Industrial Teen Bedroom Tour

Join me for a tour of this fun industrial teen bedroom! As mentioned in the Painting the Perfect Stripe Tutorial I let Mr. G pick out the color scheme for his new room. He chose Kelly Green, Navy and White. I loved his choice! I thought it would be perfect using a combination of these classic colors to bring his new room into his teenage years. I wanted to create a space where he could kick back and relax, have space to do his studying and have it grow with him as he gets older.

If you’re working with a small space, you want to see 16 Ways to Make a Small Bedroom Look Bigger.

And for ideas for designing a kids bedroom that will grow with them, click here.

As you tour more of my home, you’ll see that I like stripes! I use them in almost every room. They can be fun and playful, yet using the right color scheme and right application they can even create a classic feel. My Mom and I love to attend the Parade of Homes each year if we can make it. I’m always drawn to the spaces that bring the theme of the room up onto the ceiling. When you’re in the space it helps draw your eye upward and makes the space feel taller and larger. I had seen some images of striped ceilings on Pinterest and knew I HAD to do this in Mr. G’s room!

Repurposing old items lying around and giving them new life is one of my passions! I’d had an old electrical spool (which I found for FREE) in our garage for over a year. I’d had plans to cut it apart and make a large wall clock, but I ended up using something else in the intended space. So, there it sat. In fact, my Hubby and I had even purged the garage and cleaned it out and I told him I’d only hang onto it for one more year before I would be willing to part with it. If I hadn’t done anything with it by then I would let it go.

Shezam! Check out this awesome light fixture my parents helped me with! (Geez my Hubbs keeps getting out of these projects…well, to be fair he was helping keep the kids entertained while we worked on this one.) Electrical spool + Utensil Holders = 1 unique light fixture. You can check out the tutorial here.

Using reclaimed wood adds character to this light fixture, while the utensil holders add that industrial touch. Using both of these elements together in the fixture also helps tie the space together. It plays off of the raw wood and electrical piping conduit of the built-in shelving unit and desk space.

My Hubby and I built this desk for Mr. G so he would have a quiet space to do his homework.

It also provides plenty of storage and space to showcase his awards, books, games and pictures. 

You’ll find a detailed tutorial on how to build an industrial wood and pipe desk with shelves here.

With a bit of spray paint, I brought this office organizer (from the thrift store) up to date. It was pretty blah before but now that little pop of green adds so much to the space.

As a parent, I feel that as Mr. G is getting older I have more of a responsibility to teach and remind him that he will ultimately become what he wants to be in life. I’ve tried to incorporate positive sayings throughout his room to serve as reminders that he is capable of doing hard things, and that by keeping a positive attitude he can achieve anything he sets his mind to. I love this sign I found at Hobby Lobby that says “Attitude is everything, pick a good one”. Another I found that I love is the saying around the black and white silhouette of the world on this shelf. “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

You can use just about anything for a nightstand. I picked up this awesome old water Barrell through the local classifieds! The lamp is even made out of the same electrical conduit pipe and joints as the shelving unit and desk. I’d thought to make my own but found this one at Hobby Lobby and it was half off so a snagged it! It would likely have cost the same or more to build it on my own because all of the joints add up quickly. I love the industrial character both of these pieces add to the room.

My Mom made this artwork for Mr. G’s room. Here’s another way to utilize old pallet wood and give it a new purpose. She applied green vinyl to the pallet wood in the shape of the world, and black vinyl with the saying “Adventure…awaits”. I later found the metal looking propeller at Rod Works and thought it would compliment the pallet artwork and bring in that metal look mixed with old repurposed wood as has been done around the room with the desk and light fixture. It also adds a little travel vibe to the space and lets me reiterate that Mr. G can go anywhere and do anything in his life if he sets his mind to it. This is his journey. The final touch to this grouping are the time zone clocks above the propeller. It helps tie the whole travel vibe together.

Part of the fun I have with a space is the hunt for a specific item. I scoured the classifieds for a locker bed, I believe we picked this up for about $40. Sure, you can pick one up from Pottery Barn for several hundred dollars, but that doesn’t fly on my budget! Plus, where’s the fun if you don’t have to hunt for something specific? It even came with about 10 different colored locker fronts so you can switch out the colors. I used the white and blue in their original state and the same spray paint that I used on the office organizer for the green locker front.

Here we used electrical conduit pipe, elbows and flanges for the curtain rod. The same materials used to build the shelving unit and desk. I roped my Mom into helping me paint these polka dots on the curtain! Check out the tutorial here. The hanging chair came from IKEA.

Another aspect of this room that I love is all of the attention to detail that ties the space together. (Well, the cat’s out of the bag now! Yes, I am anal: I exhibit personality traits such as orderliness, frugality, being extremely neat, and careful. This doesn’t mean my house isn’t a mess most days! It’s hard to stay on top of an orderly home with 3 busy kiddos, but when I’m working on a project, I feel it’s all the little details that help pull a space together.) As you look throughout the space, you’ll notice repeating shapes and materials that help tie everything together. From the straight lines that repeat in the stripes on the bedding and ceiling to the rectangles on the doors, to the rectangular shapes of the shelves. To the circles you see in the shape of the hanging chair, the light fixture, details in the curtains, flanges, grommets on the trunk in front of the bed and on the propeller, to the wall clocks and back of the chair and headboard of the bed. All of these repeating shapes and patterns help tie the space together.

Another fun idea to add to a teen bedroom is LED strip lights.

See how easy they are to install and conceal here.