Essential bedroom design for your teenager

With the new school year around the corner, now is a good time to think about re-designing your teenager’s bedroom. There is a lot to think about, so we suggest considering separate spaces for sleep, study and storage, while allowing room for creative expression. Here are the key considerations

Creating a hard-working, multi-purpose room

Study

A separate study space is ideal for a teenager to help them focus on their work away from distractions. We’d suggest plenty of storage for files/ stationery accessories is important here, as well as providing a dedicated desk area, even if it’s a small one. We recommend including a dedicated digital zone, with USB charging ports, for example. This will hopefully encourage a screen-free area nearer the bed – this is an excellent life skill to foster from an early age.

Lighting

Ensuring good quality, ideally directional lighting in dedicated study areas and near the bed (for night-time reading)is really important –to encourage focussed work/ an enjoyable environment to read for pleasure. If possible, including some ambient lighting, for example string lights will bring a softer lighting component to the space for relaxation. Consider lighting positions early on in planning the space so you can ensure sockets, switches and fittings are in the correct position.

Window coverings

Having a dark, calm sleeping environment is one of the key components of bedroom design. Teenage years are a period of much physical and emotional growth, so adequate good-quality rest is important. Fitting blackout blinds will help and, if they can be persuaded, set devices to night-mode at bed-time to foster solid sleeping patterns.

Storage

Unless you have the luxury of space in the teenager’s bedrooms, choosing multi-functional furniture is a worth considering. Having a bed that lifts up to expose secondary storage, or a bed frame that includes drawers or shelving will help ensure you can include separate hang-out, study and sleep areas. Adequate, easy to use storage will also help to encourage tidy habits, clear clutter out of sight, and ensure that the teen has places for clothing, accessories and other items needed to express themselves.

Designing a personalised & private space

Colour/personal touches

Encourage your teenage child to express themselves, within reason, by allowing them to choose colours, design styles and objects to decorate the room.

Flexibility

Teenager’s tastes and interests can change frequently so it’s a good idea to build in opportunities to alter how these are expressed in their rooms. You could facilitate this by incorporation of pegboards, magnetic panels or chalkboards, where interests can be constantly updated while keeping walls free from blue-tack or tape, and thumbtacks.

Dedicated hang-out space

If there’s room, incorporating a dedicated relaxation space into the bedroom is an excellent idea. Many teenagers seek privacy, so having a spot for them away from the rest of the house gives them just that. This area could include beanbags and soft rugs to create an inviting chill-out zone.

Greenery

We love incorporating greenery into any teenager’s bedroom to add an air-cleaning and biophilic component, encourage nurturing and taking responsibility, and they also look great from a decorative point of view.

For more advice, get in touch!