Makeover Ideas for a Teenager's Bedroom

Color

• Every makeover starts with a color theme. This is your teen's room, so go with his style and color choices. Bright color combinations like fuchsia and red or blue and orange can seem fun when you start a makeover but may be overwhelming if you get too much color into a room. Judging the impact of the color of a wall looking at a paint chip can be misleading as a small chip doesn't give the visual impact of a whole wall. Selecting a color several shades lighter than a paint chip will help keep the color from being too strong. Instead of painting all walls the same color, paint only one display wall a bright color and the other three walls either a lighter version or a dulled down contrasting color. Choose butter yellow walls to contrast with a bright orange or spring green display wall, or light pink to tone down a fuchsia wall in a teen girl's room.

Geometric Forms

• While you're planning to paint, brush geometric forms on either the ceiling or walls. If your teen wants bright turquoise walls, temper the impact by painting giant white circles or triangles. Alternatively, you can paint a series of nested triangles that shift from a bright color to a pastel color or vice versa. If your teen is talented and into science, let him paint giant molecules or the solar system on the wall. Other easy silhouettes, such as music symbols, guitars, or animal shapes, can also help create a room that expresses your teen's interests and breaks up a long stretch of wall.

Study Area

• One of the most important objects in a teen's room, besides the bed, is a desk or study area. Even if you have a family computer room, your teen will need quiet time to study and organize her books and homework. Providing a comfortable, well-lit desk or workbench will encourage her to spend more time studying, and a bookcase is convenient for reference books and displaying stuffed animals. The desk will need to be deeper if you're putting a computer on it, and factor in that she's still growing. You can easily swap out a chair, but if you put in a desk that's too low, it won't be serviceable for long.

Teen Idols

• Teens love to display images of their favorite musicians, actors or pop stars. Plan a wall of posters and photos across from the bed for easy daydream gazing. You can either frame the posters or glue them on hardboard and hang them on the wall. But for extra enjoyment, obtain a standee, a standing cardboard cutout, of his favorite actress or singer. For inexpensive wall decorations, you can cut out pictures from an entertainment magazine and frame them just like a photo.

Beds

• Bed canopies can change an ordinary bed into a private get-away. You can extend sides of the canopy so that they hang down, forming a small cave. Make the project easy on yourself by attaching the sides with hook-and-loop fabric for easy cleaning. You can even have several different side enclosures, allowing your teen to change the appearance of her room when she likes. Creative canopies with extended sides are especially useful when a room is shared between two children, allowing one child to study while the other sleeps in her own personal cave.