Teen Lounge Space Revealed

Saturday rained, which made it a perfect day for me to work on the bonus room off of my son's room.  The room has been a playroom for the kids since they were little.  For the past few years it has become more of a tween/teen hangout and lounge space.  

I'll skip ahead and show you the after photo first:

One of the biggest things accomplished by this makeover, is the creation of display space for my son's many, many completed Lego sets.  If you have a child who builds Legos and then likes to display them, you know it can quickly take over so much space in your home.  So many of these sets were relegated to the closet and didn't really get to be displayed at all.  

Here's the before of this wall.  I had bought the Itso system years ago from Target.  The best part of this system is that it is modular and has the ability to be separated and changed up...which is exactly what I did.

I moved some of the boxes and created a second row, raising the television, X-Box and cable box.

Once I moved four of the boxes, I was still left with other boxes, which would be moved to the other side of the room as I'll show you below.  Then I went to Ikea and purchased two of the Billy bookcases in the 15" depth.  They don't even show this bookcase online (unless you know the item number, then it does actually come up).  It was perfect because otherwise the normal depth Billy would not have been able to display these bulky Lego sets.

Talk about fitting perfectly.  The exact width and depth.  A half inch more and it wouldn't have fit.  Once I put together the bookcases I tried adding this green wrapping paper to the back.  I liked the color, but not all wrapping paper is created equal.  I bought this at Target, but it was fairly thin and showed each and every wrinkle.  So I removed it.

Instead, I went to Home Goods and bought two rolls of this chevron red and white wrapping paper.  Home Goods gift wrap is typically very thick which makes it very easy to work with, especially covering the back of these bookcases.  I adhered it to the top and bottom with double-sided heavy duty tape.  No wrinkles and only $3 per roll...double YAY!!

The red and white picks up on the seat cushion on the bench/toy box on the other side of the room.

This room is split into many zones.  The watching television zone and Lego side (more of my son's side) and the girly side of the room with my daughter's dollhouses (the third dollhouse I packed up and have it stored in the attic for her daughter someday).  I stacked four boxes together and put them caddy corner and have the dollhouse on a lazy-susan so it can spin around and be easily played with.

Then there's my son's study and desk area.

This is the before photo.  He hasn't been able to use his desk in a while because it had become a storage zone for Legos and other stuff.  It took me hours to go through the desk and organize/purge, but now it's ready for actual studying and work.

The bean bag chairs stay for now in the room because my kids love them, plus they can easily be moved around the room to make more space in the room.

My son painted these for my husband a few years ago, and after the basement was renovated, they didn't make it back on the walls.  This is such a better location for the pictures.

My son is so happy to have all of his Lego sets displayed.  

Can't wait to hear what you think.

Have a great day.

-Judy