You might not have heard the term ‘boy room’ before, but you already know what it is. A mattress on the floor, a single (yellow) pillow, an overused Gatorade bong. Essentially a boy room is a grubby nest that an adult man inhabits as his bedroom. They’ve existed silently under the covers for decades, but TikTok star Rachel Coster has ripped off the sheets to expose them in all their (not so beautiful) glory. The result? A viral TikTok series aptly named Boy Room.
“It’s a room that’s totally messy, no places for any of your stuff, garbage where garbage shouldn’t be, and no sort of personal flair or decor,” Coster told PEDESTRIAN.TV. “Or like, the personal flair and decor is totally disgusting.”
Her Boy Room series takes TikTok users inside the bedrooms of New York’s grubbiest. Coster had the idea after her friend brought a girl back to his house, only for her to immediately leave after seeing the state of it. She wanted to help him fix up his room, and thought that maybe it could make a great video. She told a friend about her idea, who responded, “Oh, we have to do this.”
Millions of views later and Coster has a viral hit on her hand. For many women who have rocked up to a guy’s room and been shocked by the state of the mess, it rings true.
“I think that boys don’t get the same messaging [as girls]… like boys would never go over to each other’s rooms and be like ‘hey man are you okay? Your room is kind of messy,’” said Coster.
After falling down a Boy Room rabbit hole, I couldn’t help but reflect on the boy rooms I’ve endured in my time. No bed frame with a mattress thrown on the floor, tupperware containers fluorescent green with mould, and even a bunk bed (don’t ask).
So, I wanted to investigate if Australian men have worse boy rooms than American ones. After all, Australian men are known for being awful communicators, holding fish in their dating app profiles, and giving you chlamydia. Australian men are notoriously worse daters than American men — so surely they have worse boy rooms, right? So I put it to Rachel asking who she believes would have the worst rooms out of US and Aussie guys.
“I feel like kids in Australia are just a lot funnier,” Coster said. “So I would imagine that Australian boys are a little better than American boys, but I have no idea.”
So with a hazmat suit at the ready and courage in my heart, I entered some of Australia’s worst boy bedrooms.
Eli’s Boy Room
First up was Eli, a 26-year-old living in Sydney’s inner west. From the second I entered his home I knew I was deep in boy room territory. From the damp couch in the living room, to the framed Vin Diesel picture hanging pride of place in the toilet anointed by hordes of used toilet rolls, I knew that just upstairs laid a boy room to behold.
Eli’s bed room met all the criteria Rachel outlined. Extremely messy, no places for any of his things, and the most bizarre personal styling I think I’ve ever seen. If you were feeling generous, you could describe his interior style as “eclectic”. If you weren’t, then you could just say that Eli’s bedroom might single-handedly put Aussie boy rooms on the map.
His room was small but cosy, and the unmade bed was a nice touch. A white fluffy cat that laid on his bed unperturbed by the chaos around it. I could imagine it having a field day getting lost in all of Eli’s things.
He told me his love for trinkets knows no bounds and all the things in his room are “stuff you don’t know you want, but you want it”.
Eli’s room included a highly realistic fake fish. In fact, he had three of them.
I asked Eli if the sheer number of items littered about his room ever made him feel stressed or overwhelmed. “No,” he replied. Fair enough king. Reflecting on this, I was left unsure if the old receipts and eight empty cups next to the bed were something that I personally wanted, but that’s the boy room perspective for you.
Cam’s Boy Room
Cam is 24 and lives closer to the city centre. When I arrived he wanted to let me in but unfortunately could not as he had forgotten his keys. Once Cam broke into his house his boy room was revealed.
From a first peak Cam’s room has beautiful natural light, but don’t ever let good lighting fool you. A boy room is still a boy room.
Cam’s room is medium-sized with a big monstera plant and an even bigger desk. His clothes hang on a metal rack he’s mounted to the wall and the light shines bright due to the lack of curtains.
He walked me through some of his favourite items, which included a signed photo of Jackie Chan and a one metre banner advertising pickle juice. Once I pointed out that the banner could work as a surrogate curtain, Cam quickly put me to work. Did we improve his boy room by hanging a make-shift pickleback curtain? It’s hard to say, but I’d guess no.
I asked Cam if anyone has ever told him he has a boy room. He thought hard on this for a full 30 seconds, then replied: “Probably, but it’s gotten a lot better over the years.”
If this is better, then I fear for what came before.
Australian Boy Rooms vs American Boy Rooms
Both Eli and Cam’s room share a certain flair and zainess to them that aren’t as visibly present in American boy rooms. There’s a playfulness that shines to the fore and it’s probably linked to the easy going, fun loving demeanour Australians are known for.
While I wouldn’t say the Australian rooms are particularly better or worse than the American ones, the style of Australian boy rooms are precise. I would call it a sense of ‘playful chaos.’
If you ever find yourself in the depths of a boy room in Australia, know you are not alone. Boy rooms are endemic and have been sweeping the world for decades, and unfortunately, one of the only known cures is “getting a girlfriend”.
Here’s hoping that one day we can arrive at a boy’s house without having to wade through empty glasses and piles of sheets on an unmade bed.
Until then, we can take pride in the eccentric je ne sais quoi Australian boy rooms have over American bedrooms, because well, at least we have that.
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