My SIL did this with her boys room. He was 13 when they did his room and he loved it. She didn't do as nice a job as this one, but I think this is good.

You don't have to do it as a sports theme, I like the way they did the walls here.

Here is a link that might be useful: basketball room

It's the Chicago Bears football team colors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colors Used Together

Think - Florida Gators!!

Here are a couple of photos I have saved. We are thinking of the same combination for our son's room, maybe with a little red thrown in for good measure. That's what happens when you let your guy pick his own colors!

Here's an example from Pottery Barn Teen -- a bedding set with blues, browns, oranges. Might work for him ...

The key is to find the bedding FIRST -- and then decide on wall color. Add punches of orange color with artworks, cushions etc. Hang a couple of huge bulletin boards -- the bigger the better! -- so that he can hang "stuff" and change it out easily. Add lots of silver -- a bedside lamp or two; standing lamp by a chair with orange cushion etc.

An example would be a deeper blue wall color below a chair rail with a crisp white upper -- then add a grid of his fav photos -- mat them in orange or blue -- and frame in silver.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pottery Barn Teen -- bedding example

Here's another example of bedding that might work ..... do check on EBay too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Macy's -- Tommy Hilfiger bedding

My son told me the same, he wants silver, blue and orange (and he's 7!). He's not particularly sporty either. I've thought of doing navy, white and dark orange horizontal bands. With the navy below, white above, intersected by the orange.

This catalog picture is inspiring, I've got it tucked into my purse.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pottery Barn Bedding:Click on View in Room

I love the idea of orange, blue and brown.

Well, your 11-year-old has impeccable taste, as blue and orange are complementary colors on the color wheel!

Good job, dude! ;)

My son chose Overt Green from SW (a little darker than "grass green") a few years ago when he was 5 and I was afraid it would be too dark and depressing, but it's surprisingly cheery, so don't be afraid!

First of all you won't freak out as much if you tell yourself "it's terra cotta or rust, not orange". Then go to a website called myperfectcolor.com and they show color cards with both rusts and blues together. They use Benmoore colors.

When those are muted, it is one of my favorite combos.

Like Chijim said, it's the Chicago Bears colors - I grew up with that so it seems classic to me! I like the navy and orange, it doesn't have to be sports-themed. My high school team was royal blue and orange and that works too. Personally, I like those colors for boys - I have several shirts for my son in those colors.

Klb--don't feel too bad. I'm sitting here taking a break from painting my 16 yr. old daughter's room lime green. The rest of my house is earthy colors like yours. I was at least relieved to be covering up the "low rental" blue color that she picked out the last time we painted her room.

Look at it like this, they are only young and at home for a short time, then we can take back those rooms and turn them into what we want them to be!!!

By they way---those rooms are great that have been posted!

Have you thought about doing a decorative paint treatment? I tried out some stripes with blue going up to and on the ceiling. I also thought about black tripod bedside tables.

{{!gwi}}

Look at some of Ben Moore's Affinity Colors in blue. I don't have any blues in my house but I love all their blues. Would use them in a heartbeat. How about an orange stripe going around the middle of the room. Maybe pair it with red and brown. Love the brown bedding that was suggested.

Wow! Thank you everyone for some great ideas and inspiration pictures! Definitely a starting off point. We'll have to go out and look for bedding and pull the colors from there. You know, the more I think about it, I remember loving the blue/orange combo when I was his age. I like the idea of keeping the walls more neutral and adding the punches of colors with pillows, artwork matting, etc. Probably less costly in the long run, too, to have the option of mixing only the accessories up a bit if his taste changes.

I like the idea of a decorative paint treatment and dividing up the walls into different colors or shades of the same color. Gives a more sophisticated and contemporary feel.

I, umm, am a grown-up guy, and, umm, my favorite colors are blue and , umm, orange. I'm ashamed to admit that on the GW decorating forum. ;-)
The key would be getting both hues right together, while using one as the main color and the other as the accent. Maybe moderate them with a metallic silver/nickel (though copper would be another orange; interesting!) like in hardware and fixtures. No Brass!
Casey

Go Bears!

In my house, we always let the kids decorate their own rooms. It's their personal place, even if it doesn't "fit" the rest of the house. We don't live in magazine pages, and I always wanted my kids to be happy in their own place. They're all grown now, so the rooms are done the way I like them to be, but believe me, we had some "different" rooms.

That said, I've never had a house anything like some of the houses posted here. Mine is a comfortable home with good bones, but not decorated in that sense of the word.

Sherry

I painted my attic bedroom lime green when I was 13. My parents argued against it saying I'd soon regret it, but I never did. It was so cool! (The 13-year old me peeking through there.)

I'd advise against any themes that can't be easily changed tho, since your son will probably outgrow them in a couple of years.

I Love the idea...My Oldest Sons room has some blue/green walls with some, um, orange stuff in it. The stripes were just blended together wet...could easily achieve that with blues and oranges too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Green wall

egganddart49 - That's funny because I tried to talk my son into painting his room lime green, but he didn't like it.

Laurie

I'm up against blue and orange as well, helping decorate a new building for a college student group - it is their school colors - My solution is to add a dark olive and a toasted sesame. That combination can handle pretty saturated blue and orange and not look like a locker room.

Good luck!

My son is 11 too and has had an Orange room in our past 2 houeses. In our last house it was Orange and Blue and in this house Orange and red. In both houses he had one wall done in a world map so obviously both had a lot of blue. Let me see what pics I can find.
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Don't have any of his current room, which is much more together.

Good luck!
cathie

My 11yro asked me for a burnt orange (UT Longhorns). What could I say? Sure honey. My 9yro asked for blue. Side by side rooms. They look good together.
I would probably try to do navy blue walls and orange accents. That way if he gets tired of the orange, you change it out but keep the navy blue (white trim and chrome accessories). It's a lot easier to change a comforter and a few pillows than to repaint!
Go for it! My boys were soooo happy to decorate their own rooms.

Blue/orange are also Broncos colors. Like the idea of the navy walls, white trim and accents in the blues/oranges.

We used our home for fellowship on Sundays, so it had to be reasonable, and we rented except for a few years. The bed coverings had to be solids, but sheets and accessories could be anything and we always had Dinos going around the walls...the oldest has always had dinos somewhere...I think he took one to Airborne with him :)

That said, our oldest daughter (then 16) painted her room in lavender/cream stripes last summer. She wanted 2 shades of purple, but it was too dark for her. She's got an antique dresser, white bookcases/shelves. We're going to paint her bed white this summer, along with her little sisters' bunks. She has a pretty wild, bright colored quilt that my mom made for her and dark pink sheets.

I don't usually post here since I'm not that talented at decorating but I think blue and orange sounds really cool. When my daughters turned 13 I told them they could decorate their rooms any color they wanted. The one chose turquoise walls with a purple ceiling. I didn't even buy samples like I usually do, and believe it or not it looks great. It's only paint...I'd let him go for it.

tropisol~Love that paint treatment (the whole room looks FuN), by "The stripes were just blended together wet..." do you mean with a sponge or ??? I really love the underwater effect.

klb9596,

There is an orange cotton quilt on clearance at Brylane Home for $23.99. I've linked it below but not sure link will work. Website is www.brylanehome.com. Go to Clearance, then Bedding.

-Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Cotton Quilt

Well, i'm not sure if this blue-orange combo got in the conversation - there are so many posts that i didn't finish them all BUT... i grew up on the west coast and, as a young teen, spent as many sunsets at the beach as possible. I loved the dark water, yellow, orange and red clouds, and deep purple and indigo sky. The juxtaposition of warm and cool colours can be very sportily done, yes, but you can also look to nature for some of the most striking inspirations.

You folks are great moms for respecting your sons' color choices over your own decorating taste. I remember when my daughter was about 11 and wanted to change her 'baby' room to a purple one. It wasn't our 'favorite' color, but it was her room, so we purpled it all over the place (wall paint, bedspread, etc). Now she's grown and her own daughter decided she wanted a purple room (with turquoise trim) and so my daughter painted it purple and sponged on turquoise squiggles. She said she remembered how much she loved her purple room and was glad to do it for our granddaughter. Does make good memories :)

klb9596,

Did you end up painting the room? If so can you post pics. or let me know the orange you ended up with? My son wants orange too, so I am off to find one!

Thanks!

This is what we did with DS1 "big boy" room. I don't have a picture of the framed print that started this direction, but it is a nice look and not your everyday color combination.

utahman, I like your "bigboy" rm :) Where did you find the bed? I would love something like this for my sons room. This look transitions from childhood into teen nicely.

dekr8,
I have not taken the plunge yet. I am contemplating the suggestions here and I think I am leaning toward a deeper ble/terra cotta combination. I have been on the lookout for bedding, hoping that maybe I would be inspired but have only seen navy blue comforters. I am thinking I might wait to start the project until summer and hope that as back-to-college sales begin I might see more choices in twin size bedding.

In addition, DH and I are talking about buying him new furniture. I'd love to hear everyone's opinion about wood color. I love oak for a boys room because it is pretty sturdy but I wonder about the color against a terra cotta. Any thoughts on furniture color?

thanks klb, we took the plunge this weekend & used Home Depot's NFL colors and a design I found on the brochure. We are down to the last stripe... Good luck!