Decorating a Teenagers Room on a Budget

A couple weeks ago, I shared a post about decorating with thrift store finds. Today I’d like to expand that thought and share how I have been able to create an adorable Paris theme room for my 13-year-old daughter for under $100!

You may remember from our quick home tour that my daughter’s room was originally purple with stenciled flowers. It wasn’t the worst room I’ve ever seen and I certainly appreciate the fact that the stenciling took quite a bit of patience and time but I can’t say I was overly crazy about it either. My daughter thought her room lacked originality and creativity. It doesn’t help that she is not a fan of purple.

She is a fan of Paris, specifically the Eiffel Tower, which was the reason for our road trip this past spring to Paris…Tennessee that is. She’s been planning an Eiffel Tower inspired room for quite some time and of course I wanted to make sure it would turn out extra special.

The first thing we did was select a paint color. My daughter really wanted to paint her room black. I know ICK, right? However, she is a teenager and really wants to express herself right now. I compromised with her and we chose black accents rather than black walls. I think this light powdery blue had a more French feel.

So we set to work painting her room and the transformation began. After painting, we applied an Eiffel Tower sticky to the wall that we’d picked up at Hobby Lobby with a 50% off coupon so it cost right around $5. The bedding came brand new in a bag from my favorite thrift store for $25. Looks cute doesn’t it?

As much as I love the way her room was shaping up, I found that the sticky alone on her wall needed to be jazzed up. So for an additional $10  for a little bit of paint and some stickers, we added a few creative touches. What do you think of this?

Adorable, if I must say so myself. Stop back tomorrow and I’ll show you how to create something similar.

I’d also picked up this curtain, brand new for $4 at that same thrift store. Originally I had planned to use it in the kitchen, and it may end up there eventually but for now, it works in my daughter’s room. Since Chelsea reads all the time, I knew she’d need a reading corner and somewhere to store her growing book collection. I found this little shelf at Wal-mart for $15. Had to pay full price, which I really don’t like to do, but the price was right (not overly thrilled with the quality- but what did I expect for $15)?   My daughter had also chosen the wall hanging that we propped on the bookshelf from Hobby Lobby during a 50% sale. If I remember correctly the picture was right around $6. 

See this huge floor pillow?

Also brand new from that thrift store I can’t seem to stay out of. I paid $6 for it and it matches her bedding perfectly.   

We also created this wall hanging with a tin basket I’d found for $1, a scarf from my daughter’s closet and a bit of stenciling.

Total cost? Around $72 for bedding and decorations and another $25 for paint (wall paint and fun chalk board paint for another project that I have planned- so stop back to find out about that later).

Her room isn’t completely finished yet, I still have one project (price is included in the cost above) that I hope to complete this week but I am thrilled with the results so far!

Bonjour from Paris

If you've poked around this blog for awhile, you may remember my daughter's infatuation with all things Paris. I mentioned it awhile back in the post For the Love of Paris when she painted her own picture of the Eiffel Tower. Well, after our trip last week, I think she'll have even more inspiration.

We drove hours out of our way just to see Paris. Well, Paris...Tennessee, that is. Home to the World's Biggest Fish Fry, which was not happening last week, in case you were wondering, we were a few weeks early. No, we planned our trip only to see the 60- foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in Memorial Park.

My daughter could not have been happier. I must admit, it was pretty neat. Smaller than I expected. But neat nonetheless. Even the boys enjoyed stopping. Kind of... We stopped at Walgreen's on the way out of town to purchase postcards (did you know you could find them there?) so she could mail one to some of her friends and one to herself...post marked Paris, of course.

So, was it worth it to drive three hours out of our way just to see this Roadside Attraction? I guess that depends on who you ask, but my daughter would wholeheartedly reply, "Oui!"

Now I have a question for you...do you make it a point to visit Roadside Attractions? If so, what has been your most memorable so far?