Where in years gone past, it was fairly common to find houses being listed with standard bedrooms for children who would share a separate family bathroom, there has been a shift to more customised living spaces for teenagers.
READ: From tween to teen | Here is how you can decorate a teen bedroom
According to the Seeff Property Group it is now fairly common to start with a baby room, migrate that to a toddler room and then later to a teenage room or pad. The older children become, the more time they tend to spend in their rooms. Teenagers also tend to have more stuff in their rooms.
Teenagers often want a space with less of a bedroom and more of a living space. In addition to a study area and more seating because they may often have friends over, some may want a gaming area. This may require floor space that you simply do not have with many standard bedrooms.
As far as possible, a teenager should have an adult bed. They would also need more mature décor and bedding, so when your child nears the age of 13-years, it is probably time to redesign and redecorate the room.
In addition to the basics of a place to sleep and study, you teenager may potentially want more seating, and space for gaming. For those who have the space, they may want their own shower room and some may welcome direct access to the outside, especially when they get older.
The first most obvious is to enlarge the room with a building extension. This will require a professionally drawn up plan and local municipality approval. When doing this, you could for example add on a shower room and turn it into a suite.
READ: How to help teens cope with moving house
Another idea might be to convert an existing single or double garage to a teenage pad and to build a new garage or carport in its place. Generally, a garage conversion will also require a building plan and local municipal approval.
If you are unable to enlarge the room or add on, you could consider reconfiguring the room. One interesting space-saving trend is to have a custom-built bed made which is raised (similar to the top bunk concept) and to then create a study and chill area in the space below.
Home-Dzine offers tips and tricks to help you get started:
It can be difficult to decorate for a teenager, but with clever planning you can design a room that incorporates all the elements a teenager needs for a calm and practical bedroom.
Teenagers spend a lot of time in their room, which is why they need a place that is designed to offer space to hang out with friends, do homework, and chill. We know that not every home has the luxury of a large bedroom and that sometimes you need to be creative with a small space. That's why we put together some ideas to inspire your next decorating project.
Choosing the perfect colour:
The first step in decorating any room, especially one for a teenager, is to choose the perfect wall colour and to not make this decision on your own. It is important to allow your teen to join the conversation when it comes to making choices for paint colour, fabric selection, and furniture options. A room with colour definitely has more personality than one in neutral or a single colour, but try not to go overboard and bring in too many colours in large doses.
Working within the 60-30-10 principle, choose a single, refreshing colour for the walls (60%), a neutral hue for furniture (30%), and a few colourful accessories that create a cohesive feel (10%).
In this teen room a light blue colour was selected for the walls. This colour was a personal choice but also ties in with some already owned accessories and bed linen. Black-and-white fabics, floor rugs, and bed linen give the room a grown-up feel.
Piles of pillows and a mixture of soft lighting to provide various levels of light make a comfortable area for both sleep and relaxation, or to have a comfy spot to read, sit with a laptop, or listen to music. Wall shelves above the bed display treasures and are used for storage without taking up any valuable floor space.
Clear the clutter:
Kids of any age can be messy and it's hard to keep a small room uncluttered and tidy. Wall shelves above the desk help to corral essential stationery. It's easy to make your own floating shelves with little more than a hollow-core door. Extra storage is provided with a rail and painted recycled plastic containers to hold pens and pencils. Recycled cans wrapped with fabric and colourful bunting made from fabric scraps house more stationary supplies essential for homework.
Next to the desk, a plain white bookcase houses a collection of favourite reads and school books. Clutter is contained in cardboard storage boxes and help to keep the small room neat and tidy. Practical furniture is always a good investment and can be used until your children move out.
Get creative
Allow your teen to decorate their room using their own creativity. In this bedroom a mini art gallery is mounted on one wall using a selection of frames in various sizes and with black and white frames. Your teen can create his or her own collection of pictures, posters, and photos, make their own frames, and change them as often as they like!
Create the illusion of space by adding a few mirror squares to blank walls. These not only add decoration, but also bounce light around the room and make a room feel larger. As an alternative to mirror squares you can also mount a long, rectangular mirror. Use heavy-duty, double-sided mounting tape suitable for mirrors to secure to walls.
Sharpie fabric pens are perfect if you want to add detail to plain, white cotton fabrics. Place a piece of cardboard inside pillow cases before adding patterns or designs. Nowadays you can buy Sharpie fabric pens at craft and hobby.
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