Teenage Bedroom Makeover – College Dorm Inspo

I assure you I’m not trying to hurry these remaining years with Mikayla at home.  I know the title of this post may seem contrary, but believe me my grip is strong.  Truth of the matter is, she is growing up and instead of trying to stunt her, I’m doing my best to celebrate each new season along side her. One way to demonstrate my enthusiasm was to full-fill her desire of a teenage bedroom makeover.

It’s My 3 Year Blog Anniversary!

Three years ago when I started this blog.  Oh YEAH! By the way, this month marks SCC’s 3 year anniversary!  Anyway, remember my mission to paint everything neutral?!?  Well, literally that summer we had just painted MJ’s room turquoise.  She chose the color, and I obliged.

Before Picture Below ( Just a week ago)

Once I began changing the overall palette around the house, she started dropping hints that she wanted her bedroom walls WHITE.  I used my best mom response with, “You have to keep the color you chose for awhile before I go through changing it again.”

Mj’s Solution to my “NO”

She’s smart that kid, she just pushed my answer to the side and began hanging out in Lexi’s room while she was away at college.  Lexi and Lauren’s rooms were among the first to be refreshed from vibrant adolescent colors to light and airy neutrals.  Mikayla tried really hard to convince me that she should just move into Lexi’s room and that would solve it all.  Except this momma wasn’t then and still isn’t ready to kick her oldest out for good quite yet ;).

Fast forward to this summer when Mikayla turned 13.  She hadn’t broached the subject of making over her room in quite some time, but becoming a teenager gave her more leverage.  She’s smart that girl…

Teenage Bedroom Makeover

This time when she approached me about painting her room white, I smiled and said, “ok”.  Luckily for her I was recently inspired by a room transformation designer, Emily Henderson , debuted as what she would have wanted her college dorm room to look like.  I was immediately mesmerized by the fun details and thought immediately of MJ.

MJ was on board immediately 😉 She picked up on the “college feel” too, which may have been why she quickly agreed 😉  She’s too eager to grow up! Her room is definitely more grown up now, but not too much.

I collaborated with Wallpops for the highlight wall, because I already knew their NuWallpaper was a winner.  Click here to see the other space I used their product. MJ desired light and airy, so we chose the gray and white brick peel and stick NuWallpaper and matched a white paint for the remaining 3 walls.

Have you ever lined up several white paint samples??  My goodness what a task!  I let MJ select the color (with my discretion), and she picked the perfect shade.  Extra White by Sherwin Williams coordinates perfectly along side the gray and white bricks.

Simple Cozy Charm

Styling this new corner was a blast!  We are far from finished with the wrap around photo wall gallery, so I’ll keep you posted on that.  One of my favorite accessories are these pastel cotton ball lights from cottonballlights.com/us. This is my second strand from them, and they are just too fun to decorate with!  Mj loves twinkly lights as much as I do. I tried to create a cafe-like atmosphere by layering several strands.  The large framed digital print is from The Lettered Wall and is staying in the wall grouping.   I hope the words stick in MJ’s heart.

Her room is still a work in progress. We have plans for a new bed frame, headboard, and finishing touches on the opposite side of the room, but presenting this to Mikayla filled her love bucket and mine <3  All sources will be linked at the end.  Thanks so much for taking a short tour of MJ’s teenage bedroom makeover.  Let me know if I can help create something for you!

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Author and photos – Martha Knake (with the exception of the inspo photo – Emily Henderson)

Chief Editor – Emily Schunke