How to Make a Cheap and Artsy Teenage Room

Create an artsy bedroom your teenager will adore.

Decorate your teenager's bedroom with artistic flair using inexpensive finds and items you already have around the house. Teen boys and girls alike will appreciate the effort that you put into fashioning a space that inspires creativity. Include your child in planning the imaginative design of the room. Together, with a healthy mix of creativity, determination and elbow grease, you can complete a room that is unlike traditional bedrooms and leaves your resident artist feeling inspired.

Things You'll Need

• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• 16-by-20-inch picture frame
• 16-by-20-inch scrap metal
• Magnetic tape
• Scissors
• Easel
• Paper clips
• Mementos
• Photos
• 30-by-12-inch canvas
• 3 square canvases
• Acrylic paint
• Artist brushes
• Craft wire
• Eye hooks
• Clothespins
• Photocopied art prints
• Decoupage mix
• Comic strips
• Old lamps
• Polymer clay
• Hot glue
• Feathers
• Tinsel
• Discarded clothing
• Thread
• Needle
• Old sheet
• Buttons

Instructions

1. Draw swirls or geometric shapes on an accent wall, then use two contrasting colors to fill the positive and negative spaces. Black and white paint provides the perfect backdrop for brightly colored artwork.

2. Organize your teen's dressing area with an artsy framed makeup holder displayed on an easel. Frame a 16-by-20-inch piece of scrap metal painted in bright pink or purple. Cut small strips of magnetic tape and affix them to the backs of her makeup containers. Adhere the tape to small tin cups that hold her makeup pencils, applicators and brushes and hang them on the metal.

3. 

   Paper clip chains can be decorative and useful.

   Assemble a hanging headboard from a box of paper clips. Create 10 chains of paper clips to hang from the ceiling to the head of the bed. Insert photos, mementos and your teen's artwork into the paper clips.

4. Paint a vase on a 30-by-12-inch canvas, using as much of the canvas as possible. Use three different-size square canvases on which to paint individual flowers. Use watercolors or acrylics to paint the mosaic-style flower arrangement and hang the large grouping on a bare wall.

5. Run craft wire around the perimeter of the room, holding it in place with eye hooks. Make 5-by-7-inch copies of famous artwork on your home computer's printer. Choose from Andy Warhol pop-art prints, Salvador Dali's mysterious paintings like "Persistence of Memory" or use your teen's own artistic renderings. Clip the pictures onto the wire with clothespins.

6. Paint the front and sides of the dresser in bold colors. Decoupage newspaper strips, movie ticket stubs and photocopies on top. Adorn the dresser space with thrift-store lamps decorated with polymer clay baubles hot-glued to the shade. Top other lamps with feathers or hang tinsel from the bottom of the shade.

7. Piece together a duvet cover from favorite articles of clothing your teen has worn over the years. Cut the clothing into 4-by-4-inch squares and quilt them together. Use denim pockets along the sides to hold pencils and journals when late-night inspiration hits. Use an old sheet as the backing and slip the cover over a comforter, buttoning it closed.

References

• Better Homes and Gardens DIY: Quick Projects Walls/Floors