There are millions of families with normal, somewhat out-of-control children. You may be one of the lucky ones with a well-behaved adolescent. There is a good chance that the adolescent will not appreciate your meticulously crafted living room designs or the need of keeping it clean, and will instead come up with creative ways to decorate the walls. When designing a teenager’s playroom, you’ll need to take an entirely different strategy than you did when designing a playroom for your younger child.
Accepting that ‘teens will be teenagers’ can go a long way toward peaceful coexistence in the house you share with a child-adult going through a long-term adolescent crisis is a good place to start.
What level of isolation each of you wants or believes is desirable is an issue for discussion, and the decision will likely decide which room in the house is chosen for your teen. Converting your loft or basement into a separate living area might be a terrific way to keep your personal life separate from that of your significant other.
If the teen is to have any regard for his/her surroundings and be encouraged to keep them correctly, he/she must be involved in the design of the room.
Even though mistakes will undoubtedly be made, it is anticipated that valuable lessons will be learnt throughout the formative years of adolescence. “Ask them what they want, then negotiate!” advises an interior designer who concentrates on designing living rooms for young people. This looks like a reasonable strategy to follow.
When planning the layout of your teenager’s den, think of it as designing a playroom for a smaller child: divide the space into distinct areas for different types of activity. As far as bedding goes, duvets are a simple answer to bed-making while bunk beds or a daybed that can also double as seats may be necessary if you want to have overnight guests. If your adolescent has a lot of visitors, you might want to consider hanging hammocks from the ceiling beams of the loft.
To have an excellent study place, it should be close to a source of natural light, and there should be a lot of adjacent power outlets. This has a work desk, a bookcase, and storage space for computer equipment. Additionally, a flexible storage container may be used to store a television and audio equipment.
Personal bathing facilities in the room itself will free up extra bathroom time for the rest of your family members. This is a good concept because it is more cost-effective and takes up less room to shower rather than bathe an adolescent. Depending on the location, a cubicle may be situated in a wall of deep closets or in a tiny room annex.
A dressing area will be a crucial aspect of the room for teens, who are often obsessed with their wardrobes. Ideal is a large walk-in closet that can be closed off from the rest of the room when not in use. A full-length mirror and roomy cabinets with plenty of hanging space are also viable options. System of wire baskets inside metal framework works well for the rapid “filing” of pieces of clothes in cabinet, and behind curtain is a closet alternative with casters on castors.
The most successful decorating strategies are those that can be adapted as the child’s tastes and needs change over time. Plain walls painted with an oil-based paint can be used as a backdrop for posters and other artwork, and non-themed soft-furnishing textiles can be used to keep the room’s decor fresh. Noise pollution may be reduced by using a carpet with a thick underlay.