If your teenager is anything like I was, her room is a constant mess.
I remember having to wade through piles of books and clothes to get to my bed, which was never made.
Despite all of the mess, my walls were always decorated to the nines and reflected my interests and personality.
Whether your kid is a neatnik or a slob, the teen bedroom is an important reflection of their personality and expression of their growing independence.
The ability to decorate the room to create a place of their own is incredibly important, but as parents it’s difficult not to wince when Sally says she wants to paint the walls in black and white tiger stripes.
One possible suggestion to this problem is to steer her (or him) toward adjusting the window treatments. With windows, they can express their personal style in a less permanent manner.
Teen Window Ideas
Above all, the window treatments should reflect your teen’s personality. Certainly, there are some curtain lines targeted to teens, but generally they focus on teen girls, and the options are relatively limited.
It is easy, however, to add a few decorative touches to plain curtains, blinds, or shutters to make them work wonderfully in your teen’s bedroom. Consider his or her interests and see if you can’t come up with an option that really reflects who they are.
With a few stencils or some glue, you can take a plain window treatment and really make it pop.
Some examples of how you might customize window treatments for teen girls are:
- The animal print fanatic – For a girl who loves zebra or cheetah prints, you can certainly buy drapes in that print, but you have other options as well. Consider purchasing sheers and painting in the stripes or dots in a bright color. The pop of color would be especially welcome in a room done mostly in black and white. Or buy a roller shade and glue a strip of fur onto the bottom to add texture. You could tie it into the room with some furry pillows to match.
- The exotic bedroom – Exotic bedrooms with deep colors and Indian-inspired prints are very big in teen girls’ rooms. The layered approach is the best way to go here, but why limit yourself to fabrics? Layer a few brightly colored sheers, and then accessorize them with strings of beads or copper coins, or pin bright jewels directly to the fabric. You can also use these accessories to tie the curtains back out of the way to let in the light.
- The punk rock girl – For a girl into the punk rock theme, or one who simply likes music, why not raid their music and poster collection to help create a window treatment? String blank CDs with fishing wire and drape them over the curtain rod. Or purchase some wooden shutters; print out photos of her favorite music groups, and decoupage them onto the shutters.
Some examples of how you might customize window treatments for a teenage boy are:
- The sports fan – Again, you can default to curtains in a sports-themed print, but there are other options. Consider buying plain fabric panels or a roller shade and add a row of sports-themed iron on patches to the bottom. This idea would work especially well in a NASCAR themed bedroom.
- The surfer dude – Bamboo blinds or other woven woods work well with a surf theme. Consider buying some secondhand Hawaiian shirts in crazy patterns and throw them over the rods as an impromptu valance. Or buy some wooden shutters and decoupage them with surf-print scrapbook paper.
- For the cowboy – For a guy who likes horses, the rodeo, or the country, try stringing bandannas up for a valance or attach one to the bottom of a roller shade as a pull cord. You could also use a length of rope as a tieback.
