Decorating and Design - New Room = I need decorating help...

My family recently bought a new house, and I want to decorate my new bedroom. I haven't even furnished it yet. I would like to go with a dark colored wood for the furnishings. The walls are white, and I would like to repaint them. What would be a good color that goes with a dark wood?

What elements can I add to the room to give it more personality? I was thinking maybe a fish tank. I really want my room to be my haven where I can relax and enjoy myself. I don't have any hobbies, so I don't want to go into any sports or anything else. Is there a special way I can paint the walls to give them some more texture?

If anybody can offer me some decorating advice, I would be highly grateful. I'm 13 and this is the first time I have really decorated my own room.

P.S. I'm a guy, by the way.

Hi there,

First, I have to commend you on looking into how to make your room your haven at 13 years old. Teens usually don't realize the importance of enjoying the things around you for what they are and not what they do for you.

Anyhow, with a dark wood you can go many ways...

i found a bunch of options for you. simple, clean and you'll be able to enjoy it until you go to college (at least). more grown up than probably most of your friends. i created an album in photobucket. (copy/paste URL)

http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/chicuniques/guys%20room%202008/

Good luck to you!!

Nikki

those pics Nikki provided you are great! for more ideas, surf the net for "comforters". they're almost always shown in a bedroom setting. plus, you can then order the comforter! or bedspread, or whatever. i always strongly recommend holding off on painting walls in any room until you've secured some other harder-to-find items, such as sofas, draperies, bedcoverings, etc. paint is readily available in any color of the rainbow, but bedspreads/comforters are not. you'll be limited by what's available in your local stores, maybe on the web, and definitely by price (unless your last name is Gates or Trump, etc). so find your bedcovering first - you don't have to buy it - but at least find it & sort of plan on it, then think of the color you'd want your walls to be IF you used that bedcovering. if it proves too hard to come up with a wall color for that comforter, or your only option is a color you don't want on your walls, then scrap that comforter idea & find another one. in other words, plan ahead. you don't want to paint your walls ocean blue, only to discover that either there are no comforters to be found that go with ocean blue, or that when you do find the perfect comforter, it would've been so much better with walls painted SKY blue! DANG!!! you don't want to paint your walls twice, is what i'm saying.

to sum up: find your comforter first! then paint! :D

have fun!

P.S. before you get an aquarium on a whim as a decorative accessory, make sure you're willing to spend a LOT of time & money on getting everything set up, buying fish, flushing fish, buying more fish, cleaning the tank, buying medicine for sick fish, flushing more fish, buying more fish, more cleaning....you get the idea. aquariums are a lot of work, is what i'm saying. a lot of work.

P.P.S. for a more grown-up looking room, avoid "theme" rooms, which tend so look more childish (ie: sports, underwater, skateboards, Hawaiian/tropical, nautical, hunting, etc). just use colors, patterns, textures, etc. to create a "style", not a "theme". a style would be like modern, contemporary, rugged outdoorsy, preppy, traditional, fun, colorful, monochromatic, etc.

:thumbup:

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment on the pics. You explained the planning perfectly for him!

I personally like to paint a color I want and go from there, but that's my crazy mind, I think I like the challenge of finding what I'm looking for. :-)

Also, I hope he takes your advice on the fish and the non-theme room. Themes make a room look so young don't you think? And they don't last very long as a comfortable place to be...get boring.


:-) Nikki

Hey!

Well, the best advice I can give you is to find thinkg you like. If you don't you are going to find yourself in another's person room hehe.

No really, go for it. Go to a retail store and find things that atract you, them mixe them up and think if they will be usefull!!

Greetings!