You may be lucky enough to have a perfectly behaved teenager living in your home or you may belong to one of the millions of families with typical, slightly out-of-control offspring. The teenager will probably want to make too much noise, be unlikely to see the merits of your lovingly crafter living room designs or of being tidy, and will have ideas on decoration that involve sticking things other than wallpaper on walls. You will need a completely different approach to that used for your youngest child’s playroom design ideas when dealing with a teenager.
He/she may well develop into a proud home owner in the future, but meanwhile, accepting that ‘teenagers will be teenagers’ will go a long way towards harmonious living in the home you share with a child-adult going through a prolonged youth crisis.
Deciding upon just how much isolation each of you wants or thinks is desirable is a matter for negotiationand the outcome will probably determine which room in the house is selected for the teenager’s room. A converted loft or basement could provide an ideal self-contained space where neither party’s life impinges too greatly on the other – a place where friends can be entertained, noise made and privacy maintained.
The teenager’s involvement in deciding upon the decoration of the room is very important if he/she is to have any respect for his/her surroundings and if he/she is to be encouraged to maintain them well.
Teenage years are a great time for experimentation and, although mistakes will surely be made, it is hoped that lessons will also be learned. An interior designer specializing in young people’s living room designs has been quoted as saying: ‘Ask them what they want, then bargain!’ This seems a fairly sensible approach to adopt.
As in the younger child’s playroom, it is a good idea when formalizing your living room design ideas to create zones for different activities within the teenager’s den. In the sleeping area, duvets are an easy solution to bed-making and you may wish to make provisions for friends staying overnight – say, bunk beds or a day bed that can also be used for seating during the day. Hammocks strung across the beams in a loft ceiling are a fun idea for the teenager with frequent guests.
An ideal study area would be located in the vicinity of a good source of natural light and would have a number of electrical sockets positioned nearby. Space for a work surface, a bookcase and housing for computer equipment should be allowed for. A flexible storage unit is also a good idea for accommodating a television and audio equipment.
The provision of personal bathing facilities within the room itself will free more bathroom time for the rest of the family. Most teenagers seem to prefer a shower to a bath and, as this is more economical and takes up less space, the idea could be encouraged. A cubicle might be housed within a wall of deep cupboards or in a small room annex.
Sometimes it seems as though teenagers think of little else apart from their clothes, so a dressing space will be an important area of the room. A walk-in closet is ideal: it provides lots of space and can be shut out of view at will. Alternatively large cupboards with masses of hanging space and a full length mirror could be provided. A system of wire baskets within a metal framework works well for the quick ‘filing’ of items of clothing within a cupboard, and a rail on castors behind a curtain makes a cheap wardrobe substitute.
Decoration ideas are soon outgrown, so a flexible scheme is likely to be the most successful. Plain walls of an oil-based paint will provide a good background on to which posters and so on can be attached (and replaced when no longer in favor) and non-themed soft-furnishing fabrics will give the room d?cor longevity. A carpet with thick underlay will help to prevent noise pollution.