An Awesome and Organized Tween Hangout Room!

This organized tween hangout room is full of brilliant storage solutions to keep it neat, tidy, and FUN all at the same time! Come take the grand tour!

Today I am SO excited to share our boys’ newly organized and decorated “tween hangout room” with you!

We used to call this space their “playroom,” but as they have gotten older (11 and 8.5 at the time of this writing), they began to outgrow the systems that we had put in place, and the room started to get pretty cluttered.

I approached the boys with the idea of turning this space into more of a “hangout room” where they could still play with the toys they like but also have a better area for crafts, have easier access to books and board games, and also have a spot to play their video games.

They loved the idea, so we set to work to create a space that would meet all of their needs. C’mon in and I’ll give you the grand tour!

An Organized Tween Hangout Room: The Reveal!

A huge thanks to IKEA for sponsoring this post! My favorable opinion of awesome furniture and accessories that help me stay organized is 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

The LEGO Wall

Although the boys have started to outgrow a lot of their toys (Tear!), they still like to build with LEGOs, so I knew we had to include a spot for that in this space.

We decided to use four IKEA TROFAST units– two on the floor and two on the wall— to hold their LEGO collection. I added baseplates on top of two of the units so they could build right there and easily access all of their bricks.

Related: My LEGO Organization Strategy

Since we had to hang the wall storage units fairly low so Caleb could reach them, I was left with a big space above them. I grabbed two large RIBBA frames and filled them with cute map prints– one of the world, and the other of the US.

Organizing Books and Displaying Finished LEGO Sets

On the back wall of the room, I needed a way to store the boys’ books and display a few finished LEGO sets that looked nice but didn’t take up too much space. IKEA’s LACK floating shelves ended up being the perfect solution.

We used three of the 74″ shelves, with the bottom two holding books and the top one displaying the boys’ creations.

Now, will their books stay this perfectly organized by color all the time? Definitely not. But it sure was fun to style them that way and grab a few pretty pictures!

We had previously been displaying the boys’ finished LEGO sets in the closet, but while it could hold a lot, it also became a mess easily. Having a higher display shelf still allows a few favorite creations to be seen, but it is also less likely to collect clutter since it is out of their reach!

Creating an Organized Craft Station

I definitely still wanted the boys to have a place to create in this room, but I knew I needed more storage than the single rolling cart and magazine rack that we had been using previously.

I ended up keeping the same LINNMON/ADILS desk and ODGER chairs, but I brought in two IKEA KALLAX cube units to help keep their art supplies organized.

(The sign above the pegboards was a DIY! See the tutorial here!)

The boys’ crayons, markers, and other art supplies are in the KALLAX drawer inserts. And a KVISSLE letter tray holds the their construction paper so they can grab it easily.

All of their coloring books and workbooks fit neatly on one of the shelves as well. And four colorful DRONA bins keep the few toys the boys wanted to hang onto tucked away tidily. I added bookplate labels so they could easily tell what was in each one.

I love, love, love the IKEA SKADIS pegboards— we already have them in our mudroom and garage— so I was excited to be able to incorporate a few in the boys’ space as well.

They’re great for displaying artwork and also keep a few of their art supplies within reach.

A Night Sky Accent Wall

The final wall in this room had me scratching my head a little bit. I knew we had to keep the keyboard here because Caleb plays piano. And the boys were excited about the possibility of bringing in a TV for playing video games. But neither of those things are exactly what I would call “pretty,” so I wanted to find a way to camouflage them a little bit.

I had the idea to paint the wall dark so that the TV and keyboard would blend in.

But rather than just leave it plain, I used a paint pen to add “stars,” and the wall became a fun focal point!

While I was making tweaks, I also recovered Caleb’s beat up piano bench with a black fabric that includes little white plus signs, which kind of mimics that black and white wall.

An Organized Game Closet

Finally, I needed to organize the closet! Once we moved the LEGO sets out of it, I was left with the amazing IKEA ALGOT closet system that we had installed a few years back, so I had great bones to work with.

The biggest category I still needed to store was games– board games, video games and accessories, and a few bigger toys like Nerf guns and stuffed animals.

I grabbed a bunch of stackable IKEA KUGGIS boxes, which ended up being perfect for card games and video game accessories. I also used a FJALLA bin to hold the video games and controllers. And of course, everything got a label!

The little boxes that held our card games were pretty beat up, so I got a few zipper pouches and stored the decks of cards in those instead.

They fit perfectly in the KUGGIS boxes!

To make the most of my closet space, I filed the boys’ board games vertically. My original plan was to use bookends to help them stay up, but they stayed up well, even when we removed some of them from the shelf, so I didn’t have to add anything!

Organized Tween Hangout: Before and After!

So that’s the grand tour! Connor and Caleb are loving their new hangout space, and I’m loving that it’s neat and organized rather than a cluttered mess!

He has his intense gaming face on! 😂

Let’s take a look at a few before and after photos…

Yippee! Thank you so much for popping over to check out the boys’ newly organized tween hangout room! If you are looking for any of the items we used in the space, I will leave a source list below.

Organized Tween Hangout Room Sources

TROFAST Floor Storage Units

TROFAST Wall Storage Units

RIBBA Picture Frames

LACK Floating Shelves

KALLAX Cube Units

KALLAX Drawer Inserts

DRONA Boxes

KVISSLE Paper Organizer

ODGER Chairs

LINNMON/ADILS Desk

SKADIS Pegboards

ALGOT Closet System

KUGGIS Larger Boxes

KUGGIS Smaller Boxes

FJALLA Box

TJENA Storage Box

Beanbag chairs

LEGO Baseplates Large

LEGO Baseplates Small

World Map Print

US Map Print

Bookplate Labels

Zipper Pouches for Card Games

Striped Round Bins

LEGO Manuals Storage Container

Light Gray Paint Color

Dark Wall Paint Color

Paint Pen

See the projects that went into this room by clicking the links below:

Planning an Awesome and Organized Tween Hangout Room

DIY IKEA LEGO Table with Storage

How to Make a DIY Wood Sign

How to Make Vinyl Labels with a Cricut Machine

Easy Painted DIY Star Wall

Awesome and Organized Tween Hangout Room: The Reveal (You’re here!)

[Psssttt… Get 100 brilliant ideas for organizing every room of the house here!]

Thank you so much for following along! Have a wonderful day!

A huge thanks to IKEA for sponsoring this post! My favorable opinion of awesome furniture and accessories that help me stay organized is 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.