Designing for Tweens

My husband and I are almost outnumbered by tweens. Girl tweens at that.

Lots of opinions and developing senses of style swirling around among other things we can’t influence like hormones. I want to respect them but also need to live with them and the spaces they create so it becomes a balancing act.

I gave them free-range-ish veto on their room designs. We also set a loose budget so they could begin to understand the give and take that has to happen in just about every financial decision and to guide them in setting priorities. For example: sheets are going to trump accessories.

Plan It

My daughters developed space plans determining what size bed they preferred, whether a desk was important and if they wanted a reading chair (or a place to pile laundry – potato, potAHto). Graph paper allowed this to happen to scale in a snap and let them place pieces they already had in situ.

TIP: cut scale furniture out of either graph paper or coloured paper and then place them in the scaled space. Saves time to not have to draw, draw again and re-draw everytime you want to move something or play with angles.

Colouring In

A trip to Benjamin Moore allowed them to narrow colour choices and start to build a palette – something I insisted had some flexibility. Those colour chips are the bomb – portable and provide shades and tones for that flexibility. Matchy-poo is stranger danger and totally limiting.

It Is ALL Online

The internet has forever changed sourcing. I can accomplish an insane amount in my pajamas without leaving my kitchen. Plus there is simply more online than will ever be on a showroom floor. You still have to sit in pieces, or like pieces, when you can and definitely feel fabric but it allows you to widdle down the millions of options to a handful and makes your pavement pounding targeted and super productive.

I have a few go-to sites for kids spaces my favorites being ZaraHome, Pottery Barn Teens and Dwell Studios and I mix them all together. The most successful bedrooms are layered and relaxed and you simply can’t get that from one stop shopping.

And the kids loved surfing and looking at finished spaces – it inspired and informed their visions for what they wanted for themselves. Everything, except their nightstands, were purchased online, even artwork. Mic drop.

 

My favorite bit in all of this? With the girls legitimately involved in designing their spaces, we created something uniquely ‘them’ but also something they were proud of which has translated into taking care of their rooms. I know. I think I may get them to design the basement……

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