Decorating a baby’s room is all about what mom and dad want. But decorating a bedroom for a ’tween child is more complicated.
It’s a great place to give growing adolescents some creative freedom. But will they reject at age 12 the color palette and furniture they begged for when they were 10?
Here, designers Michelle Workman of Michelle Workman Interiors, Brian Patrick Flynn of Flynnside Out Productions and Betsy Burnham of Burnham Design offer advice on designing a ’tween bedroom that has ample storage, homework space and enough cool style to keep kids happy year after year.
COOLER COLORS
Kids love color, but it’s practical to start with a neutral base. Flynn suggests going all-white on walls and ceiling but adding texture “to keep all-white from reading flat or sterile.”
“I use 1-inch-by-10-inch pine planks on the walls and install it horizontally,” he says, “then have it all whitewashed or painted solidly. This brings architecture to the room and also creates a linear backdrop for showcasing favorite things.”
Workman recently designed a bedroom for a 10-year-old boy with gray walls and cabinetry. “Gray allows you to layer either cool or warm colors on top,” she says, “whereas beige tends to only work with warm colors, and then the room becomes too warm.”
She added a navy leather sofa (“a pullout for sleepovers,” she says, “and leather only gets better with age”), plus a rug, throw pillows, an ottoman and chairs that included shades of orange and turquoise. The result: playful but not immature.
What if your kids have their hearts set on colors you think won’t work?
Respect their input, Burnham says, but adjust the shades as necessary: “It’s your house, too. If you don’t want a schoolbus-yellow wall, what can you live with? Maybe a dijon, or maybe the school-bus yellow is his bedside lamp.”
If your daughter wants purple, “maybe it’s a gray lavender,” she says, or another shade of purple that “she won’t get sick of in six months.”
WILDER WALLS
For walls, “’tweens and teens tend to favor bold patterns, and find wallpaper cool due to its vintage, retro appeal,” Flynn says.
“If wallpaper is too much of a commitment,” he adds, “consider a graphic treatment on the walls with paint. Stripes are classic and gender-neutral.”
SMARTER STORAGE
Toys, trophies, books, papers and a whole lot of electronics: Kids have an awful lot of stuff.
Burnham suggests choosing a wall “that can accommodate 18 inches of depth or 22 inches of depth,” and have built-in cabinets and shelves installed.
“Built-in cabinetry is so very handy in a ’tween room,” Workman says. It allows “an easy transition to a teenage space” because you’re not dealing with furniture that the child may no longer like.
Custom carpentry can be quite expensive, but it’s an investment in your home’s value. You can save money by using less expensive wood or MDF (medium-density fiberboard). And “don’t be afraid to use Ikea as a resource for inexpensive cabinetry that can be given a built-in look by adding crown molding and baseboards,” Workman says.
For free-standing storage pieces, Flynn suggests hitting a flea market or garage sale: “This way, the ’tween has something cool that becomes a huge part of their room’s design, but also is packed with practicality. Some of my go-to items are Danish modern desks with sleek drawers, rustic metal lockers and three-drawer dressers to use as nightstands.”
UNEXPECTED FINDS
“’Tweens are still finding themselves, so it’s tricky to decorate their rooms with one particular style,” Flynn says.
His preferred style for ’tweens? “Eclectic.”
Workman agrees that vintage pieces — especially those already banged-up and scratched to perfection — are perfect for older kids’ bedrooms. Old chairs can be recovered in fresh fabrics, and antique furniture can shine with a new coat of glossy paint.
“I like to use vintage items, and industrial style for a ’tween boy’s bedroom,” Workman says. “I created a huge lighted sign out of tin letters that spelled out the boy’s name. There was a definite cool factor to this.”
To tie disparate flea-market finds together, keep the color scheme consistent. And to protect the tops of desks, dressers and tables, Burnham advises having a piece of glass cut to cover them.
“I am a real believer in creating a kids/’tween/teen room that utilizes classic ‘adult’ fabrics and furnishings,” Workman says. “I had a client that had no fear using antiques in her children’s rooms, and those children had a deep respect not only for their own space but for the rest of the home as well. She never had to redecorate those rooms, because they went from child to adult with only a change from stuffed animals and toys to guitars and drums.”