Colorful Ideas for a Boy’s Bedroom – My Son’s Bedroom Makeover

I find designing boy’s bedrooms extremely difficult and probably spend more time trying to come up with ideas for my Son’s bedroom than any other room in the house. I can put together a scheme for my bedroom or my daughter’s quicker than my husband says yes to an Indian takeaway for tea (not sure what that says about my cooking?), but my Son’s bedroom often leaves me scratching my head for ideas.

In our last house, I created a jungle theme for my Son which centered around green and mustard tones. I loved this room and wrote a blog post about how I created it here. 

Why are boy’s bedrooms so hard to decorate? Is there a real lack of inspiration for boy’s bedrooms on Pinterest? Are we still stuck on the fact that we should use blue and yellow for a boy’s bedroom and pink for a girl?

I think for me it’s because a boy’s bedroom always seems to center around a theme, i.e., dinosaurs or football, and my son has no real interest in either! But mainly because I know what I want décor wise in my bedroom and my daughter has inherited my love of all things interior design, whereas my Son just shrugs his shoulder and goes, it’s a room Mum?!?

Choosing a Theme for a Boy’s Bedroom

For me, a room design scheme always starts with color. I’ll see an image on Pinterest or I’ll get sent a piece of artwork and the room develops around that.

I have worked with Dulux on numerous occasions in the past and when they asked me if I’d like to create something centering around their Colour of the Year 2021 – Brave Ground and pair it with Tranquil Dawn (their COTY 2020, I wrote about it here), I knew exactly what room I wanted to use it in.

However, I didn’t just want to paint my Son’s walls in Brave Ground and Tranquil Dawn and be done with it, I wanted to be a little creative by either using block colors or an ombre effect.

I started looking for inspiration and I came across this image.

I have always loved Terrazzo design and loved how this wallpaper incorporated a geometric pattern. It is perfect for a boy’s bedroom, so I decided to hand-paint this design onto the wall myself.

I knew the Dulux Brave Ground Earth Palette had very similar colors so decided to use Midnight Garden, Mysterious Teal, Tranquil Dawn, Tissue Paper, and Brave Ground from this palette. Finally, I added Dulux Treasure Chest to add a bit of contrast to the pattern.   

It was very simple to do. I first painted the wall in Tissue Paper, followed by sectioning off parts of the wall with frog tape and began to hand paint the terrazzo design onto the wall. I wanted to keep to a very loose recurring pattern to make sure the color was evenly distributed and it took me about a day to complete.

Finally, I painted the rest of the wall in Tranquil Dawn and Mysterious Teal and took the frog tape off. Simples!

The Finished Color Block Wall

I’m so pleased with how this wall has turned out, it definitely adds interest to the room and moves away from the very cold blues my Son had in his bedroom when we moved in. 

I have painted the rest of the room in Tranquil Dawn and the wall opposite this in Midnight Garden. These are some of my favorite colors and they give the room a more grown-up feel and are perfect for a boy’s bedroom.

The Final Touches – Boy’s Bedroom Ideas

In the next couple of weeks, his toddler bed will be replaced with a new double bed which will go in this space and I shall put some bedside tables and floating shelves above. I will also add a large rug to break up the cream carpet and add some pattern and texture.

His room is actually quite long so at the other end of the room I will put his rattan wardrobe from made.com, the upcycled chest of drawers I made him, and a desk (you can get a desk similar to this one at La Redoute) where he can eventually do his homework (still a few more years away from that thank goodness!)

He has two ceiling lights so I have gone with rattan lamp shades from made.com to help bring natural elements into his room

Accessories for a Boy’s Bedroom

The final touches will be adding mustard to the room with his curtains, lamp, artwork, and a Lego head that we had from his old room. I think the mustard tones add a fun element to the color scheme and help break up the blues and greens. 

I think it’s always tricky planning a boy’s bedroom, but if you nail the color scheme from the beginning, the rest of the planning should come easily! Hopefully, this room will last him for many years to come.