Design Ideas for a Boy's Old West Cowboy Bedroom

A Young Boy Dreams to be a Cowboy

A cowboy stands with his horse.

A young boy dreams to be many things: an astronaut, a fireman, and even a cowboy. Even though you can't fulfill his dreams of occupation, you can give him a supportive environment to strive in and the surroundings he desires.

Sadly, a young boy can't be everything, especially if his dream is to be a cowboy from the Old West. Of course, there are still a few things you can do in order to keep his mind active, creative, and let him live his dream during his childhood years.

Designing a cowboy bedroom should be fun, exciting, unique, and creative. The great part about designing a bedroom like this is that there are so many decorations available for us to utilize.

Image source: smithat

Feeling Adventurous?

Try adding wood planks on the wall behind the bed. It'll add a great accent and make your kid feel even more like an Old West cowboy.

Wall Paint

For an Old West style design, you have several choices:

Plain white. If you are going with a rustic type design, this is your best choice.
A brown. This will give a darker feel to the room. The brown can be light or dark.
Cream. This would be somewhere in between the white and cream. It's not too dark and close enough to white to still have somewhat of a Western type feel.

Accents

You can also accent your walls with other paints. A favorite of mine is to paint the walls cream and then have the trim, window sill, and door frame as a mahogany or other brown color.

Wall Decorations

An Old West wanted poster

Framed Marshal Star - A marshal star is the symbol of power and authority in the Old West.
Wanted Posters - The old wanted posters can be found at numerous museums throughout the West. They add a great feel and color to the room.
American Bison Pictures - One of the great symbols of the Old West and cowboys are the American bison. These beautiful creatures are a great way to show your child to love animals while keeping with the time period.
Pictures of horses - Horses hold a special place in the heart of many cowboys both modern and historical.
Hanging cowboy hats - Hang these hats next to the bed frame vertically, either zigzagged or straight. The hats can be the same or different designs.
Wagon wheel - This adds great character to the room. Just make sure it stands out. Don't place other objects too close or you will draw attention away from it.
Giant black star - Hang a giant metal black star the same way you would the wagon wheel.
Cowboy silhouettes - Either create it yourself or find a nice picture and have it printed. Hang it in a nice frame or go a bit farther and have it carved out of metal.

Image source: freeparking :-|

Bedding

A rustic bedroom

You have several options:

Horses - Obviously, these guys are what the real cowboys rode back in the day. Your child will naturally associate them with loving animals and sleep tight at night.
Cow patterns - It's in the name, right? Cowboys drove the cattle up to the railroad.
Horse accessories, such as saddles - Again with the horses. They look fantastic and are a great association with cowboys.
Checkered or plaid - These two simply yell Old West.
Tan - This is for a rustic feel. It doesn't take away from the rest of the design and is good for boys of all ages.

Image source: tinyfroglet

Accessories

A lamp with a silhouette of a cowboy

Accessories are part of any room. Without them, most of the room would be completely bare. For this room, we need everything to be related to cowboys in at least the loosest form.

Rug - Depending on what type of design you are going for anything from a horse rug to cow patterns to multicolored to a tan color will do just fine.
Lamp - A creative idea for a lamp is to have the base as a cowboy boot. If you aren't into buying something like this or think it's a bit too cheesy, grab a lamp with a tan lampshade. If you want something even more creative, go ahead and make your own lampshade cover out of wax paper. Put some cowboy hats on it, stars, or horses.
Curtain - Curtains for this type of room should be a solid color or at maximum two. Try a tan or tan and white mixture for a great mixture and natural feel.
Trinkets - Horses, cows, or cowboy action figures work great for a few things to put on shelves.

Image source: Jack Crossen

Use old cowboy belt buckles to tie the curtains with. It's a great look!

Do You Want the Rustic Design Look?

Example of a rustic bedroom

I have mentioned several times throughout this article that you can do little things to make your child's bedroom look "rustic." But what does that mean?

The rustic look is in. It's a natural design that many people associate with the outdoors and Western home design. Essentially, the rustic design includes these essentials:

Rustic wood beams - These can be faux beams.
White walls - This is a must. The white walls help bring the focus to the rest of the design.
Natural elements with very little coloring, such as linens and hides used as part of the design
Recycles and repurposed furniture and decor - For a bedroom, this can easily be the headboard and desk
Wood floors - This is as close to a must as the wood beams.
Outdoor elements - This is something that connects the room to the outdoors. This can be plants. Most rustic rooms also include large windows.

In terms of a cowboy bedroom for your child, rustic is a great choice but it isn't a complete must. However, since rustic design is all about connection with nature, cowboys were the exact same and your child can learn from this.

Image source: mondays child