How to Have a Cute Teenage Bedroom

Co-authored by Karen Parziale

Last Updated: February 6, 2023

Maybe you're new to the teenage life, or maybe you just want to change your style a little. Seeing as your bedroom is one of the places where you get the chance to express your individuality, why not decorate your room to reflect your new, cute style?

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Preparation and Planning

1
Ask your parent or guardian for permission. Many parents or guardians don't mind if you just rearrange the furniture in your room, but anything more than that and they'd most likely raise an eyebrow (or get angry). Ask them for permission to redecorate your room before you get started on it; tell them what you want to do with your room and ask them if that would be something that could be done. Asking your parents about making a change can be a big help when it comes to getting new room décor!
- If your parents say no, ask them why, rather than getting upset or angry. There are many reasons they might not want you to change your room, from money to concerns about what you want to do. This can make it easier to figure out how to compromise with them.
- Oftentimes, it's easier to convince your parents to allow things like small and easily portable furniture, rather than large furniture or repainting the room. Small, portable furniture doesn't require a lot of effort on behalf of your parents to get into the room and set up, and is usually less expensive.
2
Consider your interests and what you think is cute. A large amount of your room's style will be based off of your version of "cute" - so think about it. What do you think is cute? Remember, it's your room, not anybody else's, and you're free to decorate it the way you want to. Considering your interests and your definition of "cute" is important to show off your own style.
- While you're welcome to think that anything is cute, "dark" themes (such as the color black or maroon, "scene" or "emo" styles, typically dark symbols such as a skull and crossbones, etc.) are usually not considered cute. Cuteness is typically associated with innocence and cheerfulness, not a cynical or jaded outlook on life.
- Things like lighter shades of colors (such as blue, pink, yellow, or purple) or pastel colors, stuffed animals, fluffy things (like fluffy pillows, rugs, blankets, etc.), fake flowers, and anything that's often considered a toned-down version of "girly girl" themes are often considered cute.
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3
Decide if you want to use a theme. There are many themes out there that you could base your room off of, from themes about things you're interested in, to cultural themes, to themes of characters or certain media. Decorating your room around that theme could give you a good starting point.
- Don't go overboard - it's one thing to have a few of your sports trophies up on a shelf and posters on the walls, but it's another to have your room be completely dominated by sports to the point where there's no variation at all. Mix it up a bit.
4
Search online for inspiration. There are many people who have ideas for ways that you could change up your bedroom. Some people are inspired by social media to create certain styles of rooms (such as "Tumblr rooms"), while others are inspired to arrange their room a certain way or to make a certain craft for it. Running a Google search for "room decoration ideas" could be a great way of finding inspiration.
5
Create a drawing of what you want your room to look like. Once you've decided what kind of look you want your room to have, create a drawing of your room and how you want it to be set up. Doing this will allow you to visualize your room's future appearance more easily and know where you want things to go.
6
Think about the budget. Chances are, you're planning to buy new things in order to redecorate your room. However, not everyone has the money to buy absolutely everything they want, and you may fall into that category. It's best to set up a maximum amount of money you'll spend on redecorating your room, and designate amounts that you're willing to spend on every aspect of decorating. It might be disappointing to not have a lot of money to spend, but it's better than spending what you don't have.
- Budget your time, too - unless you're on a school vacation, you're most likely not going to be able to devote all of your waking hours to decorating your room (and neither can your parents or guardians). In addition, if you plan on decorating walls, keep in mind that it can take several hours for paint or wallpaper paste to dry, and even longer to get the smell of paint out of the room. Redecorating a room isn't a task that can often be completed in under an hour.
7
Try your hand at DIYs. If you're just the kind of person who prefers to make things rather than buy things, consider trying out do-it-yourself projects. There are guides everywhere online, even here on wikiHow, to make crafty projects that can make your room a lot cuter. DIY projects can also show anyone who enters your room that you're a fan of crafting things on your own, rather than buying them.
- DIYs can be expensive, depending on the materials you need, and are often time-consuming. In some cases, it may be better to buy something pre-made than to make it yourself, since some projects can become pricey and take a lot of time to complete.
8
Search for décor alternatives. If you can't decorate your room in a certain way, don't panic - there are ways to make your room look better, even if it's not in the way you originally planned. It's possible to find alternatives to what you were originally planning to do. In fact, you may even end up liking the new idea better than what you wanted to do before that! Get creative and see what you can come up with - you can look online for ideas or work with friends or family to figure out some new ways to brighten up your room.
- If you can't paint your walls a different color, change the bedspread to match it so it won't look so bad. You could also consider placing decorations that cover a fair amount of the wall, such as a bulletin board or posters.
- Change up your existing furniture. Find stickers or paints and decorate your desk, throw a blanket over your desk chair, and decorate and hang up your old picture frames.
- If you're the crafty type, you can find ways to repurpose what you already have with DIY, which can be quite cheap if you have all the supplies on hand.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Buying Furniture and Extras

1
Keep the budget in mind. Costs add up quickly. When you're going out and buying things for your room, it's very important to make sure you don't overspend. Use a piece of paper and a pen, or a smartphone, to write down your budget, and then write down the cost of everything you plan to buy. If anything you want to buy will put you over the budget, either don't buy it, or put some other items back.
- Keep sales tax in mind - things often cost more than you think due to sales tax.
- Think about the necessity of something you want to buy. When you find yourself thinking that what you see is cute, think logistically about whether you have a need for it. If it's a borderline case, such as buying a pillow when you're going to make a pillow pile, take factors like price into account - you don't need a 50-dollar pillow when there are far cheaper ones of the same quality right next to it.
- Try to aim for cheaper decorations rather than the more expensive ones. But be careful not to buy lower-quality decorations just because they're cheaper - you don't want to buy a beanbag chair and have it split open as soon as someone sits on it!
2
Go to stores that sell room décor. It might be more convenient to buy things for your room online, but it's better to see potential decorations in person. Especially for things like bedding and seating, you'll want to be able to see how it looks up close, and test some things out, with the ability to easily return it if something's wrong with it. And plus, it's possible to go out to the store with friends, making the trip a lot more fun!
- Oftentimes, things from generic stores can be just as good as brand-name products. There's no need to go on a giant mall trip just to buy stuff for your room - unless you want to, of course.
3
Look for necessary furniture first. Those pillows might seem like they'd be perfect for your room, but if you need to replace your broken desk chair, a desk chair should be the first thing you look for. The functionality of your room should be priority over the cuteness of it, so buy furniture you need rather than furniture you just want. If you can't use your room, there's not much of a point in making it look cute!
4
Consider lightweight furniture that still looks good. Cute furniture doesn't have to be bulky and heavy - lightweight decorative furniture can help you to accomplish your goal of having a cute room, while simultaneously making it easy to rearrange. Oftentimes, they're not very expensive, either. There are many examples of lightweight furniture that would fit the "cute" theme very well; look around and see what you can find.
- Beanbag chairs or bungee chairs are easy to move and still look great.
- Pillows and fluffy blankets are fantastic for room decoration and can be quickly tossed aside or moved. Blankets can easily be folded up, too.
- A small table lamp is a good choice for your desk, and is movable. Lava lamps can also look quite cool when matched with the color theme of the room.
- Rugs are easy to move when rolled up, and are a nice way to put a touch of color on the floor of your room.
- Small bins are a cute choice for storage, and some can even be folded up. Canvas bins in particular can be sold in pretty patterns.
5
Look for wall decorations. Your walls can't be completely devoid of anything other than paint. Picture frames, inspirational quotes, and other decorations can be found at many stores and can be easily attached to a wall. On a larger scale, you can also get posters or bulletin boards - they take up more space, but that can be a good thing.
- On a cheaper scale, you can also print some pictures or motivational quotes on paper and hang them on your wall.
6
Search for objects for your desk or nightstand. Do you need a desk lamp for late at night when you're doing homework? An alarm clock since you struggle to get out of bed in the mornings for school? If you can find things you need that can rest on your desk or nightstand and are within the budget, that's a win-win!
7
Find some bedding. While bedding isn't the most necessary of things for a cute room, it can definitely help. A duvet cover or new sheets can have great designs on them that help enhance your room's appearance, and pillows are always useful, whether for sleeping or for a comfortable sitting spot. Soft, fluffy blankets can also be placed on chairs or thrown over your sheets as a decoration.
8
Grab some storage supplies. Even if you don't have many hobbies that require physical storage, you still get homework, right? Plastic bins, pen and pencil holders, small drawers or baskets, or canvas bins are convenient options for storage and are often portable and easily stored. They're also often "blank slates", which make them prime candidates for decoration, or they have designs, which can really help your room look better.
- While it's not exactly storage, search for a small trash can. A trash bin can be stored somewhere like under a desk, which is convenient for rooms that aren't the biggest in size, and can be found in many styles.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Setting Up Your Room

1
Clean your bedroom. Don't complain - just clean it. It makes your bedroom look ten times better. Plus, cleaning out your room will give you more space for decorating it, which is always helpful. Find some time when you're not busy and dedicate it to cleaning out your room.
- Take four bins or boxes and label them as Trash, Recycle, Donate, and Keep. Sort the things in your room into these bins. (Avoid just making piles and thinking that you'll figure out which is which - aside from this just being harder to carry out of the room if you need to, it's possible to forget which pile is what, or for the piles to mix together.)
- Clean out objects and papers in your room first. These are often the easiest to find and decide what to do with. And chances are, you don't need your year's worth of assignments from sixth grade or your old collection of pizza tables, anyway.
- Go through your closet. Take out the clothes you don't wear anymore or don't fit you anymore and donate them, or throw them away if they're in very poor condition. Be honest with yourself on if you ever wear it!
- Get all the places you usually don't clean up, like under your bed or desk, in your drawers for storage, and so forth. If you can't remember the last time you cleaned it out, it's probably a good idea to go through it.
2
Analyze your room once it's clean. Think about how you planned out your room earlier, and whether it would look good. Prioritize what you want to decorate or move around first, and tell anyone who's helping you. This way, you can get the most important tasks of the decoration done, and not spend nearly as much time moving things again and again because you don't think it looks right!
- If you're going to paint or put wallpaper on your walls, you're going to have to remove the furniture from the room. It would be a good idea to do this now. Get an adult's help to get heavier furniture out of the room.
3
Do any wallpapering or painting of the walls, if necessary. If you're going to redecorate your walls, prepare the room, get your supplies, and have at it. Get at least one other person to help you so that the job goes quicker.
- It may take quite some time for paint to dry, as well as for the fumes to go away; be prepared to wait awhile before being able to proceed with decorating your room.
4
Move in the heavy furniture. Heavy furniture is harder to move, so placing it is the first task you should get out of the way. If you need to move things like your bed frame, bookshelves, a desk, or a dresser, now's the time to move them. Get someone's help and move the heavy furniture to where you want it. You should also set up any new furniture you might have gotten, and place it where you want it (but be careful not to lose any of the small pieces while assembling it!).
5
Hang up any wall decorations. Once the heavier furniture has been placed, spend some time putting up your wall decorations. These can add a sweet, more personal touch to your room. Be sure that you're placing them where you want them, though - wall decorations requiring nails or thumbtacks can leave a mildly annoying hole in the wall, and you don't want to string lights across the upper portion of your wall only to realize that you hung them backwards by mistake!
- If you're hanging curtains or heavy objects like a bulletin board, you may want to get an adult to help.
- When it comes to hanging any electronics on the wall, such as lights or a TV, you may want to get help to make sure you're plugging in components right (and in the case of heavier things like a TV, ensure that it's secure, so it won't fall).
6
Put in any lightweight furniture. Once the major decoration process is out of the way and you've had some time to breathe, it's time to take any lightweight furniture you may have and put it in your room. Arrange it to your liking, and make it look its best.
7
Make your bed. If you moved your bed in the process of redecorating your room, it's most likely unmade, or at least pretty rumpled. This is the perfect time to remake your bed - preferably, with fresh sheets and any decorative blankets or pillows that you might have.
8
Decorate your desk. Place any small decorations (like small picture frames) or things you may need, like lamps or a small clock, on your desk. Organize any office supplies you have, too, such as pens and papers, to give your desk a neater appearance.
- Place storage bins on or under your desk. This is often convenient for saving space.
9
Place any decorative furniture. Once you've finished with the main work of your room, the more minor stuff can come in. If you want to place decorative things in your room - like a pile of stuffed animals or pillows - have at it! Sometimes, it's not the functionality that makes it look the best, after all.
10
Admire your handiwork. After you've finished putting your room together, take a step back and check out what you've done. Make any finishing touches you may need. And feel good about it - you've managed to make your room a whole lot cuter, after all!

Community Q&A

Question

What if you can't get a new bead spread or curtain?

Community Answer

Use a blanket or quilt you have around the house. You can build your room theme around anything-- bead spreads are not needed or essential to a cute room.
Question

My bed is handmade by my grandfather, but it's childish and I need+want a new one. My parents refuse, even through I found one that's practical AND affordable. HELP!

Community Answer

I can see why your parents don’t want you to change your bed. Heartfelt gifts from family can be really important. Instead of insisting upon a new bed, perhaps you could dress the bed you have up with cool pillows or a bedspread that are a little more grownup and to your liking. Keep them cheap so there’s no way your parents can say no.
Question

What if I can't go shopping?

Community Answer

Do DIYs instead and try to remake things you already have - surely you have a little bit of paint or some other craft supplies lying around somewhere!