Are you looking to design a bedroom but feel a bit overwhelmed? Perhaps you’ve wondered “Where do I start designing a bedroom?”, “How can I design my own bedroom for free?”, “How do I arrange a small bedroom?’
Or more specifically for this post, “How to design a tween girl bedroom?”, “How do you organize a tween girls bedroom?”, “What should a teenage girl’s bedroom include?”, “What is the best color for a teenage girl’s bedroom?”.
If you’ve found yourself asking any of these questions and felt intimidated, lost or overwhelmed, we’d like to share our tried and true steps to design a bedroom (but are applicable to any room design really), that are easy to implement!
Sit back, relax and take some notes as we walk you through our process of designing Ellie’s tween bedroom makeover, and you’ll be well on your way to designing the bedroom of your dreams.
(And if you’ve been following along, you know this project has been a long time coming! We’re so excited to finally reveal the complete bedroom makeover with you!)
And if you’d like to get ideas for designing a kids bedroom that will grow with them, click here.
Before we jump in, you know that we are avid DIYers! Nearly every element in this bedroom design has a DIY element. Below you will find a list of each of the DIY projects linked to its tutorial. You can even shop this room if you find yourself falling in love with any element! Shopping links can be found below.
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- How To Paint a Room with Pro Results
- Built In Desk | Upcycling At Its Best
- Upcycle Idea | Transforming Twin Bed to Daybed
- How To Refinish Furniture | With a Raw Wood Look
- DIY Canopy for a Bed | Fit for a Princess
- Shelf Decorating Ideas | A Step by Step Guide
- Roman Shade | How to Make Them Yourself
- How To Reupholster a Chair | with French Country & Boho Flair
- French Country Chandelier with Boho Flair
- DIY Mirror Frame | Quick and Easy Idea
- Antique Hardware For Dresser
- Bedroom Ideas for Tweens |Girl Room
- Area Rug For Bedroom | Top Ideas For Tween Girl
- How To Make a Bolster Pillow
- How To Make an Envelope Pillow
1. Look For Inspiration & Gather Ideas
The first and perhaps easiest step to design a bedroom is to gather inspiration. It’s likely you already know what styles and colors you’re drawn to.
Taking the time to gather and organize ideas and information is key to achieving results you’ll truly love in the end. This will help to narrow down to specific details rather than veering off course and getting pulled in conflicting directions with endless possibilities.
Think of how you want the room to feel, how will the room work for you? Some ideas might be light, airy, and calming. Or dark, cozy and intimate. Take note of these feelings and what it means to you. Then gather ideas that create this feeling.
The first place we like to look for inspiration is Pinterest. Start an inspiration board and be specific to only pin images that convey that feeling you want for your room. Save as many pins as you want, as long as they convey the same feeling you’re after. Having a minimum of 30 or so pins will help give you a good feel for your inspiration and vision.
For me planning to design a bedroom for Ellie meant having a more mature look. She’d outgrown her current room (as she was only 3 years old when I styled it), and I wanted her to be able to grow up with her room.
After talking with her about the possibilities we agreed to create a space that was timeless and feminine with a bit of glam. French country with a bit of Boho flair.
With these parameters in mind, my Mom and I went to town pinning more than enough inspiration images.
2. Choose The Color Scheme
After creating your Pinterest Board and gathering inspiration you should have a good idea how you want the room to feel.
Many tweens are drawn to bold colors, don’t be afraid to use them even in a small space. Try incorporating them on an accent wall and then repeat coordinating colors in small amounts around the room.
The main color in the bedroom design should roughly be about 70% of the color in the room.
The floor is also a great way to add some color and texture and will help ground a small room.
Ellie was also very specific about her colors. She was pretty adamant she didn’t want any pink in her new room, she’d outgrown that!
Instead she wanted blush and gold. Pairing those with navy and white would create a sophisticated and mature feel.
(Not to mention the navy and white would flow with the rest of our house.)
Navy isn’t the typical color you think of when planning to design a bedroom for a tween girl. So in and of itself, the color makes a dramatic statement.
We chose to use navy as the dominant color and add blush and gold with accessories and fabrics.
Painting an accent wall navy even in a small room gives the illusion that the room is bigger. It gives depth to the space and adds a little drama.
Varying shades of navy were repeated throughout the room in the bed upholstery, bedding, throw pillows, rug, roman shade and accessories.
3. How Will This Room Need To Function To Serve Her Needs?
When planning to design a bedroom, think of how the space is used on a day to day basis. What elements could be incorporated to enhance function and make routines easier?
An obvious need for a bedroom is a bed. She did have a twin bed already, but we felt that a daybed would better serve her needs and open up the space more being placed against the wall.
I think we could all agree that most bedrooms lack storage space. As a budding artist, I knew we needed to create a space where Ellie had plenty of room to exercise her artistic abilities and continue to create. This space also needed plenty of storage, not only for her art supplies but for clothing as well.
Her previous room had a small desk, but she needed something bigger, something better. This room was in need of a built-in with drawers, shelves and plenty of storage!
4. Make A List Of All The Elements You Want In The Room
Now that you’ve assessed the needs of the room, make a list of all the elements you want to incorporate into the bedroom design.
Write it all down, from small to large, practical to the far fetched must haves. Then prioritize what is really needed in the room. This list will help in creating a budget (discussed later).
Elements wanted to design this bedroom included:
-French country daybed
-Dresser with more storage
-Built-in desk with plenty of storage
-Window treatment
-New bedding & throw pillows
-Night stand with lamp for reading in bed
-Updated light fixture
-Area rug
-Coordinating accessories & artwork
5. Plan The Room Layout
Next make a plan for the layout of the bedroom design.
We’re both very visual thinkers, so we like to map out the design.
Use measurements of the room, and furniture pieces you’d like to use in the room. Map out the room using graph paper, and make cutouts to scale for the furniture pieces. Then you can move the pieces around to decide on the best placement in the room.
You can also use digital programs such as floorplanner or Home Design 3D to create more visual 3D renderings. Using a program such as these also allows you to test out your color scheme. Add that color you’re thinking of on the accent wall and see how you like it. Place furniture in the space and see if it has a nice flow.
Digital room planners offer a unique visual aspect to design a bedroom, allowing you to get a better feel for the design before you commit to anything.
You can also tape out the design on the floor to walk through the space. In doing so you may learn that there isn’t enough room for everything, or vice versa, you may have more room than you thought.
I’ve used the graph paper and taping out furniture methods for past projects, both of which work well. However, to design a bedroom this time, I chose to use the Home Design 3D digital program.
Using programs such as these allows you to move furniture around in a 2D format, and some also allow you to walk through a 3D design.
Although I consider myself to be pretty visual and I can always see how I want things to be in my mind, it was extremely helpful being able to walk through the space in a 3D format to get a real life feel of how the space will be.
This not only gives you the chance to see how you like the color scheme, but you’ll get a better idea of how the room flows with furniture placement.
PRO TIP: It’s important to be flexible. Although everything fit well in her new bedroom design as we were bringing all the items into place, the dresser placement that was original to the layout design just wasn’t working.
Because we found a larger dresser, it was taller than I had expected. When placed next to the bed as the layout was planned for, it was the same height as the bed, and they seemed to compete with each other.
Ultimately the dresser was placed along the wall in between her closet and door to her room.
6. Create A Budget
Using your list of elements you want to incorporate into the bedroom design, prioritize which items are of greatest need.
The first thing to consider when making a budget to design a bedroom, is to realize you don’t have to complete everything right away. Be realistic with your timeline of bringing all the elements in the room together. You may have to wait for a specific piece of furniture or an area rug to be delivered etc. This will allow you to spread out the spending.
Do a general search for the items you’ll need and calculate how much it will cost. If it’s more than you were expecting or willing to pay, consider using second hand items. By refinishing furniture and upcycling discarded items you’re not only likely to spend less money, but you also get to customize the pieces specific to your design.
You know we love to get our hands on second hand items and bring them back to life! This tween bedroom is chocked full of DIY projects for every skill level!
Give yourself a budget and stick to it. Never have we heard anyone say they were glad they spent more money than they wanted to!
Keep track of your spending with a spreadsheet, or use the envelope cash system. Divvy up specific amounts of money to specific areas of the room and put enough cash in an envelope per specific area. When the cash is gone, you’re done spending in that area.
I’ll be completely honest here…I’m not the best at making budgets. I will usually gather some rough estimates of specific pieces I may need to get for a space, but I don’t calculate the cost of every last item down to the nails. (I need to be better and more exact for sure!)
Here’s my little secret…I like to sell items from the previous bedroom design that we no longer need. The money I earn goes directly toward the new bedroom design.
This is exactly what I did with our master bedroom makeover, and I again repeated with Ellie’s new bedroom.
I literally sold ALL of her furniture, artwork, window treatment, chandelier, even her bedding! (One lucky girl got a whole new room because her Mom bought everything I listed!)
She got a great deal on a complete room design, and I made money to go toward the new room design. It was kind of like I was trading in the old for something new.
7. Create A Mood Board
Creating a mood board is optional however, it allows you to gather another visual of all the elements you want to incorporate into the bedroom design.
Use any program you’re familiar with such as Photoshop, Canva, or Microsoft Word to create a collage of all the elements in the new bedroom design.
This gives you one last chance to see how all of the elements will work together, and you also have time to switch things up before committing to anything (especially a paint color).
Again since I’m such a visual person, I could already see in my mind how it would all come together. It’s not to say that I didn’t look at each of the items and decide if they worked well together or not, I just didn’t compile each of these images into one mood board, or vision board.
We did however, introduce our vision and share our ideas to you through our posts:
Bedroom Ideas for Tweens | Girl Rooms
Area Rug For Bedroom | Top Ideas For Tween Girl
Creating a mood board is a simple thing to do. Again allowing yourself to put all your ideas into one place and see how you like everything before committing.
8. Source Items For Room Design
This may be the most fun step of them all, the shopping!
With the general layout and plan in mind, you can begin to source items for the room; bedding, accessories, art, or any other DIY items you may need.
Remember the feel and style you’re going for. Don’t be afraid to take your time. If you’re not finding something that meets all the needs of the room then move on.
Keep in mind the function in the space and the size. You don’t want the room to feel cramped.
Start with larger items and work your way down to the smaller items.
As DIY fanatics, we’ve long since learned the importance of taking our time. Searching through the online classifieds or scouring through the local thrift stores, you won’t always find what you’re looking for at first glance.
It may take weeks to find the perfect piece of furniture that fits the room design and dimensions.
The first project on the list to design a bedroom was painting the room.
The 3 walls and ceiling were painted SW Pure White (color matched to Behr Ultra), and the accent wall was painted Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore (also color matched to Behr Ultra) at The Home Depot. We just love the thick and creamy texture of Behr paint and wont use anything else!
Because most of the elements in this bedroom design are DIY, I made a list of all the items I was in need of so that if I came across any of them I could save them to my list.
The largest project in the room was the built-in desk with storage. We then worked on the dresser, upcyled 2 twin beds into her French country daybed, upcycled a French country chandelier, reupholstered her desk chair, created the bed crown and canopy, made the roman shade, made throw pillows, and made some accent decor.
It’s important to wait until all the elements are in the room before accessorizing. If you come across an item that would go well in the room, you can buy it, just be prepared to return it if it doesn’t work out.
We like to use items we have on hand first, which gives us a better idea of items we need to buy and/or make to complete the look.
We also love creating one of a kind decor to share with you! Take a closer look at each of these custom watercolor prints available for download soon on our site.
Another fun idea to incorporate in kid, tween and teen bedrooms is LED lights.
If your kids haven’t been bedding for them, they soon will.
See how we put them up in Aiden’s bedroom and concealed them with simple cove moudling.
We hope to have inspired you today to tackle your own bedroom design, that we have offered some pointers and tips that will allow you to design a room one step at a time and alleviate the overwhelm.
Please PIN and share with your friends! Sharing is caring! If you’re new here, WELCOME! We love to meet new friends. Say hi in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you. You can also learn more about us here.
Thanks for spending some time with us today!
And as always here at Sunny Side Design
WE HOPE TO BRING YOUR HOME TO THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET!
SHOP THIS LOOK
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