This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.
My Colsie is now 14 years old and it was more than time to update her room to reflect her growth both in stature and in character. She has made her Dad and I so proud in the person she is becoming. She is such a talented, fun girl, full of energy and sweetness, and it has been great to change-up her room a bit to reflect more of who she is.
When Colsie was younger, her room was all pastels and sweet. Now that she is older, it was time to make it her own and put her personality into it.
See what I mean by personality? Colsie is an amazing photographer, is learning guitar and piano and has expressed interest in learning the violin. She is very creative minded and has great taste that is very much her own. Oh how I love my cute Colsie!
Colsie made her room design pretty easy on us. For her birthday, she received a gift card to our local craft and hobby store, and this awesome and colorful bulldog painting caught her eye and she fell head over heels in love with it. She grabbed it and brought it home, immediately hanging it up on her wall. Isn’t it awesome? I love that it looks like he has been eating a bowl of blueberries. It is a quirky painting, and although my girl now rolls her eyes when I call her quirky, she really is in the greatest of ways. She is her own person and I have always loved that about her.
FIGURE OUT YOUR COLOR INSPIRATION
It is always great to take an object for color inspiration in a room and build a room around it. Whether it is a painting like the one above, a pillow, a bedspread or a rug– one object is enough to pull colors from and use them to decorate the rest of the room. This painting gave us lots of options, and we took advantage of that!
THINK OF THEIR PERSONALITY AND REFLECT IT IN THE DESIGN
This pillow on her bed is another great example of one object that you could pull from to decorate the rest of the room. We used this RELAX pillow and her bull-dog painting to give the room a fun but relaxed personality. That is my Colsie. She is super colorful and fun, but also loves to have her chill time alone in her room.
ADD TEXTURE
We bought a new bed spread and added some texture with a super soft, fuzzy grey pillow. Grey is a great way to give the eye a break from all of the bright colors of the room, and add some texture, as every room can use texture for interest. Plants are a great way to add texture, weaved baskets or even frames with interest, like the one framing the mirror in the below picture. The mirror was taken from another room in the house, but was not the right color. It was boring brown and matched the brown of the dresser which was, well… boring! We painted it white, again bringing in a simple color to ground all of the other bright colors in the room. It looks great against the pale grey walls.
USE TRAYS TO CORRAL THE LITTLE THINGS
I still cannot believe my middle girl is a teenager, but one look at her dresser gives me a reality check. Makeup, hair straightener, perfumes and lip balms. Lots of girly things corralled in cute trays and containers for organization.
DISPLAY NECESSITIES IN AN ARTFUL WAY
In the above picture is Colsie’s beloved guitar, which I think looks like art. I love it displayed in it’s stand, close to her bed, ready when she is to be picked up and played. If she had less windows and more wall space, her guitar would also look great hanging on the wall.
SAUDER FURNITURE, AFFORDABLE FURNITURE, STYLISH FURNITURE
Have you noticed this great bedside table? It is from Sauder and is the first time I have ordered a piece of furniture from their company, but it certainly won’t be the last. I was super happy with how quickly it arrived. It was so easy to put together that Colsie did it by herself! It is the perfect height, size and color for her room, and I love how it offsets the turquoise of her lamp and rug. The lamp used to have a pastel polka-dot shade. We updated the shade to match her rug and it made her room look more grown up in an instant!
Sauder offers a variety of designs and styles and believes that furniture should be affordable without sacrificing style, as you will see when you check out their website. There is a ‘put//together look book‘ on their website, that shows how everyday people use their amazing furniture. Visit them and look closely as New Nostalgia is lucky to be one of their awesome features at the look book. Make sure to check it out, especially if you would like to see other ways this fun table has been used.
Sauder furniture enables you to create, enhance or complete your personal style so your home is a unique reflection of you. . It certainly helped do just that here in Colsie’s room. For more great ideas, visit Sauder’s Pinterest boards.
Colsie uses her Sauder accent table every night when lying in bed, whether to hold a drink of water or her iPod, and of course her bedside books. The top book is her photography journal, where she dreams up photo shoots and jots her ideas down.
The art piece above her bed is one of my most favorite things in her room. It has one of my favorite Proverbs on it. Proverbs 31:5 “She is clothes with strength and dignity, and can laugh without fear of the future. ” Yes, I claim this verse for our sweet Colsie and all the amazing things that her future holds.
USE PLENTY OF SHELVES AND STORAGE
Not pictured but across the room from her bed is a tall, white book shelf that provides extra storage for all of the stuff a teen girls needs. The above little owl is sitting on it, as is the little yellow and grey suitcase in the first picture, which holds some art supplies, and the yellow bird bank where she keeps her extra change.
USE ITEMS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS
Remember that it is ok to use items in unconventional ways. This little owl candle holder becomes a guitar pic holder when in my Colsie’s room.
MIX UP THE FURNITURE
It is ok to make the room yours and steer away from matchy-matchy. This dresser is an older mid-century modern piece. It was given to Colsie by her Aunt Kathy. It has 6 drawers and has been perfect for her room. The top two drawers hold all of Colsie’s hair accessories and jewelry… all those girly teenage things that need a home! The last 4 drawers hold her clothes. It looks great paired with our simple, modern accent table. Mixing it up brings personality to a room.
ADD FUN LIGHTING
A simple string of lights above her mirror adds another element of fun that reflects Colsie’s bubbly personality, and gives the room great ambience at night.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my girls new room. I just love seeing her spend time in there and I love that she helped make it her own.
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What about you?
Where do you look for style inspiration? What is your best advice for readers in creating their own style? Have you had to take a child’s room and update it to teen status? How did it go?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF METHOD X ASOS
