Update Your Daughter's Bedroom for the Teen Years

When your daughter is an infant, her room may be a mass of pink bows and dolls. This decor scheme will carry her bedroom through her young childhood quite well in most cases. However, once your daughter gets close to the teen years, she will probably want the decor in her bedroom to change.

Of course, you first need feedback from your daughter. As a girl nears twelve or thirteen, she will want more independence and more input in what her bedroom should look like. Parents should be receptive to this, within reason. Sit down with your daughter and come up with a plan that fits in to a particular budget. Some of the ideas below can help.

Walls and Floor Coverings

The first thing to change in your daughter's bedroom is her walls and floor coverings. If the walls or rug are a color that she does not like for her teen years, you can replace them. Wallpaper can be stripped and replaced, or pastel colored walls can be painted with colors that are more fashionable. Your daughter can even decorate her walls with tapestries, posters, or other inexpensive coverings.

If it is not feasible to pull up the existing rug and replace it, you can change the look of the room by purchasing throw rugs and covering the old rug with them. Tearing up the old rug and using wood or tile flooring is another option.

Furniture Changes

Purchasing a whole new bedroom suite for your teen daughter is often too expensive to consider. If the existing furniture is bedecked with childish flowers or teddy bears, they can be stripped and repainted. There are also a wide variety of decal transfers and decoupage possibilities for a bedroom make over.

Plain furniture can get a teen style update with new hinges and knobs in your daughter's favorite color or design. A frilly canopy bed can be replaced by mosquito netting or beaded curtains.

New Accessories