This post is all about creating a unique and sophisticated soccer themed bedroom!
My son lives and breathes soccer. Are your kids the same? When we decided to re-do his room from a “little boy” room into a “big boy” room, we leaned into a soccer theme, but I wanted something sophisticated. To do this, I considered my son’s favorite colors & soccer teams and found what I consider to be a nice balance to create a big boy, sophisticated soccer themed bedroom. I hope you’ll find some inspiration here with the tips below to guide your own space!
Soccer Themed Bedroom Overview
My son not only loves soccer, he loves the GOAT, Lionel Messi. We’re happy to support this obsession because, as far as we can tell, Messi is a stand-up guy. So, I decided to pull from Messi’s legendary Argentinian heritage to use a shade of blue similar to that of the flag and the national Argentinian soccer team. You can see the blue on the trim of the windows, as well as the mini Argentinian flag tucked in the fern. It took me a long time to get this color right. At first I color matched a paint that reminded me of the walls of the Sunday School room in the basement of the church I attended growing up. While those were pleasant memories for me, it wasn’t exactly the vibe I was going for.
I tried to color match this throw rug several times to get the shade right. Apparently, because there are shades of cream that show through (however slightly), they had a hard time getting it to the blue shade I wanted. To solve my problem, I ended up taking some of the paint color I chose for the walls, a warm white from Benjamin Moore, and mixing it in to get the closest to the shade I had in mind. After four attempts back and forth from the store, I finally called it quits and went with my custom blend.
Because my son’s favorite color is red, I knew I had to incorporate it somewhere, but I didn’t want it to overwhelm the room (it’s small). I also wanted a deeper shade of red, so it would be a bit more elevated and a little less jarring than primary red.
Once I found the 1998 World Cup poster pictured above on Etsy, I ended up color matching the red from this poster so I could paint the frame. I felt it was important to pull the red in elsewhere in the room to help anchor the color. There is a small bulletin board above my son’s desk (not pictured) which I painted this same shade of red, as well as this wicker piece which serves as his nightstand.
The World Cup poster ended up serving as a guide for the colors in the room. In the poster, you can see that there are two shades of blue, red, green, and yellow. I found all these colors to be joyful for a child’s bedroom and easy to incorporate. As I noted, I used the warm white for the walls because I wanted to balance the brighter hues. To tie the room together in terms of the color story, I chose (and consulted with my son) specific soccer balls to hang on the walls. We have four floating above my son’s desk (not pictured) and three near his bed.
Soccer Themed Bedroom Decor Ideas
My son loves to find gold or antique brass items when we’re out and about and use them as “trophies” for his room. We used this one as a soccer ball stand on his desk:
This was a fun gift from Santa — a custom soccer stadium (for the US) map, which can be checked off once a stadium is visited! My son has been excited to visit as many stadiums as possible — time to plan some trips!
I pulled the green and blue from the room and used this in my son’s bedding with a simple quilt and a lightweight block print blanket. I was relieved that he liked them!
And, one of my favorite touches (aside from the vintage yellow & green lamp in the first photo!), while not soccer themed, is a great find that creates extra storage. We live in a very old home with very little storage — his room doesn’t even have a closet! These vintage suitcases:
I found these at an outdoor flea market in the Lancaster area before we even started to re-do my son’s room. I’m so glad to have found the perfect place for them!
Lastly, we found this great chair at a thrift store one cold any rainy day when we wanted to get the kids out of the house.
I bought this fabric off of Etsy in hopes that it would match the red in the room and it ended up being perfect! I used more of it to wrap a frame that hangs above the small red nightstand. You can see the corner of my son’s desk here, which I have left out of the photos because there are several personal items on and above it. But, I wanted to note that I painted his desk the same color as the walls because his room is small. This was helpful, as it doesn’t take up “space” in the room visually, and since it has a red bulletin board above it and soccer balls above that, there is plenty of other color and pattern happening.
Soccer Themed Bedroom Tips
Here are some helpful tips for elevated soccer bedroom decor:
- Choose a piece of art to anchor your space (ie. the soccer poster I chose)
- Pull a few colors from the art and repeat those throughout the room to create some grounding
- Ideally, choose art that incorporates your child’s favorite colors and find “adult” or muted versions of those colors
- Be creative with your interpretation of your child’s interest. How can you find elements of what your child loves and bring it into the space?
- Incorporate some modern elements, as well as some vintage or antique
- Consider adding pennants (or team flags) to your child’s walls — you can incorporate their favorite teams and make custom ones on Etsy (we have several of these hanging)
- Consider creating a gallery wall with antique frames you’ve collected featuring illustrations or pictures of your child playing soccer, prints from Etsy, framed jerseys, etc.
- Make sure to include spaces that are your child’s that they get to decorate how they would like (if they want to be included in the process)
- Soccer sheets would be really fun — they can be tucked under a quilt and still make your child happy
- Feel free to ask for cut outs of your child’s favorite soccer star when you see them in store setups (or purchase on Etsy). I did this and my son was so thrilled:
Do you have any other creative ideas to create a sophisticated soccer themed bedroom? Doing so takes some patience to find and collect items, but it’s so fun to see it all come together. Take your time and fun with it!
More inspiration you may enjoy:
