Last year we had a big build done to our house. We extended into the loft, making two new bedrooms upstairs and a new staircase. We also extended 3 metres out into the garden, giving us a beautiful new large kitchen diner. A new patio, door into the garage, and a new driveway and it’s a whole new house. Let’s just not talk about the cost! My eldest son William turned 13 this year so we are now parents to a teenager, how did that happen? Before the extension, he had the smallest bedroom in the house, the box room. Now he has one of the larger bedrooms, and no one has the box room.
We wanted to give him a more grown-up space where he can relax, escape, and has room to express himself creatively. We started with his favourite hobby, his computer games. We bought him a gaming desk, which quite frankly is a really good purchase and one I would really recommend if you have a child into gaming. Together with a gaming chair, it means he sits comfortably, he can put other bits and pieces away nicely like the headphones and accessories. He has a bin underneath, a cup holder (just don’t get me started on the number of empty cans up there), and lots of shelves.
The next most important thing to consider was the bed. We wanted him to have a double bed, and somewhere for a friend to stay over, so a double bunk bed was the answer. The frame is a soft light grey colour, which goes with the colours in his room and the rest of the house. It is from Very.co.uk which has a large selection of bunk beds to choose from and they are one of our favourite online shops for home stuff. I like the wide selection they have and they always seem to have things I like in stock. William’s bed shown here is the Novara Trio Bunk Bed Frame without the under-bed drawer. The colour is smooth grey with a lacquered finish. It came as a flat pack in two boxes. It was relatively easy to put together, well as easy as a flat pack gets! William loves it, he loves the space he has to sleep in, especially as he is taller than me now, plus he can have friends over to stay. I made an Instagram reel of the process, which you can see here.
Here are a few more photos of the bed and how we styled it. I don’t think you ever grow out of cuddly toys, I still have mine from when I was a kid, and more besides. He loves star wars and Minecraft too.
His favourite childhood film is monsters inc, and Sully has a special place in his room. He has personalised the walls with the art he chose. He has always had the flower pillow from Ikea, who says boys don’t like flowers? The patchwork quilt was made by my Mum some years ago and William has adopted it as his.
The colour scheme in the room was chosen by him, this colour on the walls is called soft denim by Dulux. The carpet is grey and we have the same carpet everywhere upstairs and on the stairs. I love it and it goes with every colour. He also has a drawer and wardrobe combination piece and a Kallax unit from Ikea which has the TV and consoles on it. We recycled one of our old wall boxes for his bedside table. He loves coloured lights so he has fairy lights, a lava lamp and a neon central perk cafe sign. He is a superfan of friends, I’ve lost count of the number of times he has watched it.
For the windows, he was very specific and wanted a wooden blind, it is quite a big window so we went for a plastic wooden look blind as it was cheaper, and the builders put it up for us. He keeps it closed most of the time so it’s like he’s in his own little cave. We go in and air it from time to time so it doesn’t get too stale up there. It’s like his own little pad, he has a bathroom up there with a shower, and Daniel doesn’t spend much time up in his room so he feels like it’s his own floor. It was definitely worth investing in and will last him until he leaves home and beyond. I joke and say when they leave I will turn it into a craft room. Well, I’m only half joking…
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