A New Room for a Young Guy

Back to normal. My brother's son will get a new room in my brother's old house. They asked me for some help with decorating because the footprint is a bit difficult and the budget is low.

The room is 4 x 4 metres (roughly 13' x 13' feet) with a window 2 metres (6.5') wide. The window sits around 80 cm (31.5") above the floor with the heating underneath. It's one of these awful German windows with a 1/3 : 2/3 division, the most useless and ugliest window format you can imagine. The floor still has the lovely original old wooden floor boards, freshly renovated.

The boy wants a new bed, 140 x 200 cm (55" x 78.7" inches) and he wants it to be placed in a corner. Already existing are: a wardrobe 200 cm long (78.7") and 60 cm (23.6") deep with medium brown wooden shutters, a desk 80 cm (31.5") deep and 250 cm (98.4") long. The desk needs to be cut. The boy doesn't need such a huge desk anymore. But of course he needs a place for his PC.

He's got a huge TV (1 metre wide = 39.4") and he wants a comfortable seating place for guests. Because there is not enough space left for a couch we decided to add one comfortable chair with a side table. Additional seating will be on the bed which should be covered with a thick and sturdy bedspread for protection and lots of cushions for additional comfort.

That's the draft I came up with.

Biggest problem was the desk. It needs to be placed in a way that avoids glare on the monitor. In front of the window may have been a possibility but placed against a wall has the additional benefit of adding some shelves above the desk (which I still have and will be glad to give). Cutting off one corner of the desk lets it fit in more smoothly with the 'bedline' and avoids clashing the window sash with the boy's back (note: in Germany most windows open into a room!).

One major problem was (and still is) finding the right colours for this room. My nephew wanted it airy and light but didn't have a special preference. To be honest, he had no idea which colour he wanted.

There is a lot of white in this room, the window frames, the door with its frame, the skirting, the ceiling. To make this fresh white pop out there should be colour around it. And there's a lot of warm wood in slightly different tones, the floor, the wardrobe's shutters, the desk, maybe an additional bookcase. To get together these different warm tones they should be integrated into something neutral or cool.

Then there's the room facing north-east which requires a slightly warmer colour.

Finally we agreed in using a very light grey-sea-green-blue (you know what I mean??) for the walls and for some of the accessories to come to an overall look as shown in my draft. (As I couldn't show the wall colour in the bird's eye view I just coulored a few items to give the overall impression).

Now I have to try to buy this very light grey-sea-green-blue. Wanted to go for Dulux, the only paint available in Germany that comes in very good quality and in a good range of colours. Just to find out yesterday that Dulux no longer is offered in Germany. I can't believe it. Have to go and investigate.