IDEAS for a BLACK and WHITE BEDROOM

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Black and white rooms are catching on like crazy and while looking for ideas for a black and white bedroom that I'm working on, I spotted these pictures where the walls had been painted with funky, black and white horizontal stripes.

What a wild look this would be with a set of damask print bedding or a black and white polka dot comforter set! The instructions said that they used a laser level to keep the stripes even, but they don't indicate whether they taped them off or just penciled in the borders of the stripes. I would absolutely have to use painter's tape or I would end up with wavy, uneven stripes.

One of the visitors here suggested some ideas for a black and white bedroom awhile back that included the combination of flat white ceiling paint and black semi-gloss or eggshell wall paint. I think that using that technique to paint these stripes would look very cool!

Purple Leopard Bedding

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Everybody was clamoring to find purple leopard bedding sets after Christmas last year. My mailbox was full of emails from teen girls, college girls, young adults not to mention a few grandparents looking for the bedroom stuff on sale to get ready for Christmas next year! I'm not exaggerating, if you can think of the demographic I can probably produce a panicky sending e-mail asking where to find this very set of purple and black leopard print bedding. I suppose they thought just because I am a professional decorator and have a blog that I can snap my fingers or wiggle my nose and magically produce the most popular comforter set of the year after it's been sold out for weeks. DON'T I WISH?!

If I could have found this purple leopard bedding in the early months of last year, so help me, it would have saved me hours and hours of pleading with my clients' teen daughters to PLEASE choose another comforter set for their bedroom makeovers.

I'm writing to you now to tell you that as of this moment (no promises for even 10 minutes from now so DON'T write me snarky messages if you wait too long!) this purple leopard bedding set is available and at a very cheap price considering how popular it was and still seems to be. So, use the link I provided for you above and go get this girls bedding set before the thing sells out again.

BLACK and WHITE ZEBRA STRIPE BEDDING

Black and white zebra stripe bedding has ruled the roost in lots of my teen girls' bedroom decorating projects in years past and nobody could be happier about this than yours truly. I have blogged on and on about how easy black and white comforters (in all patterns, not just zebra print) make a decorator's job.


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Monochromatic comforters is without a doubt the way to go for simplicity. All you (read: I the long suffering decorator) have to do to personalize the bedroom is pop in some funky accent colors and hang some artwork on the walls that is indicative of the young girl's taste in music, sports, clothes and shoes. The beauty of zebra bedding is that it's only on the rarest of occasions that the colors and/or patterns are in danger of clashing. That may not seem like much to you but do you know how many hours upon hours I spend trying to coordinate this stuff?

I'm taking time out of my holiday week (yeah, I'm resting up before the Christmas rush to pick out new comforters for my clients and decorate several master as well as teen girls' bedrooms for company) to say that my life may be getting more complex. To clarify, I have had a few preteens (or tweens as they are affectionately referred to these days) ask me about PINK zebra stripe comforters! I ask you, does this mean that I must say goodbye to the oh so versatile black and white zebra stripe bedding that has been so good to me? Is black and white girls bedding about to become a fond memory?

Status Symbols in America

I read in an article that the automobile manufacturers are worried that cars are not the Status Symbols in America that they once were. Maybe the economic crisis taught us a few things and status symbols in America have changed even thought all the teen girls that I know still want the cutest bedroom in town.

You might think that this would include a decreased amount of home decorating but I have not seen that trend whatsoever. My date book is still filled, I'm still overwhelmed with the amount of work piled up on my desk and the number of inspiration boards that I need to deliver should be pulling me away from this keyboard as we speak.

What I do see that has changed is that my clients are not afraid to ask for discounts on fabric or to tell me to shop the outlet malls, eBay auctions before jumping into pay full retail. Even the discontinued bedding sets (that I have always believed in but problems selling to style conscious teen girls) are now being considered where once they would have been categorized as "so last season".

Another trend that I see emerging in teen status symbols in America is that knowledge and education are coming to be admired rather than dissed as boring.

Observing their parents feeling a financial pinch has alerted young girls to the fact that knowing a thing or two might be a good thing AND (moms are going to love this one) they are savvy enough to see that those bad boys who skip school are NOT going to be equipped to provide for themselves or a family in the future.

I realize that has nothing to do with shopping for cool teen girls bedding sets, but then again...maybe it does because as a decorator I can tell you that geek bedrooms are in, Baby!

DORM ROOM RUGS

I haven't got a problem with guys using carpet remnants as dorm room rugs. Chances are the rug will be covered in dirty laundry and sweaty socks before mom and dad have left the college campus. Isn't that a lovely picture?

But girls who care enough about the decor that they convinced mom to spend a bundle on an expensive set of girls bedding to make the college dorm room more homey tend to take better care of things and in my opinion deserve a better looking and color-coordinated area rug that works with your dorm room bedding and room decorations.

After the first rush of "meet and greets" is over and crisp, cool football weather replaces the sweltering heat of summertime, those cold tile floors make getting up and getting ready for class even less appealing.

My advice is to go in search of a couple of cheap dorm room rugs that can easily be washed because even if you're careful the throw rug will probably be pretty dirty by the end of the first semester.

WHERE TO FIND CHEAP DORM ROOM RUGS

The best plan of action would be to buy several bedside rugs at the same time you buy your dorm bedding to get a good color match. If your bed in a bag comforter set didn't have matching accessories, buzz over to Big Lots and see if you can find an area rug from a discontinued collection that will work to get a huge discount on price. My next stop would be JCPenney or (surprise, surprise) DORM ROOM RUGS.COM!

COCA COLA BEDDING

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Not only did I want to show you this girl's Coca Cola bedding set, but I wanted to tell you about the brainstorm of decorating ideas that I had when I read about how she decorated her dorm room in a Coca Cola theme. And yes, she also tells us why she chose this style of decor.

She left home taking this comforter set with her to college and after she was there, she decided that she wanted a mini-fridge to keep her soft drinks cold. Well, it would seem that she hit the jackpot and found the perfect compact refrigerator to complement her decor.

She started out complaining that she didn't want a boring black or white personal mini-fridge like the ones she found at her local discount store. She wanted something with more personality and a little more cool factor than just what was inside the appliance. As luck would have it she found the perfect little mini-refrigerator to go with her Coca Cola bedding!

Can you join me here for a great big AHA moment? Why should other girls settle for boring appliances in their dorm rooms when they can cover them with contact paper, decals or even wallpaper? I'm always searching for new and interesting dorm room decorating ideas and I believe that I will be putting this one to work very soon! Can you picture a zebra print mini-fridge or one covered in polka dots in colors to match the teen girls bedding? Decorating what is basically a square block of metal would be so easy to do PLUS it would be cheap to do and it would look so cool!

Black and White Animal Print Bedding

A teen girl asked me this interesting question awhile ago, "How many kinds of black and white animal print bedding are there"? The subject came up when she said she would like an exotic black and white bedroom but did not want zebra print bedding.

It wasn't that she doesn't care for or has something against zebra stripes, she just said that too many of her friends had already bought zebra comforter sets and had decorated their rooms accordingly. She said that she wanted to do something more original and that's when I suggested one of the other animal prints.

It never really occurred to me to sit down and make a list of all the animal print fabrics that are available in black and white. But since she asked and I probably need to write them down for future reference, here we go!

There is giraffe print, cheetah print, leopard print and the aforementioned zebra print. OH and I suppose cow print would fall into this category, too. There may be more but if there are I have never had the pleasure of working with them.

If I can't come up with a set of black and white animal print bedding that will tickle this teen's fancy, I wonder how black and white peacock feather fabrics would do in a set of a teen girls bedding? It just doesn't get much more exotic than a peacock feather even if they are in a monochromatic image.

GOT ANY IDEAS?

Anybody out there got any ideas or maybe a picture of a room or a favorite set of bedding that you'd like to share?

GOT ANY IDEAS? GO HERE!
and upload your pictures or ask any decorating questions that you may have.

If you've got any ideas about what kind of colors, themes or patterns that teen girls would like to see more of when they go shopping for bedroom sets, this might just be the best way for your voice to be heard.

What do you say? Have you had enough peace sign bedding or zebra bedding or do you just want to see more?

Or would you like to play show and tell and show off your cute bedroom? There's no way to do that on this teen girl bedding and bedroom decor blog but you can use the link above and I promise that we'll all run over there to see what you've done with your room!

ISLAND BEDDING

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A mother wrote to me asking if this set of tropical island bedding was appropriate for decorating a teenage girls bedroom. Frankly, the only thing that hit me was that teens and tweens aren't usually that into floral prints...tropical or otherwise.

Then I opened the second picture that she sent and saw the Hawaiian hula girl and thought, "Well, that's better!" only to read that the Hula girl was the bone of contention because some mean spirited friend made an off color remark about the girl having a thing for chicks because of the island theme bedspread!

How wild and crazy is that? I, personally, adore vintage Hawaiian print fabric and hula girls and don't see a thing wrong with this bedding collection. But the lady is asking for opinions from teens (not decorators) as to whether or not it will scar her daughter's tender psyche if she tells her that she has to keep the comforter set in spite of how against it she has now become.

What do you say? Keep the island bedding set or get rid of it and maybe replace it with one of the tropical Roxy bedding sets in a similar color scheme?

TEEN GIRLS HEART BEDDING

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What do you think about the bedroom in the picture with the teen girls heart bedding set? I saw a bedroom decorating question regarding this comforter set that got me thinking about how small decorative decisions can take a bedroom's design in one direction or another.

The girl who wrote in said that she loved the polka dot and heart print fabric of the comforter set and the contrasting pattern of the striped bedskirt but didn't like the "dressed up" look of the picture of the bedroom on the bedding set's packaging and wanted to know how to decorate her room in a funky fashion using the girl's heart bedding.

I think I would go for a shabby chic look using a chipped iron bed frame and I would ditch the matching curtains. Just because you buy a bed in a bag doesn't mean you have to use the window treatments. Sell them, toss them or whatever; if you don't like them don't destroy the look of your room just because you feel wasteful. Aluminum foil over the windows is better than buying drapery hardware and taking the time to hang curtains that you hate.

Getting back to the teen girls bedroom design problem, as I said, I would keep the teen girls heart bedding set and decorate the bedroom in a funky, shabby chic style. How do YOU decorate a bedroom when you are after a stylish look but don't want anything fancy?

NERD WALL ART

Find it at scribbleoneverything.com


This decal that a client's daughter presented to me as nerd wall art that she wants as a focal point in her "nerd bedroom" (her words not mine, evidently being nerdy is very cool these days) is a painful reminder that I didn't apply myself when I was in high school. I was not the only teenage girl who memorized the periodic table of elements just long enough to pass chemistry class so I was not an odd duck.


Today nerds are the new "IN CROWD" and this young girl is perhaps the leader of the pack because she is drop dead gorgeous and not your dingy absent minded professor type either! Good looking, high achievers like her have become so trendy that they are developing their own decorating style and nerd decor like this decal and other pieces of nerd wall art are popping up all over the place!

In light of the monochromatic nature of the nerd wall art, I have to find a set of bedding and take her bedroom furniture and the headboard to her bed to be painted with flat black paint to match the periodic table wall poster and decals that she bought at scribbleoneverything.com.


Since I signed on to decorate this young lady's self-proclaimed nerd bedroom I have hopes that I get more jobs working for the intellectual set because I have my eye on some Legend of Zelda bedding that I'm dying to use teen girls bedding set in a gamer bedroom design.