Make a teen bedroom you can both live with
Brave soul! You and your teen have agreed to redecorate his or her bedroom. But teens have needs, attitudes and ideas that don’t always correspond with what’s good for them, their parents or even the rest of humanity.
So how do the two of you make that space comfortable, inspiring and pleasing?
“The most important thing is colour choice,” says Jennifer Cross, principal designer at Juniper Lane and mother of four teens. “Colour has a huge effect on how we feel, and teens almost always choose a dark colour. They think of their room as a cave, and the almost universal teen mood is a dark one.”
Because dark colours are not the best way to greet the day, Cross suggests agreeing to a general colour, but negotiating a lighter shade of it or using your teen’s choice for a stylish accent wall.
“I’m not suggesting you cut them out of the process — it’s important they feel that it’s their room,” she says. “But take what they suggest and bump it up, give them guidance.”
The website houzz.com has a cavalcade of ideas and photos to help with colour selection in teens’ rooms (for example, houzz. com/paint-color-teenage-girlbedroom).
For information on paint colour and mood, visit the Paint Quality Institute website (paintquality. com/ homeowners/paint-design/ paint-color/color-moods.html).
When it comes to bedroom planning for teens, Ottawa-based interior decorator Susan Sykes suggests having them leaf through home-decorating magazines for appealing designs. Those designs can be adapted to fit your teen’s space.
If you’re doing a major overhaul of the room, start with a floor plan to figure out what fits and what doesn’t. Sketch it out or, better yet, clear the room and use pieces of paper to represent furniture and other items.
When buying furniture, think long-term, Catherine Pulcine of Decorating Den Interiors — The CPI Team suggests in an email.
“If it is quality pieces, they can be moved with the teen as they transition into a place of their own or off to post-secondary education. Otherwise it can be repurposed into the family home. Teen furnishings in a more adult feel and style can carry on for many years.”
Websites such as homeadorable. com brim with ideas from outfitting rooms with beanbag chairs and oversized pillows for visiting friends, to using carpeting and fabric to dampen sound.
MORE TIPS
Give your teen a budget and let him or her research products and prices to come up with a preliminary list of must-haves and would-like-to-haves. Then work together to whittle it down to size.
Adequate sleep is critical to everyone’s concentration and general well-being, and teens need nine or more hours a night, according to mayoclinic.com. A light-filtering blind and blackout draperies are the ideal combination, Pulcine says.
Cruise garage sales and thrift shops with your teen. You’ll be amazed how enthusiastic they get about their finds, and a coat of paint or new hardware transforms a bureau from old and beat-up to new and funky. Check items for bedbugs.
Encourage your teen to hang adventure or travel posters, suggests Cross. “They have a limited view of the world. It’s our job as parents to help them see broader perspectives.”