HOME INTERIORS // A Bedroom For a Tween Boy (for now and beyond.)

Creating a bedroom for a near ten year old which will see him into teenage-hood.

When it came to creating a room for Raph I wanted to very much create something that would suit him for years. I think it can be hard to create a space for a boy sometimes that can also represent the idea of minimalism and simplicity yet suit the realities that early teenage boys might like. Much like our daughter's room, a lot of the ideas behind this decoration was creating a space that suited our home and felt like it matched in well. I have never been a fan of having lots of different colours round the house, but when it came to creating a space for the children I also didn't want it to solely be a white space like the rest of the house. I have learned to like colours and how you can use them to create warmth and comfort.

Raph's room went for being packed with two single beds and lots of toys to being the biggest room for one small boy. As a growing boy there were some features that I knew I wanted to carry him into teenage hood / secondary school and that was really at the forefront of our designs.

The first choice of colour, a copy of Farrow & Ball's Calke green was what we have on the walls. As this room is so big for one body I wanted to bring a bit of warmth with a darker colour. With the white top boarder and white wooden floors you bring a lot of light into this west facing room so having a warming shade of green against that and then the natural wood colours (I will talk about later) really creates a sense of calm and warmth.

With the room having a dark radiator (now one of my favourite features of the upstairs rooms) and a pine wood windowsill creating a room that had features of natural wood were, like Etta's room, very important. Raph's head board was always going to be self-constructed and was the only way we were tying the rooms together. The feature of natural wood is not only visually pleasing but textually as well. It is now the way that we connect the room's round the house; some wood feature in some way. In Etta's room she has the peg rail and in here there is his wonderful strip panel headboard reaching from floor to ceiling.

Raph also has a new small double bed, (I point out the small bit as we had that embarrassing error with ordering the wrong sized mattress) From a UK manufactured pine bed company. We have also left this unpainted which matches the headboard really well. Like Etta's room, the under bed storage is essential for not filling up the edges of the room with furniture. The boxes were originally made from their old room which rob just adapted for the new bed. All of Raphs clothes fit under his bed and in his bedside table meaning that he has no wardrobe in his room.

From the wooden bed came the feature oak desk, an integral part of growing up. I wanted him to have space to work, play and a place to draw. This, and the black chair, were new from Ikea. The bookcase is also Ikea, part of the Billy range, but we had this from when they shared a bedroom. Raph's bedside tables I spotted from Ikea about a year ago and have patiently been waiting to buy knowing they were going to be perfect for a boy's room. Its always nice when you find furniture that you know would really suit a personality.

Parts of Raph's room that were really important to have was a Lego display unit, a desk for the impending homework situation and floor space so that he, with or without his sister, could have another space to play. Raph has a lot of the Lego now in his room. Mostly completed sets that get played with but he also wanted to display. This Great Little Trading Co unit has been in this room for sometime now and works as a great source of storage, with a couple of baskets full of Lego to play with the rest of the space is taken up with complete models right now and they look great. It's messy but neat at the same time. It's well played with but also looks like art. It's a really colourful feature to the bedroom.

After the physical furniture part of Raph's room was complete it came down to sourcing artwork which I feel will be an ongoing part of decorating. I have written a post all about the art from the kids' rooms: a bit of bespoke by me, art from independant printers and pieces mass produced that I have jazzed up.

I am so pleased with how this and Etta's room have turned out. Both individual but also both matching well for our little house. Having these two spaces completed has really opened the upstairs to a working space, one that we actually like to hang out in rather than one which hasn't quite gelled for a few years now.