How to Give a Teenager's Bedroom a Vintage Makeover

A clean and simple vintage look is a popular choice that features vintage styles in a modern way.

Vintage decorating is not only popular, but also a very fun and inexpensive look to get. Teenagers love the look, and the wide array of styles gives them plenty of choices for expressing their own personality through decor. Fortunately, you don't have to re-do everything to get this great look.

Instructions

1. Choose a color theme.Look through design magazines and websites that feature vintage designs to come up with ideas for color combinations. You will want to choose a main color, a complementary color and a highlight color. Design Sponge, listed in the resources section, features lots of great vintage designs and decor and is a good source of inspiration.

2. Decide on a style. Does your teenager prefer clean and simple, bright and bold, mix and match or very detailed looks? Again, look through decorator magazines, and vintage design websites to find styles that your teenager likes. Even if the decorating pictures you look at aren't vintage, you can come up with a style from them by noticing the type of look they create.

3. Find a vintage-look bedspread or duvet cover.The easiest way to give a teenager's bedroom a vintage makeover is to choose one central piece and select the rest of the decor based on that piece, and decorating based on the bed linens is the easiest way to decorate a bedroom. Keeping in mind the colors you chose in Step 1 and the style you chose in Step 2, find a bed cover that your teenager loves. Notcot and Etsy, both listed in the Resources Section are great starting points for finding vintage-look bedspreads and linens.

4. Paint the walls.Using your main color, paint one wall. Then use a complementary or neutral color to paint the other three walls.

5. Purchase accent items.Accent items include vintage-look lamps, throw pillows, curtains and pictures or wall hangings. Keep in mind that vintage style is about coordinating items without being "matchy-matchy." The best way to do this is to make sure that each item contains either your main color, your highlight color or your complementary color. In the picture you will notice that each throw pillow is different, but they all work together because they share the color theme. Also, lamps tend to be spotlight pieces in vintage design, so look for great lamps that really catch the eye.

Tips & Warnings

• Place the bed against the accent wall. This will help your vintage-look bedspread really pop.

• Don't be afraid to combine patterns, but do it sparingly. Vintage design puts different patterns together, but they always have something in common, like color, texture or shape.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Handmade vintage-look items at Etsy
• Design Sponge blog for inspiration and shopping sources
• Notcot features great vintage-look designs