Give your teen a custom orange bedroom; she'll wake up cheerful and energized.
Instead of generic, non-specific bedroom d cor, try a customized bedroom style. Perhaps your teen has a favorite color she'd like to showcase in her room. Perhaps you want to redo your room to incorporate your love of a certain city. Customizing the bedroom makes it more enjoyable for the person living in it, and it's also a good way to bring in some very eye-catching and unique design styles. Does this Spark an idea?
Far East
Large Chinese characters stenciled onto a headboard add drama in the bedroom.
Customize a bedroom by incorporating elements of Asian design. Paint traditional Chinese colors on the walls: green, red, gold, blue and yellow. Or paint a Chinese-inspired mural on the bedroom walls, one that incorporates such elements as dragons, birds, mountains or a lake. Shop for Asian-style bedroom furniture, which is typically low to the ground and features simple, clean lines.
If buying new furniture is not in the budget, use stencils and paint to put Chinese characters on dresser and nightstand drawers and on the headboard. Plants have meaning in Chinese culture; bring in a potted azalea, which means wealth; or an orchid, which means elegance and virtue. Use an Oriental rug on the floor or as a wall hanging, and use fine Chinese silk for bedding.
Novel Muse
Decorate with stuffed bunnies for a little girl's "Peter Rabbit" bedroom.
Using a book to inspire custom bedroom styles is a good idea for kids' rooms. For example, drawing on Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," decorate a little girl's room with several stuffed bunnies, wallpaper with a rabbit print and a rabbit bedspread. Let Michael Crichton's "Jurrassic Park" inspire a dinosaur room. In a "Wizard of Oz" room, paint characters from the Munchkins to the Scarecrow and Glinda the Good Witch on the walls.
Decorate a little boy's room with a Tyrannosaurus rex mural on the wall and T. rex bedroom bedspread and curtains. Decorate with plastic T. rexes, dinosaur bean bags and lamp shades. Put dinosaurs on bedroom furniture with stencils and paint.
Area Idea
Moroccan style uses rich color, luxurious silk and fabric over the bed.
Look to location for design inspiration. One possibility is a Moroccan theme. Moroccan colors are bold colors: cobalt blue, purple, red, bright yellow, greens, shades of brown and even pink. Paint an accent wall in one of these shades. Buy authentic Moroccan curtains and bedding, or, if you're on a budget, just buy inexpensive bedding-curtain sets that complement the walls.
Bring in a rug, and place lots of pillows and cushions on the bed and floor. Drape embroidered silk or netting above the bed. When looking for Moroccan-style furniture, look for chunky and heavy wrought iron or wood, featuring ornate markings, intricate carvings and sometimes or mother of pearl detail.
Right Shade
Celebrate a favorite color to customize a room, for example, orange. Paint the walls bright orange or pale orange, or alternate between orange and yellow or white or pale blue; or paint a mural on an accent wall featuring the color. Mural ideas to incorporate orange include a garden full of blooming poppies, a pumpkin patch or an underwater scene showing brightly colored shells, fish, sponges and coral.
If you prefer not to or are not allowed to paint the walls, bring orange into the bedroom with a beanbag, curtains, an accent pillow, the bedspread and a rug. Or paint the nightstands, headboard and dresser orange. You can also bring the color in with plants, either by painting the flower pot orange or with potted orange flowers: daffodils or impatiens or zinnias.
Tags: accent wall, bedroom furniture, Chinese characters, Decorate with, favorite color, little girl, Peter Rabbit
