By the time our children reach their teenage years, the humble bedroom becomes more than just a place to sleep or play. It becomes a multifunctional space filled with technology, makeup, sporting equipment, and other teenager paraphernalia. Think along the lines of their bedroom as a studio flat, without the kitchen, (mum and dad you are still their personal chefs), or bathroom (your teenager will either be hogging the bathroom for hours on end or will avoid washing at all costs!)
Fortunately for you, you can transform their unkempt bedrooms into their own personal sanctuary that they will, hopefully, look after and respect. Your reward for creating the perfect space for your teenager? You might just get to keep a bit of your sanity as a parent, as their hormones kick in.
Having recently redesigned my own teenage daughter’s bedroom, I’ll share with you some tips on how I went about the process of creating the perfect space for her.
Zones
There is a lot to cram into a teenager’s bedroom, and the best way to attempt to redesigning your teenager’s space is to break it down into these four zones.
1. Sleep
2. Study
3. Dress
4. Relax/Socialise
Function – Use of Space
It may seem obvious, but write out a brief of how their space will be used. Below is an example of my teenage daughters brief.
- Sleeping
- Studying for her patisserie qualification
- Hobbies – reading
- Entertaining – having friends round
- Dressing
- Makeup & Hair Styling
- Relaxing – she likes to do this a lot!!
- Using her laptop for social and study purposes
Furniture & Usage Requirements
It maybe you are investing in new furniture to meet your teenagers needs so it is always a good idea to write down what furniture and how they will be using it. For my own teenage daughter, space was limited, and to be honest having a dressing table and a desk would have been too much for the space. Instead, a tall chest of drawers with a mirror above was more than adequate as an area to do her makeup and hair. Below is a list of furniture and usage requirements that my daughter needed for her space to function well.
- Bed
- Bedside table
- Desk for computer and studying
- Dressing Table – makeup and hair
- Storage – Makeup/Hair styling products/hair dryer (My daughter has more products than me!)
- Storage – Wardrobe/Drawers for Clothing/Shoes/Bags
- Seating – Desk and an informal seating area for relaxing in
- Storage – For her growing collection of cookery books!!
- Storage – General paperwork for college, stationery
TIP!
Think about the furniture that is necessary for the room to function well. Always, always assess storage issues and think long-term. If your teenager is an avid book reader, crafter, sewer, collector etc., you will always need to accommodate further storage requirements as inevitably these hobbies will grow!!
Lighting
Lighting should reflect the many different tasks that need to be carried out in a teenager’s room. It is a good idea to write out what your teenager requires to ensure you get the lighting right. Another example is shown below of my daughter’s requirements for her bedroom.
- Task Lighting for studying – Desk area
- Task Lighting – Makeup/Hair – Dressing table area
- Task lighting for reading – Desk, bed and relaxed seating area
- Good Ambient (General) Lighting – for navigation around room and dressing
- Bedside light – night-time reading
- Flexible lighting is required overall to this space as it is multifunctional. Dimmer switches will be included to create different ambient (mood) lighting.
TIP!
Look at what needs to be lit in the room from the beginning so that you can assess fixtures, electrical plugs etc. Lighting is really, really important in creating the perfect space! Think layers of light to any room you are designing for. These layers of light are general (ambient), task and decorative, and if you include accent lighting such as highlighting interior features ie., picture lighting to artwork, alcoves etc you will be on your way to creating a beautiful space.
Style
When dealing with a teenagers bedroom redesign, it is important to remember that you are designing a space that should reflect their personality and style, not yours!
Get your teenager to write down, pull out magazine pages, print off images, and photograph things that they like to help create a mood board that reflects their style and their choice. After all, it is their personal space, and involving them in the design process, will ensure that you will be on the right track. Ok, you might not want to incorporate all their ideas, but once they have given you some idea of what they would like, you can easily adapt that dark cave into a cool princely den to hang out in.
My daughter created the mood board below to assist me with redesigning her space. This gave me a good visual representation of what she liked in terms of colour and pattern, texture. Remember a mood board does not represent the end design at this stage, but more of a starting point with the design scheme.
The mood board created by my daughter, together with the design brief was one of the starting points to the design scheme process. |
End Note…
Sometimes, we can all be tempted to put onto our children our own personal style of what we like when redecorating. It’s easily done, you see a lovely cushion or throw, and think that would look nice. Warning!!! This is not a good idea, it will end up in disaster with an unhappy son or daughter, and they will not forgive you for your choices!! My advice to you is do not attempt to push your ideas unless they are happy with them. If they hate pink, don’t even think you can incorporate it into their personal space. Be open to their suggestions and thoughts, and they will thank you for it in the long run, and you never know they may just keep their bedroom that little bit tidier than before ;)
Until next time…..
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read today’s post!!
Maria x
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4 Comments
This is a major priority in my eyes Maria. I allowed my son to choose the design and layout of his personal space when he was younger, the downside of that, I rarely saw him lol!! The upside, he was comfortable in his own space and not afraid to invite his friends over. I was luckier with my daughter who had developed the same sense of eclectic style as her dear old mother. In this instance, I was able to indulge both myself and her in the ongoing design, result!!!! :D Brilliant and informative post. xx
Thanks Amanda for your lovely comments. How wonderful that your daughter has the same taste as yourself in eclecticism. It must have been a joy to design together :D x
Love this layout, you put so much work into this. My daughter has chosen some very lovely and grown up pieces from BoConcept Glasgow, I think you might like some of their stuff too. Definitely think we need to put together a mood board to keep focused going forward though, love that idea.
Thanks Ellie for your lovely comments! I’ll be sure to check out BoConcept. Thanks again. Maria ?