wall, but not anything really intricate or difficult.
Let me give you a bit of advice: Buy the better wood!
These days the price of wood always gives me a bit of sticker shock. I go into my big box store and tell myself I’m going to splurge on wood. Then I see the price tag on the shelf and am like NOPE! Not today, Satan!
Regret!!! Spend the money on good straight boards with crisp, clean edges.
Half of my 1x2s were not the same width as the one beside it. It’s a good thing the small pieces are hidden behind the bed. Between me and you, there may or may not be a few small pieces missing because they weren’t the same size as the one above…another problem for another day!
Another bit of advice: Paint the door!
I’ve never painted a door and was half mortified, but it’s just paint!!
Imagine how much a white door would stick out and distract from this fantastic accent wall!
Paint the door!
And if you ready my post about printing out posters (or calendars) at Office Depot, you’ll see I did the same thing with this Buffalo poster print I bought from Etsy! Isn’t it stunning?
Finishing Touches:
I’m a big fan of using something other than a dresser as a dresser. Dressers are not cheap and they’re hard to put together! Cue these 2 small cane accented cabinets!
Since this son doesn’t live here full time, he’s not in and out of drawers every single day, this set up works for him.
I already mentioned the addition of yellow as an accent color to the bedroom decor at the last minute. I found these fun yellow plant holders at Big Lots and wouldn’t you know it, my Big Lots only had one! We had to bribe the girls to go on a 45 minute adventure to our next closest Big Lots to find the 2nd one.
One of my favorite things we did in here was change out the light fixture to this Sputnik style fixture. This room is on the back of our house and has this one little window. The sun doesn’t stream in here until about 4 in the afternoon. It can be pretty dark! All these lights definitely drive out the darkness!
Since there isn’t a lot of space in here for bedside tables, I knew he needed wall sconces, but the problem with wall sconces is their cords. This easy paintable solution for covering the cords came in handy. Do you see those cords? Me, either!
I think he’s enjoying his “put together” modern bedroom decor, finally! I know as soon as he packs his car and heads back north, his sister is going to be enjoying…unless her bedroom decor is updated by then!
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