A teen room needs to be a reflection of her personality, so
it is only fitting that the bulk of the decorating should fall on her
shoulders. You should help with the initial discussions and planning stages,
but once the decisions have been made, your teen needs to take over.
Of course you don’t want the project to turn into a money
nightmare so set limits from the get-go. Go over the budget with your teen, and
come up with the cheapest way to get the right look. Your best bet is to use
lots of paint and bargain or thrift store items—then let your teen go wild.
The walls should be a blank canvas where your teen can show
her true personality. Paint is so cheap and the colors are endless so there
will be quite a bit of room for originality. If you don’t have the means to
completely change the walls, then borders, stencils, stamps and potato/sponge
painting are all good ways to add character to a room without doing a complete
wall makeover.
Multi-functional furniture is another way to save money. Buy
stackable wooden crates or cubbies to be used as shelves, storage and a place
for knick-knacks and books. Many times you can find these at thrift or discount
stores and that is okay, because your teen can repaint or stain them and
decorate the sides with appliqués and stencils.
Shelves are a lifesaver when it comes to making extra room
and keeping things off the floors. Purchase cheap metal brackets and pieces of
wood from the lumber store and let your teen paint or varnish the wood before
attaching to the wall. When it comes to a teen room, there can never be enough
shelving space.
Changing the headboard on the bed can make a dramatic change
to a room. The easiest way for your teen to do this is to apply panels of
fabric, wallpaper or use stencils that can be placed on the wall directly
behind the head of the bed. Take the theme one step further and sew sheets that
match the wall pattern or sew strips of the same fabric that is used on the
wall onto a comforter or blanket to complete the look. Your local hobby shop or
decorating store should be able to tell you what type of adhesive you can use
to adhere the fabric to the wall.
If you have a creative teen you can purchase dollar store
items that can be manipulated into really cool stuff for the walls, or to be
used as shelf decorations. Candles, vases, rocks, incense, baskets, frames,
silk flowers and stencils can all be purchased at the dollar stores and used to
create a room that is unique.
It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money in order to give your
teen a room to be proud of; it just takes imagination and some elbow grease to
make the magic happen.
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