Teenagers can be hard to live with. Not all of them, but in general, a bag of hormones in an immature body means that you are dealing with a potential time bomb of emotion. The only way to deal with unpredictability is by communication – and independence! Giving the teenager in your household their own bedroom is a great way to communicate to them that you appreciate their need for individuality, privacy and somewhere to hide when the world gets a little too much for them.
Trying to make space if your house is a little crowded, however, is an issue that a lot of families find harder to overcome. You can’t magic an extra bedroom out of nowhere and building one to the side of the house is a project some families cannot afford. Never fear, though! If your house has an attic big enough to turn into a bedroom, your problem is solved. Well, it’s solved in the abstract. Attic spaces take a lot of work to transform from the place that holds all the stored antiques and items you can’t bear to let go of, to a room that is fit for use. There are some things you need to do before your teenager can move into that part of the house, including things like potentially getting rid of damp and tackling resident pests.
Private space to explore individuality is an essential to a teenager. Growing pains don’t just happen physically, but emotionally. If they’re sharing a bedroom with the baby of the house, or a little brother or sister who gets into their things, the discord in the house will be very obvious! Space isn’t easy to come by unless you’ve brought a sprawling pad that doesn’t need much adjustment and has room for everyone – again, not everyone can afford something like that. Transforming the space you have is good for the purse as well as for the harmony of the household. There are plenty of online ideas that you can look at to see what kind of way you can decorate and furnish an attic bedroom – like these! Attics are thought of as dark, dank places that hold the water tank and a few friendly daddy long-legs spiders. They’re not normally thought of as a warm haven for a growing teenager to get some space and that’s why with these tips, you can make it exactly that.
Make A Plan
Knowing how you want your attic to look is important, and this includes light switches and where the outlets are going to go for plugging things in. Attics have a limited space as it is, but as long as you know you can fit the essentials like a bed, bureau and even a small desk space, you should be good to go. You want to maximise space without overcrowding.
Choose Your Layout
If you need to install windows in the attic, go for sky lights instead. This way, you won’t have to knock parts of the main walls of the house out and you create plenty of ventilation. Attics are on top of the house so the heat rises – you don’t want to end up warming your teen up too much! Tucking beds into the corners of the room means you open the floor space. A television and video console could sit on the floor, with a beanbag opposite to lounge on. If there’s a vent stack in the attic, build a bookshelf or desk over it to keep it hidden.
Insulate
If you install the right insulation to the attic, you can minimise sound travelling from walking around up there. You want it to be a teenage haven, but you don’t want to disturb the rest of the house if you can help it. Putting down carpet can go a long way towards this and you can also create somewhere cosy.
Furnish
This is the fun part. Take your teen with you to choose accessories for their new room. Let them stamp their personality all over it. It’s the one part of the house that is solely for their use. They can have friends over to stay on rollout sleeping bags and they can enjoy some peace and quiet away from younger siblings. Of course, you want them to come away downstairs and not simply hole up in there, but it’s the space that’s theirs.
With fewer fights over possessions and privacy, you’re pretty much guaranteeing almost perfect harmony and balance in your household. You don’t have to fight with your teenager if they have the space to grow and spread their wings. Independence has been fought for for many years, don’t let that happen in your house!