Young Adult Bedroom Makeover - TheNavagePatch.com

Young Adult Bedroom Makeover Plan

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It’s time to give our son’s room a Young Adult Bedroom Makeover – something more suited to his age. Here’s how we’re gonna do it!

Another day, another makeover, but who’s counting, right? I mean, what else are we going to do in this house? Nothing much has been unpacked because everything depends on getting the dining room columns removed and replaced with some sort of wall. Once that happens, the dominoes will start to fall, and not to be too crass about it, but Shit’s Gonna Get Done.

And I’m just the guy to get it done.

But until then, there will be no peace between House and me until every last green wall has been mercilessly buried under two coats of a more retinal-friendly paint.

So, in honor of The Boy’s triumphant return from his first year away at university, we’ve turned our makey-makey eyeballs to Baris’s room and the Grand Young Adult Bedroom Makeover Plan. He’s going to be living with us this summer, so he may as well do so in style. Besides, he’s earned it. Let me explain…

We interrupt this blog post for a Proud Papa moment.

I was scared. There’s no mincing words. In fact, I was terrified of what might happen to my boy.

My boy, born in Turkey and raised around the world. My boy, who learned to speak English from a Russian nanny whose own English was broken. My boy, who never really learned his native tongue, so his first language, English, struggled to become native. My boy, who couldn’t differentiate between real life and video games when he first came to live with us in Vietnam in 2011. My boy, whose early grasp and mastery of math was overshadowed in my eyes by his struggles with English. My boy, who spent so much time alone because he had no roots and no long-term friendships.

(My boy, who used to play monopoly against himself, alone in his bedroom, because he had no friends close by. My wife, who discovered this one day and came downstairs in tears because she understood what her boy couldn’t, because he was still too young to be troubled by this.)

My boy, who even in high school didn’t seem ready to venture off to college.

My boy, who lived with his grandparents in Connecticut while the pandemic raged around him and his parents were in Georgia.

My boy, who moved to Georgia for his high school senior year and was forced to start over, again, in a new school in a new land for the…how many times had it been? Ten? More?

My boy, who changed profoundly during his senior year, maturing into a young man and revealing a side of himself that must have been simmering under the surface for years, just waiting to emerge.

My boy, a young man (but still a boy) more ready for life than he had been (but still my boy, still my boy).

I was scared he was not ready to go out on his own. I was scared that he was still too naïve, too inexperienced. I was scared the world would devour him, as it so often does the innocent.

I was scared he would falter, that he would fall…and that he would ultimately fail.

My boy did not falter, he flourished.

My boy did not fall, he flew.

My boy did not fail, he found himself and crushed every expectation we had and more.

He grew in ways I never dreamed possible at his age. He blew past his peers, posted a 4.0 GPA this semester and a 3.9 for his first year in a major that saw many kids pummeled to tears.

And he made his Dad so very proud.

So, yeah, The Boy has earned the coolest room in the house, and that’s exactly what we’re going to give him with this makeover. He’ll be arriving home soon, and if he’s willing, he can help out with some of the components of this makeover. Or he can relax and enjoy his time off before he starts his internship. Either way, his new bedroom – perfect for any young adult – will soon be ready for him to enjoy!

Let’s take a look at what we have now, and then we’ll talk a little about what we’re going to do.

The Before

The Green is strong with this room. But not for long.

bedroom before

It’s a simple bedroom with carpet so plain it’ll put you to sleep before you can walk across it, walls so green, you’ll either want to vomit or eat a bowl of split pea soup, and a tropical fan that looks like it wandered in from a Tommy Bahama photo shoot.

bedroom before

There’s a small walk-in closet just off-camera to the right in the picture below that will be the subject of a future post. Our immediate concern is the bedroom.

And the walls.

Those seasick-green walls.

bedroom before

Eventually, I’ll be ripping out this carpet (if it doesn’t lull me to sleep before I’m done slicing it up) and installing LVP, but that’s a future concern, so for now, the carpet stays.

If nothing else, it’ll help Baris sleep.

Insomnia?

Just turn on the light, roll over, and stare at the perfect blandness of the carpet. You’ll be asleep in less than two minutes!

Now let’s get back to what I will be doing. Here’s the plan.

young adult bedroom makeover mood board

Young Adult Bedroom Makeover

The Walls

Obviously, the first change will be the wall color. You could pretty much pick any color at random, and it’d be an astounding improvement over what’s currently slathered on the walls. I found an orphaned can of the stuff in the garage. It’s called “Daylight.” I can’t even write it with a straight face, let alone say it. In my opinion, “Tobacco Hornworm” would be a much more suitable name for such an intestinal green.

Anyway, the tobacco worm green will be replaced with our beloved Bohemian Lace – one of the HGTV/Sherwin-Williams colors sold at Lowe’s. We have two 5-gallon buckets of the stuff we’ll be using around the house.

Unlike Baris’s last two bedrooms, this time he’s getting an accent wall. And we’ve decided that we’re going to switch paint brands. Instead of the Sherwin-Williams for DIYers sold at Lowe’s, we’re going to start buying real Sherwin-Williams paint from the real Sherwin-Williams store in Freeport. I will be giving you my honest opinion on their paints as we progress through this house, and I’ll compare them to Lowe’s and Home Depot’s paints. Is Sherwin-Williams worth the premium price tag? We’ll see.

For Baris’s accent wall, we picked a color called Sea Serpent. I’m loving the name. Let’s hope the paint lives up to the hype.

Sherwin Williams paint colors

But a simple painted accent wall is not enough. We want to do something new and exciting for the wall behind his bed. I suggested a full-wall, built-in aquarium with tropical fish and topless mermaids swimming around. I’m sure you can imagine the reception that idea received.

Of course, my babes had other plans which unsurprisingly had nothing to do with topless mermaids and everything to do with wood slats. She showed me some inspiration pictures.

wood slat accent wall

Wood and blue are a fantastic combination. Instead of angling the slats, I’m going to install them horizontally on the right side of Baris’s bed. We think this is going to be a real stunner!

The Closet Door

Though the closet is slated for a future makeover, the closet door is on the docket for this one. I’m going to build a door for a sliding barn door hardware kit. This is my inspiration, but I’m going to make mine a little different.

sliding barn door

I will likely use the same slats for the barn door that I will use for the accent wall. I’m thinking furring strips will be the most affordable option that’ll give the best bang for the buck.

The bed

We bought Baris’s bed in August of 2013, when we moved into a small condo rental in Glastonbury, Connecticut. It was a simple stained wood affair that looked decent enough and didn’t break the bank. In October of that same year, we moved into our first house and brought his bed with us. It has since moved three more times – to Georgia in 2020, to Jacksonville in 2021 (where Handan and I used it), and now to Freeport in 2022. Instead of setting it up in his new Florida room, we put it in one of the guest rooms. It’s time he had a new bed. Handan found a bed with dual pistons that raise the mattress to reveal a massive storage space underneath. It’s the perfect area to hold some of the roughly one thousand cubic feet of pillows we’ve accumulated over the years.

gray bed

And since two pillows and a blanket won’t even get you a day pass in Blogland, my babes is planning to buy even more pillows to make the bed look fuller and far more fabulous.

pillow

Of course, Baris will be confused and befuddled by all the Fluff and Plumpery – as all men are by such things – and he’ll just toss his mother’s hard work onto the floor, so he can actually utilize the bed for its intended purpose.

The Ceiling Fan

We’re shifting gears here and going for something a little different than what we’ve had. Since the accent wall is going to give the room a more modern and slightly edgy feel, we’re going to follow suit with the ceiling fan, and give Baris something a little more sleek, modern and minimalist. We’ve picked out a 3-blade fan with black blades and brass motor housing.

ceiling fan

I think it’s going to look badass with the accent wall!

The Windows

Keeping it simple here, we’ve selected a black curtain rod with minimalist end caps. It’s a perfect match for the fan.

curtain rod

The curtains we picked are natural linen color. This will stand out against the Bohemian Lace walls, and the warmth will complement the wood slats on the accent wall and the barn door across the room.

curtains

Lighting

My babes has been wanting to make some raffia pendant lights for quite a while now. She keeps showing me pictures like this one.

raffia pendant lamp

And while we probably won’t duplicate those lamps, we do have an idea for a pendant lamp that’s pretty outside the box and might look really fantastic hanging in the corner by the wood slat accent wall. We’ll see how this one shapes up in the coming days.

Plants and decor

It wouldn’t be a Navage Patch room makeover if it didn’t include some beautiful and realistic faux plants now would it?

faux plant

Besides the greenery, Handan has been busy scouting around for little baskets and other decor items to spruce up the unused spaces of Baris’s new young adult bedroom.

Share it on Pinterest & Facebook!

young adult bedroom makeover mood board
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53 Comments

  1. I love all these ideas! Can’t wait to see the finished room! I’m sure Baris will love it and appreciate such an awesome homecoming☺️

  2. He will be one lucky son to come back to such a nice room. Your post couldn’t have come at a more perfect time as I am also in the process of making over my son’s bedroom with a dark blue accent wall and a charcoal duvet cover in mind. Since he asked me to use a used black display cabinet he found to put his « liquor », your inspiration wall, well, really inspires me to add some lighter wood in the mix and to look for a nice realistic faux plant that could add the perfect touch to jus cabinet. Can’t wait to see Barry’s room done to maybe inspire me even more.

  3. Lovely interruption with that sweet fatherly note, Greg! Got me a bit teary.

    Y’all’s plans for Baris’ room sound amazing. Can’t wait to see pics!

  4. An amazing child does indeed deserve an amazing room! I think you’ve made ALL of us proud of Baris by sharing his story.

  5. I love all of your ideas for his room. But I’m curious about the lift bed! We need a new bed and I love that idea for storage. Can you please tell me where you found it? Thanks and I can’t wait to see your finished room. You always amaze me with your projects.

  6. Ok, you didn’t say anything about cutting up onions in this post, but I’m sure that happened because my eyes got leaky reading what you wrote about Baris. 😥 I can’t wait to see the finished product. Thanks for sharing!

      1. Your post about Baris is definitely heart-felt and I think how lucky this boy is to have you and his Mom to guide him in his life (as well as worry and agonize). You are lucky to have him as well! We have an only child (girl) who was raised in the country so we had concerns about her naivete as well. Everything in her life has turned out just fine, but parents do what we do best – worry.
        I love what his new room will be. I was thinking, gosh I hope that accent wall is black! Blue is good too of course and looks great with the wood slats. I have been trying to get my husband to commit to a new bed like you have for Baris. We have 900 sq ft and I get SO EXCITED about storage!
        You’ve worked out a wonderful plan for his new room, I am sure he will love it!

  7. Thank you for sharing your proud papa moment, it was beautiful.

    Your plans are fantastic. I actually love the palm leaf ceiling fan, maybe you can reuse it if you do an outdoor patio? The new fan will be perfect in his room. The fringe lights remind me how you guys like the whole gnome theme. If I were doing pillows for my son now, I’d do those longer body/lumbar pillows as they are less likely to tumble all over and boys can drape themselves or their legs over it while gaming/splodging on the bed. All your hard work on this room will pay off knowing you’ve created a special space for him to call his own.

    1. Thank you, Michelle! Don’t worry, that Tommy Bahama fan won’t be leaving the house. It’s just moving one room down to the guest bedroom to replace the boring builder’s special that hangs there now!

  8. What an awesome thing to write about your boy. He is a very lucky young man to have such loving and caring parents. And let me add talented.
    Great ideas. It will be wonderful just like everything you two do.

  9. Congratulations to Baris. I hope is is pleased as punch with what he has accomplished. A splendiferous new space seems totally warranted. Looking forward to seeing your plan come to fruition!

  10. As always, I look forward to seeing your style and personality create this special space. Most touching, however, was your wonderful story and tribute to Barish. I’m so glad your fears have proven that he has indeed landed and is flourishing. It didn’t happen by accident, so you and Handan should give yourselves credit for nurturing him and celebrating his success.

    1. I was so afraid, Phyllis. I’ve had countless worries about him over the years, but I really didn’t know how this one would play out. I gave it 50/50 odds, and I’m so happy and relieved that it turned out, not only okay, but fantastic!

  11. I am so sad you are not keeping the fan. I love it! Anyway you can ship it to New Mexico? I will buy it if priced reasonably. Living in the desert my house is decorated in a beachy theme, and that fan would look awesome.

    1. We’re not getting rid of it, Judi! Fear not! The fan is merely being shifted one bedroom over to replace the builder-grade fan that currently hangs in the guest bedroom. The fan is beautiful and very good quality. It just doesn’t fit with the design aesthetic we have for his new space.

  12. I truly love that fabric. Where did you find it? And the accent wall is going to look amazing. I hope Baris loves his new space. It certainly sounds like he’s earned it!

  13. What a beautiful tribute to your son! He will probably be humble about it (even though he deserves every word!) and you both should be so pleased to have raised an intelligent and worthy adult ( or almost adult). Way to go, Mom and Dad!!!

  14. Would you mind leaving a link for the faux tree and also the plants from the craft studio post? Love what you are doing to your new home! Always look forward to your posts.

  15. I love the paint colours you have chosen. I pinned them as I might use them in a future Reno myself! I think everything you have chosen is beautiful ( I admit I am a little iffy on the raffia lights, they look a little too island to me) but what does Baris think or does he even care? I have a 21 year old daughter and while we are extremely close and like so many of the same things there are times when she has looked at me like I was from another planet! Lol!
    I so felt your pain about worrying about sending them off to school. I was very anxious she wasn’t ready but like Baris, she did wonderfully over the past few years despite some unsavoury landlords whom she knew to avoid! I guess we need to give them more credit and ourselves, for raising them!
    I can’t wait to see the room, I know it is going to be spectacular!

    1. Hi Giselle! I think once we realize our final vision for those lights, it won’t be too islandy. As for Baris – he doesn’t care either way, lol! You are right about kids figuring things out for themselves. We sometimes think they need to be taught every last thing, but like us, they don’t!

  16. Congratulations to your boy!! I know just how hard it can be when kids move from one country to another but Baris has really been through a lot. With your love and support he has come through and achieved so much and will continue on this path! He deserves the best bedroom and lots more!!

  17. Baris sounds like a really great kid raised by some equally great, loving parents. I think it’s awesome that you are creating another beautiful space for him to come home to. I loved your letter to/about Baris and your fears and how proud you are of your boy. As a parent of a very introverted child I can really relate to alot of what you wrote. He is one lucky son and you are two lucky parents.❤ I look forward to seeing his new room!

  18. Totally confused – is Baris your child and why is he called ‘the boy’? Has he not grown up with you?

  19. Looks and sounds fab! I’d love to come home to a room like that. And good on Baris for smashing out his first year at college! He’s gonna make it far. Just you watch.

  20. Ahh, I can’t even handle the Proud Papa moment–it’s just too…heart wrenching and lovely. BUT that Tommy Bahama fan is awesomely funky, even though my first thought was, “Gah, what a literal pain in the neck to dust!” with all those nooks and crannies. No, thank you, Sir! I do think you could have a sweet side gig naming paint colors for Sherwin Williams, though: Tobacco Hornworm! Intestinal Green! You want something named with a title so accurate you know exactly what it means? Greg’s the man for the job! Can’t wait to see everything unfold on this one.

    1. LOLOL! Yep, I’ll be calling Sherwin-Williams and asking for a job! Don’t worry about that fan – it really is nice, and we’ll be putting it up in a guest room!

  21. First of all, congratulations to Baris (and his parents) for a successful first-year of university. Kudos to you all! Secondly, great choices on the room makeover. I think he will grow to like it — very much. Sherwin Williams paint is the best. It’s the only paint we’ll use. Love. It. Looking forward to seeing the ‘after’ photos.

    1. Thank you, Michael! Yeah SW is nice. It took a little getting used to – it is very different than Big Box paint. But I really do like it!

  22. Way to go Barish! A 4.0 is quite the accomplishment and something to be very proud of. Sometimes the quiet ones just need the opportunity to show the world what they’ve got and had all along. Knock them all dead, Barish. You will go far.

  23. I think you are going to Love Sherwin Williams paint! It’s all I’ve used for years & have always been thrilled w the outcome and the long-term performance. You get what you pay for!