A Room to Grow Into: The Start of a Boy's Bedroom Refresh

Sep 28

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting The Edge of South.

There are some rooms in our home that have never quite felt finished, and my son's bedroom is definitely one of them. I never fully completed his nursery or toddler room the way I wanted to. For his 6th birthday, I gave the space a small refresh. But it wasn't anything major. This time, I wanted to approach his room differently. Not a renovation that involved tearing down walls or making major structural changes, but a true top-to-bottom refresh that would finally make the room feel complete.

More importantly, I wanted to create a room that could grow up with him. He's getting older, his needs are changing, and I didn't want to design another room that would feel too young in just a few years. The goal is to give him something that works for who he is now, while choosing foundational pieces that can easily carry him into his teenage years, and maybe even beyond.

Boy’s bedroom before the refresh with a black bed, white dresser, book ledges and limited floor space

This is probably the most realistic “before” photo I could share. Nothing was styled or cleared away before I took it. Books were stacked where they fit, the dresser collected a little bit of everything, and the chair usually held more stuff than people. It was very much a little boy's room being lived in. But it also made it pretty clear that we needed better storage and a more intentional plan for his space.

One Project Leads to Another

Like so many projects around our house, this one actually started because of something happening in another room. I'm planning to change the function of our current office, which has also been serving as a guest room with a queen-size bed. Eventually, the bed will be replaced with a sleeper sofa, which left me with one pretty obvious question: what was I going to do with the queen-size mattress?

My son's room isn't very large, so I did consider giving him a full-size bed instead. But he's a growing boy, and the more I thought about it, the less sense it made to buy another mattress or design around a bed size that he could eventually outgrow when we already had a perfectly good queen-size mattress in the house.

So, the queen mattress moved to his room. And then came the domino effect. If the mattress was changing, he needed a new bed. And if I was finally changing the bed, this felt like the right time to tackle the dresser that was no longer working particularly well for him. Then came the nightstands. Then the rug.

And suddenly, what started as figuring out where to put a mattress became the beginning of the room refresh I'd wanted to give him for a while now. There's still a long way to go, but for the first time, it feels like we're actually working toward a finished room instead of simply adding or replacing things as we need them.

Working With What the Room Gives Us

Of the three bedrooms upstairs, his is the smallest. It's a long, narrow room, and it comes with a few challenges of its own. One of the strangest is a large exterior-style window on one of the bedroom walls that now looks directly into the adjoining playroom. We believe the playroom was once an open patio or porch that was later enclosed, which would explain why the window exists. Regardless of how it got there, it's a large architectural element that takes up quite a bit of wall space and definitely affects where furniture can go.

But that adjoining room is also one of the things I love most about the potential of his bedroom. Right now, we use it as a playroom for both kids. Eventually, when they've outgrown that stage, I can see it evolving right along with him. Maybe becoming a game room, lounge, or little living space of his own. His sister's bedroom is larger than his, but his bedroom and that adjoining space together give him something completely different.

So although I can't say there was a particular design element of his old room that I was determined to preserve, I've always seen potential in the space. This refresh is really about beginning to bring some of that potential forward.

Starting With Cognac + Black

Once I knew we were changing the bed, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted. Cognac. I've always loved the warmth of cognac, and for his room I specifically wanted a faux-leather headboard or some element of faux-leather incorporated into the bed. It feels masculine without feeling like something that only an adult can have. Just as importantly, it doesn't feel childish.

I didn't want a themed bed or something I'd be looking to replace again once he became a teenager. I wanted something simple enough and neutral enough that, if he wanted to, he could realistically take it with him to college or into his first apartment someday. This cognac upholstered bed with its black frame gave me exactly that.

Once the bed was decided, black became the obvious direction for the other major furniture pieces. Our floors are a deep chocolate-espresso color, and with the headboard already introducing another brown tone, I didn't want to start layering several competing wood finishes into a relatively small room. Black gave me the contrast I wanted without fighting either one.

His old dresser leaned more traditional, while he tends to like a more modern aesthetic. So for the new dresser, I wanted cleaner lines and a simple shape that still had a little bit of style to it.

The nightstands gave me an opportunity to do something a little different, as well. They're black too, but rather than adding more black wood, I chose metal. The glossier metal finish gives us a change in material and texture, so even though the furniture pieces share the same color, they don't all feel like a matching set. That's one of those small decisions that I think makes a room more interesting. For the first time, he actually has nightstands with some storage. It isn't a tremendous amount, but it's certainly more than he had before, and in this room every little bit counts.

Cognac upholstered queen bed with white bedding in a boy’s bedroom

Black six-drawer dresser selected for the boy’s bedroom refresh

Black metal nightstand with perforated cabinet door beside the cognac upholstered bed

The Piece That Started Pulling It Together

Then came the rug. I'm already a fan of the Chris Loves Julia x Loloi rug collections . We actually have several of their rugs throughout our home, so this wasn't my first experience with them. What initially drew me to this particular one was the color palette.

With the dark floors and several new black furniture pieces, I knew I wanted something that could visually lighten the room. From the online photos, I also thought the colors would work really well with the direction I had in mind for the rest of the room. (And don't mind the giant name decal “bursting” through the wall in the photo. That's a remnant of the old room that will be coming down soon.)

Once the rug arrived, I was a little surprised by how much of the dusty blue I noticed in person. It was more prominent than I expected based on the photos online. But once we unrolled it and got it underneath the bed, I immediately loved how it looked against the cognac headboard.

The tans, creams, muted blues and warmer almost-pumpkin tones give the room some much needed softness against all of the black, while the plaid still feels right for the direction I'm taking the space. I think the rug is going to end up being one of the stars of this room. However, I'm saving the number-one spot for what's going on the wall!

Close-up of the Chris Loves Julia x Loloi plaid rug in tan, blue, black and rust tones

Boy’s bedroom refresh in progress with a cognac queen bed, black nightstand and plaid area rug

Making a Small Room Work Harder

As much as I want this room to look good, storage is one of the biggest reasons it needs to change. His closet is deep but narrow, and the current closet system isn't making the best use of the space. His previous dresser had plenty of drawers, but we'd reached the point where it didn't seem to matter how many drawers he had. Things were still getting packed in and overfilled because there wasn't another functional place for the overflow to go.

The new dresser and nightstands are a start, but they're not the entire solution. I still need to tackle his closet with a system that spans the full width and makes better use of what we already have. Shoe storage is also on the list, along with floating shelves and a standing desk.

And then there will be the things that make the room feel like his. I want to use plenty of what he already owns when it comes time to style the room rather than filling it with decor just for the sake of filling it. There will undoubtedly be a few additions, and probably a few subtractions, but I want the finished room to reflect him. Not just my idea of what his room should look like.

The Change I'm Most Excited About

There is still quite a bit left to do, but the basketball mural planned for the wall behind the bed is probably the piece I'm most excited to see installed. I think that's going to be the moment when the room really starts to feel completely different.

Right now, we have the foundation: the bed, dresser, nightstands and rug. But the mural will introduce the personality and scale that the room is still missing, and I think it's going to pull together a lot of the decisions I've already made.

There are still shoe cabinets to order, floating shelves to install, a desk to choose, a closet to completely rethink, the mural to purchase and install, and plenty of styling left to do. In other words, this is definitely not the reveal. But little by little, it's beginning to take shape.