I never had any posters, but I would have been allowed to have them. I had a large print of Whistler's The White Girl. I had scads of books. I had two parakeets.

My parents let me paint the room any color I wanted. And I had a comforter I loved, it was very puffy and bright orange. My brother still has it. He stole it from me! It must be 35 years old and it is still in use. It wasnt any high end brand, I got it a a bluelight special at Zayre's(if anyone remembers that chain).

My parents let me decorate and were good sports about it, especially dad who painstakingly painted the shutters, trim, doors and the drawers of my desk, bureau and headboard lime green! My inspiration was the fabric I used to make my bedspread....a psychedelic paisley velveteen. I'm sure I had posters but the only one I vaguely remember is Paul McCartney........hey, it was 1968.

I didn't have any posters either, but when I was in my teens my parents allowed me to hand paint a 6' high mural of the Visage (led by Steve Strange, the New Romantic - not sure if you guys in the US have heard of him?) album cover on my bedroom wall ;) My parents later painted over it.

When I went to uni (mid 1980s) I rented a flat on my own that was unfurnished and filled it with Art Deco items including an amazing petrol blue club sofa and armchair that were picked up cheaply from second hand stores. I also had a huge collection of Sylvac pottery rabbits. My tastes soon progressed from Art Deco to Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts and Pre-Raphaelite art (wish I could afford the latter!) which I've been into ever since.

Lars, yes I can, and very clearly, since I decided to do extra credit for Home Ec, when there was such a thing. I actually chose a pale yellow paint color for the walls, and remember my Mother ordering bedspread/matching draperies from Spiegel's. They were a silky fabric, with the bedspread being quilted, in a brown/white print, very similar to toile, and sort of a 'tree branch' look. Maybe it was Chinoiserie, but neither toile or Chinoiserie were heard of 'back then.' There was already a ceiling fixture, but I remember Mom bringing in a brass lamp, but don't remrmber if it was new or. brought in from another room. I do remember her bringing in an oval mirror dresser tray, and setting in on the dresser, along with two empty perfume bottles, adding my Prince Machavelli(sp ?)to one. There were no throw pillows or an area rug, and if there were pictures on the walls, I don't remember. I do remember moving things around in the LR, and 'knic knacks' on the corner kitchen shelves. I would also help friends choose furniture, as well as paint colors. Needless to say, I was quite outspoken about my opinions. lol

Yes, I remember! My room was painted light purple, had a purple polka dotted bedspread and two dark purple furry feet rugs on the floor. One whole wall of my bedroom was floor to ceiling built in bookcases, and I had tons of books and knick knacks on those shelves. Plus, many, many posters of my love Donny Osmond. They covered the walls and ceiling. I loved my room and I still love purple, but don't use it in my decorating.

My parents built a house when I was 10 in the early '80s. I vividly remember being horrified by the neutral colored carpet my mom was choosing for the upstairs and actually cried and begged for a "true" color. My mom was a softie, and allowed me to choose the carpet for my room. I chose this very soft, lemon yellow color that was significantly more expensive than the other carpeting. Plus, I am sure it looked like cr@p where the beige hall carpet met my yellow room carpet, but I was so happy. Also, I wanted white ruffled curtains. My room was on the front of the house, and my mom was having very tailored draperies made for the other rooms. She really wanted a uniform look across the front of the house, but eventually gave in and let me have my ruffley curtains. She also let me wallpaper one of my walls in a pastel flame stitch pattern. I loved my pretty room!

I was cottage-y, even back then. No teen idol posters--I had a red and yellow calico bedspread, with curtains to match. My mom bought an extra curtain, and I cut it up into strips, and glued a stripe around the room at chair rail height, then painted horizontal stripes above and below, in matching colors. I think the walls were a light color, probably yellow.

Years ago my mother made me a double wedding ring quilt, with some of the calico pieced into it. :)

My parents would have let me do whatever I wanted, but at that age I was far more interested in decorating myself than my room.

I was allowed to decorate my room for my 12th birthday but was advised it would stay that way until I moved out for college. I chose a wallpaper very similar to this-

I had white chenille bedspreads on twin beds and white curtains with pompom edging, built-in bookcases and I already had tons of books. It was on the second floor and there were lots of big trees all around. I loved that room until we moved when I was 16. It's still one of my favorite rooms.

Like most young ladies of my cohort my bedroom was furnished from about age ten or eleven with white and gold French Provincial furniture---a full size canopy bed, two night stands, dresser, desk and hutch, and vanity with a pull-up center mirror. And a full length standing mirror. The pieces all matched, and they were too heavy to rearrange them myself. I still have one of the nightstands, in DD's room. The floors were hardwood and there was a Portugese needlepoint rug on the floor, white with pink and blue flowers, also in DD's room now. The fabric was a tiny blue and white floral (like a liberty print but probably not) which comprised the bedspread, canopy and pillow shams, and even the china lamps were painted to match. The curtains were white Priscilla type voile, with roller shades underneath in the same small blue floral. It was Fully Decorated, lol.

That was my room decor until my parents moved into a condominium decades later when I was married with children. Not a thing ever changed. There was a plaster plaque, a kind of large cameo of some sort of my head in profile hanging over the headboard, it must have been made from a paper silhouette. I would love to have that now but it was broken in their move. No posters and I don't even remember any prints on the walls, as one side was closet, one side was books, and there were windows on two of the other walls. When I was fourteen I went away to boarding school and we were not allowed to put anything on the walls of our rooms there. Now that I think about it, it seems strange I should be so interested in decor!

My room did not really get redecorated at all. I had a light blue room since I was only allowed to pick the lightest color on a color strip. I did not really like it after it was up, but I was stuck with it. My furniture consisted of an early 70's white and gold provincial style twin bed with black speckles (headboard only), a nightstand, and a chest of drawers with a bookcase. My dad repainted a desk and another cabinet to match the furniture. I had a reversible floral blue and white comforter, with a white eyelet dust ruffle. Paperback fantasy/ science fiction books in bookcase and on the wall mounted bookshelves. For pictures, I had a painting of a herd of white horses running through a river that my dad bought for me when he was stationed in S Korea, and a black velvet + glitter rearing horse paint by numbers type of painting that my paternal grandfather made for me (I liked horses as a girl). when I was in my later teens I added photos I took of a couple various castles in Germany (my maternal grandparents were German). No posters, and I had absolutely no interest in the teen poster type of thing :). In college, I did not decorate my dorm room. The only thing I really had were my photos. After college, when DH and I started buying out own furniture, I became obsessed with Danish Modern style (late 80's), mostly because my grandparents decorated in that style and to me, it is a style that was homey and tranquil :)

Can't forget it. It was such a BATTLE. My parents had it in their heads to buy me a suit of furniture--white french provincial. I would rather cut my wrists. I found a set that was woodgrain yellow laminate..cardboard drawers...daises on the white drawers. My dad SCREAMED of the lack of quality..fall apart.... I won. I hung green shag carpet squares on one wall-checker board style to compliment the yellow. I had black lights, black light mobile, candles in all sorts of shapes... tchotchke GALORE. The 70's were ripe with bold colors and odd do dads. I had a loom to make yarn flowers and crocheted a bed spread. White and yellow daises on a green back ground--of course!! I did have a subscription to Tiger Beat and pulled the middle posters of Donny out for on the back of my door, and bulletin board. I still miss that room. It was PURE ME.

Just as a side note..the bedroom suit held up fine. My own children used it and have repainted and carted off to their first apartments in differing configurations. It has been yellow, red and black so far. It is so light weight it made for easy moving around. Best furniture investment my dad ever made IMHO!! The bed spread sits in my hope chest. My girls couldn't have wanted it less. I was just thinking last week I need to dig it out and send it off to the next church tag sale.

I wish I had a picture. I think there is a tale here. My kitchen has refaced cabinets. DH laminated curly Italian maple veneer on all my door and drawer fronts--there is a distinct yellow hue to them!!

I never decorated my room (which I shared with my brother, until he left for college), and more than that-I didn't even dare to think I could have a say on it. The thought didn't even crossed my mind. My grandma lived with us, and she was the one deciding on decor etc, for all the family. Luckily she was a woman of great style, so it all felt beautiful and comfortable for everyone. But again, the thought I can have a say or want something different never crossed my mind. The only things I put in the room on my own initiative were two small cuttings from a magazine-both of actors. By the way I glued one of them to the surface of an absolutely gorgeous, huge writing desk I had. Surprisingly, nobody killed me:)

kswl2 I wrote before I read all the posts. No offense intended on the white provincial!!

My sister and I shared a room and although my mom was a Home Ec grad and taught Home Ec she had, and continues to have, zero interest in decorating.

So no, I didn't get to decorate my own room. But I remember one Christmas my parents gave me this beautiful pantsuit (probably around 1969) and that's when I discovered colour and patterns and how patterns of different sizes can be made to work. When I was 18 they gave me a beautiful solid maple bedroom set with dovetail drawers and simple lines and that's when I discovered quality of furnishings. My grandmother was a hobby-artist and painted colourful still-lifes in oils and from her I gained an appreciation of colour which, when she realized my love of it, talked to me about it.

All of those discoveries have definitely shaped my decorating style and my use of colour in my accessories, my no-fear of mixing patterns and my need for quality in all that we do and buy.

Oh and as I sit here in the DR where my laptop is, I just have to look slightly to the left to see two of my grandmothers paintings that are full of colour hanging in our kitchen. She died in 1975 and I still love the memories that they bring to me.

None taken :-)

Some relatives have most of the furniture, my mother still has my bed, and I have one of the nightstands in DD's room!

My mom and I were opposites: she is more contemporary, I'm much more traditional. We should have been born in each other's eras! So when my first bedroom was redecorated, I wanted a canopy bed, but got a cornice with panels at the head of the bed. And it was turned the wrong way, so the panels provided no privacy from my brothers pestering me at the bedroom door. It looked really nice, but wasn't what I wanted.

When they built our next house, mom was going to give me free reign in my bedroom. I did get to dictate that the four casement windows were grouped together, instead of 2 and 2. But they gave me a built-in desk (I've always preferred working at an open space, so I almost never used that desk) and built-in cabinets to flank the bed. But I wanted a room where I could rearrange furniture. So didn't get that.

I always loved my grandmother's house, and my auntie's bedroom in particular. It had been decorated in 1947 with rose-garden wallpaper and ruffled sheers! Oh, my, it was lovely! I wanted THAT wallpaper. Well, of course by 1970 it was long out of production. I chose something similar, though, and even though I don't live there, the wallpaper is still up and I still love it. The windows had roller blinds (west facing, definitely roller blinds) and ruffled dotted-Swiss sheers. Very popular in 1970, but still spoke to my "old" heart. But my poor mom was trying to get me to do the more vibrant 1970s trends of bright greens and yellows.

I'm still very traditional, nay, old-fashioned. I fell in love with our current house at first visit because it has so many elements of my grandmother's house. And now it has her dining room set (new upholstery), tea set, and some incidental furniture.

I totally appreciate many styles, though, and could live with most of them. But I've always been a 1940s girl at heart.

Did anybody read Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture? There's a lovely story about decorating his room as a kid.

Like Lars, having any input about my room's decor wasn't an option. But my mom had excellent, classy taste and I trusted completed what she did (if I cared, as I was truly more preoccupied with school and friends). I did have David Cassidy & Bobby Sherman posters, not really sure why she allowed it. As time went by, My preferences became vastly diff from Moms but certain obsessive tendencies remained, ha

I had a rocky childhood and moved around a lot. When I was 12 and 13, I lived with my grandparents and did not decorate my room, as I never really felt like it was my room. At 14, I lived with my dad, and hung some posters of men from GQ. From 15-17, I lived in the model unit of a condo complex my dad built. I couldnt decorate it as it had to be ready to be shown. I did throw some wild parties in that condo though! I spent most summers away - two summers working at a fishing resort my dad owned and one summer interning for US Senator Ted Stevens (RIP). I never really felt settled enough anywhere to decorate.

rockybird - when and how did you develop your MCM interest and sense of style?

I lived in military housing most of my childhood/teen years. Nothing was allowed on the wall, ever. Although I think that was more my parents' rule, because they did put some things on the walls in the living room and dining room. They probably just didn't want to deal with fixing the walls after we taped up posters.

Oh, wait, we all had our First Communion crucifixes hung over our beds. That was it for stuff on the walls.

I would have loved to decorate my bedroom, but was allowed only to pick a bedspread from a few neutral colors that my mother selected, as we knew we would be moving to a new home in a couple of years, so no sense wasting money on something that might only look good in one house.

And I shared a bedroom with my 10-years-younger sister, and we both have very, very different tastes, so finding a compromise would have been difficult.

Our beds were old Army cots painted white, with new mattresses. Handmedown dresser from my grandparents, which was a very nice, solid wood piece that my brother still uses. The world's smallest, white-painted bookcase, for me, who read constantly, and was always in trouble for having piles of books on the floor. Then get me a bigger bookcase! One tiny night table between the beds that held an orange plastic lamp (it was the 70s).

The room was always messy, because there was no place to put anything. We shared the closet and the dresser and the tiny bookcase and there was no other storage. I don't know where they expected us to put things, but we were always in trouble because of having things on the floor.

I remember getting a box of stationary for my birthday and putting it on the night table (just a table, no drawer or shelf or anything) and Mom telling me to put it away and I said "Away where?" and got grounded for two weeks for talking back. But I wasn't being flippant--I truly had no place to put the stationary--the 1.5 dresser drawers that were mine were full, the closet had both our clothes plus all Sis's toys. There really wasn't anyplace to put the smallest thing away.

Now that I'm all grown up and have my own place, I love to decorate and make things look nice.

We moved from my childhood home at the end of my HS freshman yr. Since I was older than my sister by 8 yrs. I got first dibs choosing my bedroom. I went for the smallest room because I wanted a daybed instead of a full size bed with a traditional bedroom suite. It had a trundle for sleepovers.

I chose sky blue for the walls and "antiqued" what had been a lacquered black dresser by painting it cornflower blue and adding a black stain over it with a comb-like tool. Chose porcelain knobs to replace the metal ones. I was pretty proud of that piece. I had a pressed back antique rocker that I inherited from someone who'd been a surrogate grandfather to me. Those were the main furnishings.

I had a solid indigo blue dust ruffle and matching bolsters for my daybed and my quilt had big poppy-like flowers in same indigo as well as periwinkle ones on a white background. Think it came from Speigels & we got 2 - the spare for when the trundle was used. Those quilts lasted forever! DH & I still used them years later to throw on the grass when we picnicked with the kids.

I guess that room still reflects some of my current tastes. I still am more drawn to a small bungalow vs. a large grand home. I like rooms sparingly furnished. I still like a monochromatic palette with a pop or two of color. I still like handed down pieces that mean something to me and would more often choose to live with them over finer things.

I did not have any teen heartthrob posters on my wall, but I did have a collage I made with clippings from magazines on the back of my door. Lots of "deep thought" and sayings ;)

Love this thread! Thanks for taking me back to 1970!

Amck2, you and I are a lot alike. I had the "deep sayings" posters on my walls too. One which was Kahlil Gibran, "I love the earth with all of myself." and a couple of others. I still have one of them framed, a bright orange poster with Charles Shultz' Pigpen on it, walking surrounded by a cloud of dust. The quote is: "If you're going to be an ecologist, you've got to stir things up a bit." That one goes in my office usually! :)

Oh how I wish I had a picture of my teen bedroom. I was in 8th grade when my parents redid the room and let me choose the style. My poor mom! When I was ten, I did get the white provincial style canopy bed, so I already had that. I wanted more of that furniture, but folks said no. So anyhow, the bedroom, circa 1974 had bright pink zinnia print wallpaper and grape purple low shag carpet. Like this pattern except ALL PINK.

It wasn't until a couple of years after I got out of college that my mom redid the room. Some friends visited me and stayed with my folks in that room. They teased me so much, because by that time I had become all "nature girl" and into northwoods style. But I still love me some pink. I get to indulge my inner girly-girl in the guest bedroom, which is going to have a pink rose theme.

In the late 70's when I was in Jr. High, I took money out of savings to decorate my room. My father finally gave up his study so my sister and I could have our own rooms. I used this marimekko sheet and my mom made it into a comforter. Then I found some simple modular furniture and painted it in that same green to match. I was in heaven.

edited to talk about walls. I've never been into following stars, but I remember having posters on the wall. With the exception of the "mix your licks" Baskin Robbins poster, I can't remember what else I had up. My parents never dictated how I decorated.

@bfenton- I dont know where I learned about mcm. I was absolutely oblivious to it until I bought my first place 13 yrs. ago - a really cool townhouse with mcm lines - floor to ceiling glass, 20 foot long floating travertine hearth, walnut paneling (done in a classy way), floating wood stairs. I didnt know why I liked it. I still own it, but rent it out. For my next house (current home), I was determined to buy a mcm home. I guess I am drawn to the clean lines, simplicity of textures and colors, and walls of glass. I also really appreciate the furniture of the era - especially by the some of the legends - George Nelson, Eames, Finn Juhl, Vodder, etc. Thanks for asking!

:). I was an avid decorator. I had a French provincial white and gold set - headboard, dresser/mirror and desk/chair. Pink. Everywhere.

when I was a teen I upgraded to wicker. Lol. I read all of the magazines listed along with Right On. No posters the wall. I had a cork board with a couple of cutout silhouettes.

my college dorm room was epic. Picture it. Contact paper everywhere!!!! Lol

Like Mick-Mick, I was an avid decorator as far back as I can remember. My mother claimed somewhere between 3-4 y/o. I always shared a room with my sister who was a year younger than me. But, she had no interest in decorating, and left it all up to me. We had twin beds with matching feminine, chenille bedspreads. A white painted wood dressing table from the Thirties, that had been our grandmother's and then our mother's. Our mom made a pretty, flouncy skirt for it. Everything was pink, deep rose, soft green and white. Old fashioned flowered wallpaper. Crisp white eyelet curtains. Our dad was a great guy, but had pretty much no ability to build things. So, our mom built wood shelves into our closet down the middle and on top, and painted everything white. We were way ahead of the game with closet renos back then! No posters for us. Instead, we has pretty framed prints and a nice-size ornate oval mirror, also painted white. The carpet was a soft sage green. I had Mom take off the closet doors and she hung heavy tapestry drapes there instead. She even dyed them pink for me. Mom was so handy creating anything! It was a very feminine, Cottagey room. I still have fond memories of it. Cottage-style is still my favorite decorating style and white, pink, rose and sage green are the colors of our MBR now, too . . . although a bit more sophisticated now (LOL).

I'm trying to remember how old I was the first time I was able to decorate my own room..maybe 12/13. I had just bought my waterbed...lol. I wanted a light blue bedroom but my mom thought that would go horrible with the multi colored gross orange shag...it was horribly out of style. She didn't want to take apart my bed to take it out...so my dad came in and cut the carpet out around my bed!!! Beautiful hardwood floors underneath. Then I bought an antique dresser from a garage sale for $25....I begged my mom to pay 1/2 since I didn't have a dresser and it was so pretty. I still have it in my room. That started my love of antique furniture. I remember having a "hang in there" kitty poster on the wall that I ordered from Scholastic.

We moved when I was in 7th grade and I felt SO cool when my parents let me get a round table and 2 chairs in my bedroom, instead of the desk I had had in the previous house. I felt like my room was this hip lounge. But it really wasn't so hip -- it had yellow floral print wallpaper and white cafe curtains.

I was not allowed to hang posters in my room, but I had an odd-shaped deep closet that wasn't quite a walk-in, more of a crawl-in, and it had shelving and enough wall space in the back for a couple of posters. That's where I hung my Bay City Rollers poster and stashed my "treasures" on the shelves.

There wasn't the money to change the carpet in my teenage room. It was also a small room tucked under the eaves with a sloping ceiling. But at least it was mine alone and not shared. There was room for a twin bed and a dresser and nothing else.

So, picture if you will bright red plush carpeting. Medium gray walls and trim (my choice). My leftover bed from childhood in gold and white French provincial. Sheets in gray and black with a calla lily pattern on them. And this poster.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/black-panther-raul-del-rio.html

I was allowed to decorate my room as a teenager. The furniture was nothing memorable--some pieces of that ubiquitous French Provincial and some other unrelated things--but I did the walls in a denim blue wallpaper and sewed denim blue curtains and just loved it! I was really into blue jeans. On the wall was that gorgeous poster of the young Neil Diamond. Oh my, those eyes! My sister had Donny and Bobby Sherman (who we called Choppy Berman and she'd be furious).

I was not allowed to put posters on the walls or choose paint colors; my room was always just whatever color it was when we moved into a house, and it was the same color when we moved out. My best friend and her sister were allowed to plaster their walls with whatever they wanted and it was all Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy on one side and Paul Michael Glaser (!) and Rod Stewart on the other. I am not sure I could have slept with 68 pairs of eyes watching me all night, but I envied their freedom and their sharing a room.

As soon as I moved out on my own I got very into decorating and having all the things I had never been allowed to have growing up, including dozens of things hanging on the walls. I don't think I've had a bedroom with fewer than twelve things hanging on the walls since I left home.

The first decor I bought when I was moving into my own place was a pair of botanical prints of poppies, and I felt very grown up. Next was a framed opera poster (never heard the opera, just liked the art). I wish I had that opera poster still and from time to time I think of buying it all over again.

I love reading about people's childhood/teen rooms!

I never got to pick any room decor when I was a teen at home. It never really crossed my mind to care. I did get to pick wall color - I simply asked for yellow, and they'd pick the tone of yellow. Never had posters until away at college.

I have to say I am amazed at how many are saying they were not allowed to make their room their own. Goes to show the "Everyone else get to..." that we whip at parents is as usual far from reality. My yellow furniture was purchased for a room in "Base housing". The walls were always white, two inch metal Venetian blinds on all the windows, head cheese linoleum on all the floors. It was that last USAF Base house that was my first introduction to color. For some reason my father decided we were allowed to add carpet and curtains for the first time... (I went for a speckled green shag and yellow cafe curtains; "sheers" really.) Those were the days when tape on the wall meant re-spackeling, there wasn't discretionary spending for fixing walls a teenager ruined, so I am not surprised the poster plastering was not a "thing" back in our day. Dad retired from the military before I left high school so it was then I added the carpet squares to a cement block wall in the first house I ever lived in with a basement. I think the squares were left over from carpet we rolled up and took with us, not needed in the new home.

For me, it wasn't so much that I wasn't allowed but rather it was my mother's job while I was being kid playing hopscotch instead of decorator.

Thank god "tack it" was invented! I found out from Martha Stewart that's why old houses had picture rails, for hanging stuff without making holes in the walls. Plaster walls are even more of a pain to fix holes in than dry wall. And you often have to repaint, which doesn't even work because the paint may have faded over time and what is in the saved paint can no longer matches. Or it is all dried up. Ask me how I know, lol!

@bossyvossy I played "work", sewed clothing for my Barbies and picked out all my favorite houses in town. That was more fun than hopscotch for me.

When I was a teen I bought a very cool antique metal bed from a thrift type store. The elderly people I was helping out across the street drove me into a larger town where I also got a second hand mattress. We tied everything on top of their old station wagon. All was bought out of my earned money. That lady also crocheted me a very groovy bed spread. At the end of the school year the art teacher let me take all the unclaimed student pottery and clay sculptures. I picked through it all very carefully and did a whole small bedroom wall. That was my only art. I then bought some inexpensive curtains to jive with it all. I didn't have a dresser, just a few shelf things in the closet. It was sort of a sparse artsy bohemian look with the cool bed as the star. However, I was only fourteen and proud of my first furniture purchase. And, it was so much better than sleeping on the floor.

Fast forward to my boys when they were teens...I asked what they wanted and was usually only told what colors they would like. One son was fairly conservative on tastes but the sky was the limit with the other. I had fun with the 2nd and would go pretty dramatic with painted stripes either horizontal or vertical and modern furnishings and large art.

Justerrilynn, your story reminds me of the last house I bought. Three teenage boys. One room was sponge painted mud brown on the walls. The other was sponge painted hyperlink blue with red shag carpeting. My friends all remarked on the "hideous" taste of the previous owners, and I said, "Cut them some slack, the rest of the house is fine, they just let their sons decorate their own rooms." Gotta give some parent's credit for putting up with all that. Besides it was only paint. Sort of. Repainting the hyperlink blue radiator was some kind of fun, getting into all the nooks and crannies.

I was allowed to decorate with posters, and as a kid and young teen hung animal posters on my walls I'd get from Troll Book orders.

I always wanted to paint my walls and longed for more color and patterns in my bedroom, but our house (walls, floors, ceilings, doors, etc.) was stained fir paneling. My parents painted the ceilings white and the rest remained natural wood. I remembering begging my mom to let me paint the walls, and as a compromise she let me wall-paper one wall when I was in high school. I chose a tree print sort of like this, only with navy blue and brown trees to tie in with all the brown wood of the walls, floor, and trim.

My bedroom furniture was white-painted stuff my parents got second hand. I knew a "bedroom set" wasn't an option, though I would have loved one at the time. Though I still wouldn't choose the darkness of natural wood walls for a bedroom, I came to love a healthy dose of wood and eclectic furniture. The bed that was in my childhood bedroom is now in my daughter's room, with a wood dresser that used to be in my brother's childhood bedroom. My kids aren't teenagers yet and haven't expressed a lot of interest in decorating their rooms, but it will be interesting to see how their rooms evolve over the years.

Only posters I could hang, were in my closet ... my bedroom was the "showcase" of the family's antique bedroom furniture. Canopy bed from the early 1800's, antique dresser, doll cabinet with curved glass, floral wallpaper ... I now have all this furniture and love it, but not quite the vibe I wanted as a teenager in the 70's!

Oh man...my parents let me decorate my room as a 12 year old. Lime green walls with blue carpets. Pretty sure that carpet is still there! Never again.

We moved quite a bit and usually weren't allowed to decorate as my parents weren't interested in redecorating to move. However in my last childhood home for whatever reason they did let me paint and choose my own carpet color. I chose a horrible seafoam colour carpet and an even more horrible seafoam paint colour for the walls. I then – – and I don't know why my parents allowed this – – proceeded to paint a dark purple staircase all along one wall with a cat sitting on one of the stairs. Then another wall got covered with teen dream posters – – I think mostly Christian Slater and Keanu Reeves -- and my parents also let me pick out some kind of crazy cabbage rose chintz for my curtains, no relationship to seafoam or purple. My furniture was all pine handmade by my grandfather, which added to the less than cohesive effect.

Seriously if you walked into that room I don't know if you would think a teenager lived there or an extremely senile cat lady.

When my best friend and I were away on a band trip her mother snuck into her bedroom and sponge painted all the walls hot pink and forest green. My extremely non-girly friend had a hairy canary and we both thought it was the biggest injustice everrrrr.

Just remembered that at one point I became obsessed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and created this giant abstract poster with the lyrics to "Taste the Pain" that I taped on my bedroom door, but on the outside so my family had to pass it everyday.

Sample lyrics, I thought they were deep at the time:

"Busted in two

Like a brittle stick
I can not drink
Because my throat constricts
Lovesick from you
That will never do"

Good old Christian Slater..look at that pallor.

Some 26 years after Heathers, how does life as a former teen idol treat you?

"I’m an actor; I have an ego that is sometimes disproportionate to the reality of the situation. Sometimes people come up to me and say, “You were my teen crush.” I’m honored and I’m touched, but I also ask: What happened? Why’d you take the poster down? I get a little heartbroken in that situation. It’s hilarious that a human can be that insane. "