Teenage Wasteland No More!

Finally here it is - all the pictures put together for a great tour around William's new room!

Curtains - Found these great curtains at Wal-Mart for less than $13 a panel. What a steal! And he loves them because the lining helps block out light while he's trying to sleep. (He's secretly a vampire, I think.)

I used drapery clip rings to hang the curtains instead of putting them on the curtain rod. The simple antique bronze makes it a bit more masculine, but since drapery rings can also be very extravagant, they can be used in any room.


The bedding was a great find! We stalked the always-popular discount web sites like Overstock and Amazon, but we stumbled across this bed-in-a-bag at JCPenney, and we loved everything about it. Normally I dislike the shams or the sheets or the bedskirt, but this fit everything we needed. It was normally $120, but we got it for $59. And he loves it!



You've already seen the music corner, but I've put the pictures up again, just to complete the tour.



Next stop - His check-in/check-out point. Before, this chest of drawers was sitting right beside the door and became a dump-all for his pocket junk, loose change, and whatever we found around the house. (We usually dropped it there for fear of being eaten by unknown creatures if we entered.) To keep from the junk pile spilling off onto the floor, I found an inexpensive basket at Home Goods. Now, when he comes in from school, he can drop off his keys (no more lost keys), put his loose change in his jar, and empty his pockets into one place. On his way out, he can reverse. One stop shopping for everything he needs.

[I just noticed the camera lens has bits all over it. Apolgies for that. And I also just noticed Molly is in the mirror. She's just letting you know she'll come into his room finally.]

Regrettably, we weren't able to replace his closet doors with paneled doors to match his room door, but we did give it a fresh coat of paint! We chose the dark trim around the doors and window because I once saw it in another room and loved it. We went with white at the bottom just to pop against the carpet (that will hopefully be no longer in the near future). We also know from experience that white doors and trim around doors and closets gets dirty. Easily.





The all-important TV rests on this great chest of drawers. We chose not to paint it or change out hardware because it matches some furniture in other rooms in the house, and eventually we'd like to get him another piece. But for now, it works wonderfully! It's flanked by two things William really likes - Andy Warhol and London.




He already had this chair, so we kept it for when he's playing guitar or has a friend over. I found this great pillow as a pair at Home Goods for only $12! The other is on the bed.


This bookshelf is one of my favorite things about the room - maybe because I just love bookshelves. But we got it on clearance at Lowe's for -- get this -- $59.99! I know! It was normally over $100, but we found it, and I'm so happy with it. It's dark brown, though the pictures look a little closer to black. It's also very sturdy (despite our best efforts to put it together wrong multiple times). He will keep all his books and DVDs here, as well as a few knick knacks (that are pre-approved by me, of course).


I've had this beauty sitting at my parents' house for a while. It was collecting dust, but when I showed it to him, he really liked it. I purchased it a few years back from Viva Terra, but I found another one that's similar and in stock.


I love this leather W! I found it at Home Goods (notice a shopping trend?) for only $7.99. Sure, I could have made something similar, but I don't think I could have done it under $8! It's about two inches thick with brown on the sides.


In addition to his books, he has a few Auburn items he wanted to show off (War Eagle!), as well as a collection of foreign coins we've collected for him. We pared the Auburn items down to two great ones and put them on the shelf.



On to more great deals - William found these awesome lamps at a home consignment shop for $20 each! The shades were in excellent condition, and the bases only needed a quick spirt of black enamel. I found the small mirrors at K-Mart for $5 each. The frames were gold, so I did a quick paint job to get them black. The night stand was on clearance at World Market, and to hide all his electronics, I found a basket at Home Goods to slide under the drawer. I already had the picture frames, so we put in some newer photos. [Apologies for the bear on the bed. He'd probably be embarrassed if anyone saw that. Haha!]



I had been a little scared to do both black and brown together, but after it's all done, I really think it looks great. Since it is a boy's room, we could afford both the dark colors. And since I'm certain most people combine black and brown in their clothes while knowing the "rule" against it, I'm hoping no one thinks this is a faux pas.

All in all, we think it's a great room! And Molly, who stays in there constantly now, agrees! (Though by the face in this picture, she's clearly mad I'm taking her picture once again.)