Before and After: A Plain Bedroom Gets a Teen-Approved Industrial-Style Redo for $500
Many home projects are the result of lots of careful planning, but some get started thanks to pure accident. DIYer Megann Gresham’s (@gresham_houze) recent bedroom redo for her stepson fell into the latter category.
When Megann and her family moved in, the bedroom was a light gray with mirrored closet doors — all of which her stepson, 10 at the time, really liked. “The space functioned fine, it just lacked pizazz,” Megann says.
Cut to three years later, when Megann’s husband drops an aquarium full of water on the old carpet and tears out (most of) the old carpet. “He only pulled up the part of the carpet that was wet, and then covered the entire floor with a hideous rug,” Megann says. “It was time for an intervention.”
Megann says the update actually came at the right time. “I think that having a cool space is important for a teen,” she says. “They tend to spend a lot of time hiding out in there, so it might as well be nice.”
Megann took on the project entirely on her own — after the aquarium debacle, she jokes, “I obviously banned my husband from assisting any further at that point.” She installed new floors to replace the old, half-torn-out carpet, then gave the walls a cool industrial look with faux brick panels that she painted white.
“If I did this project over again, I would have cut the brick panels to fit together more seamlessly,” Megann notes. “I thought they would be less visible, and they were prior to painting them because the spackle I applied to add texture did a great job of disguising them. The paint downplayed the camouflage a bit though, so I do wish I would have cut them to puzzle together for a cleaner look.”
On the other side of the room, Megann kept the mirrored closet doors in place but added some strategic black windowpane-style trim. “I think my favorite element is the update I did to the closet doors,” she says. “Adding that little trim truly made a huge difference.”
She finished off the rest of the space with artwork and accessories in the neutral white-gray-black color scheme.
Megann spent about $500 for the new bed, bedding, brick panels, lumber, and paint — but thanks to her DIYs, the project looks way more expensive. And even though it wasn’t exactly planned and her stepson wasn’t quite sure what he wanted his room to look like, it turned out to be a hit.
“If you have a teen boy that doesn’t outright say what he wants done in his room, industrial design is a good safe spot,” Megann advises. “My stepson wasn’t quite sure what he wanted done, he just had certain things he wanted incorporated. So I kept those and added in the industrial elements. He loved the room and it’s super cool now.”
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