3 KEY PIECES FOR BUILDING A ROOM DESIGN- BOY'S ROOM REFRESH PART 1

Last Fall my son moved away to college, and while we welcome him home with open arms every chance we get, his room is now unoccupied most of the time.  Since we don't have a ton of square footage in our home, we like to try to make the best use of every space. So, we decided that while his room will still be "his" and ready for him any time he's home, we also wanted to tweak it just a bit to make it more useful for the rest of the family too during the majority of the year when he's not here.  Enter a happy excuse to refresh his room!  I'm so happy to once again partner with At Home Stores to spread the word about their Rug and Furniture Event going on now.  While we're not completely starting over in the room, I found 3 key pieces from At Home that really got the design ball rolling for a few updates to make the space function better for our family- a rug, a key piece of furniture, and great lighting.

For my long time readers, you might remember his room looking like this.  In reality, that was well over 4 years ago, and he decided around that time that he wanted to have a twin loft bed instead of the centered full bed that was there so that he could gain more floor space back in his room (it's really small).  So, we built a loft bed (briefly shown here) and he loved it, but the room was never really pulled together again- for blog photos, at least ;).   I let him pretty much do his own thing in there without any direction from me, he kept out and displayed whatever he wanted to and hung whatever was meaningful to him on his walls.  Not that his room wasn't meaningful to him before, but I just never "styled it" through his High School years.  

So, as he moved on to college, it was time to streamline the room and get it somewhat back into order.  When planning a refresh, I made a conscious effort to keep in mind who my "client" was.  Although we're transitioning it to be more multi-purpose since he's away, it's still his room when he's home and I want him to be comfortable there. At the same time, I wanted it to be stylish enough and inviting for the rest of the family to use when he's gone as a quiet space to read, work, or study.  I envisioned keeping his bed along one side of the room, but also creating a cozy reading or study corner on the other side of the room. 

Since At Home's furniture selection has such a variety of styles and colors at reasonable prices, I was able to find the perfect chair that fits the new design of the room yet is still masculine enough for a young adult guy.  Previously, the only place he had to sit was on his bed, so I wanted to bring in a more comfortable club chair for another seating option, although I knew it had to be a smaller scale for his small room.  The modern styling of this chair was just right, and knowing they would fit right in I fell right away for the stripes!  I also found a super affordable Black Task Floor Lamp for just the right amount of extra light in the reading corner without taking up a lot of floor space or needing an extra side table to set a lamp on. 

I also knew I wanted to use a rug to cover the plain brown carpet- yes, you can layer a rug over carpet!   Such an easy solution if your carpet is stained, worn, or dated yet replacing it isn't in the budget just yet.  My goal was to get the biggest rug that would fit in the space since a rug is such a great opportunity to add color, pattern, and texture to any room.  I found several great options from At Home that complemented my design but zeroed in on the perfect softest, most luxurious feeling one with a beautiful pattern and colors that was a perfect fit for my budget. 

The variation of blues, grays, and tans were just right for the color palette I wanted in his room.  I knew that with this rug as a base I could mix in even more colors and patterns into the design and just about anything would still work with it.

Similar Cage Corbel Sconce

DIY Plank Wall Tutorial 

We gathered some sentimental pieces to display- a ball he caught during practice at a Texas Rangers game, his great-grandfather's old fishing lures, and some of his souvenir patches on the wall.    

The antlers that used to hang in the living room are now in here, as well as a collection of mountain/outdoor art that has inspired my design direction for this vintage, camp-y, lodge-y, plaid, rustic room!  I also switched out the curtains to an old pair of khaki buffalo check panels that hung in our living room years ago, I'm loving them mixed in with the pattern on the rug and stripes on the chair.

I am so pleased with the changes we've made in this room but stay tuned, because this is actually just phase 1 of the makeover!  In mid-March I'll be joining some friends for a quick "Choose Your Own Adventure" Makeover blog hop where I'll be working on a new (vintage) piece of furniture on the other side of the room, a few other bedding and accessory updates, and I'm frantically searching for a vintage small scale campaign desk to double as a nightstand. 

Thank you to At Home for sponsoring this post.  I've enjoyed shopping with them since I was a little girl and am so happy to be asked to work with them now.  At Home does not offer online shopping at this time, but click here to find an At Home store near you and check product inventories at your local store.  To be the first to know about new markdowns, hot deals, and sign up for the At Home Insider Perks program (I love the feature where they save your receipts!!), visit At Home Insider Perks. 

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