How to Give Teen Age Bedrooms Personality & Appeal

By Sherrie Le Masurier

There are certain things teen age bedrooms need in addition to standard items like a bed, desk, dresser and decorative touches like paint color and bedding to give your teen age bedroom its unique personality and appeal.

Prayer rugs and yoga mats are also great decor and comfort items as they are inexpensive and can easily be stored when not in use. 

Decorative lamps

While you do want to have sufficient lighting for reading and doing homework, teen age bedrooms also need lamps just for their decorative appeal. The styles of lamps these days are amazing and the selection vast.

What about hanging an Asian inspired paper lamp from your ceiling or adding a couple of wall sconces? Other ideas include lava lamps and stringing up some Christmas lights.

The cool thing about lighting is you can easily change the mood of your room. Mix and match your fixtures and bulbs to create ambient and task lighting that overlaps. Colored bulbs especially red and yellow ones are excellent for creating warm and inviting teen age bedrooms.

Another great way to enhance your room with a soft light is to put candles in front of a large mirror. Remember to always blow out your candles before turning in for the night. For safety sake you may want to use battery operated candles instead.

How to dress your windows

When it comes to dressing the windows of teen age bedrooms you can opt for floor length curtains in addition to roller shades to give you’re a soft and romantic look or you can creatively layer a variety of fabrics like silk, chintz, and lace.

If soft and romantic isn’t your thing, what about making curtains out old T-shirts or bandanas, or topping a pull down shade with a window valance made of gift bags or old record albums (found at thrift shops).

Other cool ideas include stacking glass blocks against your window to give you privacy while at the same time letting in light. Or give your window a stained glass look. This can be achieved different ways - you can hang an old stained-glass window in front of your existing one, use window paints to give you the look of stained-glass or take the permanent option and try your hand at creating a true stained-glass window using a kit.

Room dividers and instant coverage

If you’re looking to divide teen age bedrooms in half (in the case you have to share with a sibling) why not drape some funky fabric over a curtain rod? Curtain rods come in a variety of lengths and can be easy screwed into your walls using four eye hooks (one on each end of the rod and two in the walls.)

The same technique can be used to hide unsightly areas like open closets or storage shelves.

Area rugs and natural matting

Nothing livens up the flooring in teen age bedrooms more than a colorful area rug.
Funky and functional area rugs can be found at thrift shops for next to nothing but you may also want to factor in the cost of renting a carpet cleaner or steamer to get rid of any dirt or odor. I’ve also found many good area rugs at garage sales – I usually only have to vacuum and leave them outside for a short period of time before spraying with an odor neutralizer like Fabreeze. Sometimes all you need to do to give a throw rug a new lease on life is to sew on a decorative fringe.

If you love shag carpets check out stores like Urban Outfitters, Target, Winners and IKEA who all offer a great variety of colors, shapes, sizes and textures.

Depending on the look and feel you’re trying to create your teen room you may want to consider another good teen age bedrooms flooring option – natural matting. This kind of flooring is eco-friendly and blends nicely with many different teen room decorating schemes. In addition to providing great insulation, natural matting feels awesome under your feet. Pier 1 Imports is a great source for natural matting which is often features sea grass, husks and jute in its composition.

Wall art

When it comes to wall art you can’t beat the bargains you get a garage sale or thrift shop. Here you’ll find endless options like oil portraits, water color paintings, folk art, and old B&W photos of people you don’t know but would look awesome in teen age bedrooms done in a vintage style.

You should also be able to find a ton empty picture frames for next to nothing. Spray paint them a color that blends nicely with your walls and then be creative with what you fill them with - old hankies, wallpaper scraps, charcoal drawings, family photos, vintage Barbie clothes etc.

Remember wall art doesn’t always need a frame. What about hanging up decorative fans, old plates, dried flower bouquets, old record albums, hats, or favorite T-shirts?

Knickknacks & Bric-a-brac

Nothing says more about a person than the stuff we surround ourselves with. Teen age bedrooms with personality have a collection of things that reflect the owner’s unique style. While it’s true too much stuff can overpower a room and leave it in a constant state of overwhelm, a few select knickknacks displayed creatively can really add to the appeal of your room. To avoid a cluttered look, arrange your bric-a-brac by topic, color, texture or shape. If you have lots of stuff you aren’t ready to part with – consider boxing some of it up and reintroducing it into your room on a rotating basis like at the start of every new season.