My children are getting a little older (my son starts Secondary school next year, eek!) and wanted their bedrooms to reflect a little more personality. So, while we are painting the house we put a little effort into tween-ing up the kids' spaces.
CJ loves orange, and we were concerned when he said he wanted an orange feature wall. After dawdling through the color chips at the paint store, steering him toward terracotta oranges or cinnamon neutrals he decided he loved Taubmans Orange Relish.
The results speak for themselves. A splash of orange feature wall:
After:
Now, I am no interior decorator but I think the results are exceptional. Knowing how long it took to fill every nail hole on his walls, or removing the greasy mark left by blu-tack before painting, I wasn't going to have to repeat that task any time soon. Instead, I purchased a sheet of reo (concrete reinforcing) from Bunnings Warehouse, sanded it down with a wire brush and used methylated spirits to wipe away the grease and grime. A couple of cans of black spray paint later and the reo was transformed from grungy metal to modern industrial.
Painting and screwing some timber supports the same color as the wall eliminates ugly fixings and the reo looks suspended and like it belongs on the wall. Using hooks he can change his wall display as he likes - skateboard, photos, medals, games, caps.... add a couple of simple black shelves above to proudly display his trophies. An ebay bargain couch - serious bargain $100 brand new, folds out to a bed - rug and cushion from Ikea complete the look.
Opposite his cool chill out zone is another ebay bargain, his loft bed. Plenty of storage for books and stationary, again hooks are used to hang his bags and there's even space for homework!
My daughters space was a little harder to complete, and is still a little work in progress (her taste changes weekly!) Again we hit ebay looking for a bargain or two and stumbled upon a tubular bunk bed. After removing the bottom bed supports and spraying a fresh coat of white paint the bunk was transformed into a funky loft bed. Further ebay-ing netted us a comfy couch, Ikea provided the handy table and shaggy rugs (2 lined up next to each other) and the paper lanterns and artwork were 11th birthday presents.
Painting the bunk bed:
Now its a loft bed:
Comfy hang out, complete with paper lanterns and fluffy rug underfoot!
Kids rooms complete, now onto the rest of the house.
