Part of designing a room is making sure that it has the right kind of light, and one of the best options for light is natural lighting. Including as much natural light in the room as possible, makes any room more attractive and cheerful. Natural light will also help to warm the room and save energy since you will not need to have as much artificial lighting where you have abundant natural lighting.

Paint It Light to Keep It Bright

When you are selecting the color for your walls, remember that light colors are great to make a room seem even brighter, because they help reflect light back into the room. Light colors on the walls will also intensify the effect of any wall decor, whether it is a painting or music metal wall art. Painting your ceilings white is also a wonderful way to make the most of natural light in a room.

Reflections of a Great Accessory

One of the best accessories that you can add to a room to enhance its reflective qualities is a mirror. You do not want to place a mirror where the sun hits it directly, because it can cause uncomfortable glare. However, placing a mirror on the wall opposite from the window is a great way to draw natural light into the room and then bounce it back into the room.

Watching Windows

Choose window treatments that allow as much natural light into the room as possible.  By keeping curtains simple and open, you can allow plenty of natural light into the room. Try to stay away from heavy drapes where possible, and think of using sheer fabric instead. Where you absolutely need privacy, you can use a sheer window topper over a mini blind or roll up shade. That way, you can have complete privacy, but then you can also open the blinds or shades completely and let as much light as you wish into the room. This window configuration is also good for a bedroom, where you may want to be able to block light when sleeping and allow as much light in as possible when awake.

Blinds are also handy during the day when the sun is too intense. You can close the blinds to darken the room completely, or you can adjust them to simply filter the light and allow sunlight into the room in moderation. If you do want the appearance of heavy drapes, but you still want to let in as much light as possible, try using an oversized curtain rod, and hang your drapes on the wall on either side of the window, which will make the window seem much larger than it really is. By doing this you will have the design effect of heavy drapes without obstructing any natural light coming through the window.

Trim Those Trees

One of the things that can block natural light from coming through a window is your landscaping. So be aware of what is planted right outside your windows. Keep overgrown bushes trimmed, and plant trees far enough away from your house so as to cast shade without obstructing the natural light in the room.

Shaded Skylights

A skylight is a great way to add natural light to a room; especially if there aren’t many windows. One thing that you may need to think about, though, is whether or not to install a retractable shade over your skylights to filter the sun in the heat of the day.

When you set out to remodel your teen’s bedroom, make sure that you include them in the planning process. Your little one is growing up, and that little girl who would only wear pink is now clomping around in combat boots and black nail polish. It is very common for a parent and teen to have polar opposite tastes when it comes to decorating a bedroom, but if you build your design on the basics, you and your teen should be able to make some useful compromises: You can choose the basic furniture and then let them choose their own wall art musical rock star posters or a Gothic iron wall grille, for example.

The Bed
The central piece of furniture in a bedroom is the bed, and your teen’s room is no exception. However, a teen spends more time in their room than a younger child, so look for a bed that is versatile enough to let your teen really use their bedroom space to their best advantage. When purchasing a new mattress, always get the best quality that you can afford, because it is important that your child gets a good night’s sleep. They are still growing, and they need adequate rest to be healthy as well as to concentrate on their schoolwork. Find a versatile bed frame that can morph with your teen’s ever changing design requirements.

The Bedside Table
After you find the perfect bed for your teen’s room, you can turn your attention to a nightstand which is a must-have to hold a clock, cell phone chargers, reading lamp, Kleenex, reading glasses, etc. Look for a piece of furniture that blends well with the bed frame. Depending on your child’s taste, the nightstand can match the bed frame, or it can simply complement it. If your teen is not sure what they want in their room, help them make practical choices for the future when this furniture finds itself in their first apartment.

Their Desk
For the last decade, if a teen was lucky enough to have a computer, it was generally a desktop style computer. However, now most teens have laptops, as most desktops are becoming terribly outdated. Make sure to add a study area to your teen’s room even if they have a laptop. A desk in their room helps to keep their studies organized, and it also gives them a quiet and private place to do their schoolwork.. Try to find a desk that works in your teen’s room right now and that will work in their own space several years from now.

The Comfortable Chair
Everyone needs a comfortable chair to sit in, and your teen is no exception. Find a desk chair that encourages good posture and is comfortable. If your teen has a comfortable place to sit and study, they are certainly more apt to spend more time doing their school work. Most office supply stores have a good assortment of ergonomic chairs that are priced quite reasonably. You may want to let your teen select their own chair, and again try to find one that complements their décor.

Once you have the basic pieces of furniture in your teen’s room, then you can have some fun decorating the walls and coming up with different themes for their bedroom. However, without these four important pieces of furniture, your teen’s bedroom will not function well, and they will probably not use their room as much as they should. So take a minute to build a solid foundation, and then you can have some fun with the rest of the room.

For some time now it has been a popular idea to create a woman’s room that is a spa retreat. Whether it is a master bath, bedroom or spare room, gender specific rooms that pamper are continuing to be popular. All around the country man caves are gracing basements with their leather chairs and big screen TVs. Now joining the specific specialty rooms are kid caves, which are designed specifically for the comfort of tweens and teens. One of the most popular and versatile types of furnishing found in a kid cave is foam furniture.

Photo credit to benkun2000.

Versatile Foam Furnishings
You can find foam furniture is just about any shape, style or color. They come upholstered in many different playful and colorful patterns. The furniture is designed with fun in mind, so it is multifunctional and easy for a child to maneuver. Two of the most popular pieces of furniture are the futon and the unfolding foam sofa. You can find these pieces in sizes that are appropriate for toddlers right up to adult sized. Make sure to select a sofa that is big enough for reclining, and it can double as a spare bed when your child has a sleep over.

Most foam furniture is not actually upholstered, instead it has a slipcover. The slipcover allows parents to easily wash the furniture, so it takes all of the trauma out of spills. However, it is probably a good idea to cover the sofa with a waterproof mattress pad to protect it from larger accidents. Foam chairs are a wonderful addition to the kid cave, because when they are folded as a chair, they have a very small footprint, but when they are fully extended, they are plenty big enough for a good night’s sleep. For smaller children, you can choose to only extend them half way.

Footstools from Foam
Adding a footstool to the furnishings in the kid cave gives your tweens a place to rest their feet as well as a little stool for sitting. The little stools are a great accent piece in the room, and they can double as a little ‘coffee’ table making a great place for a bowl of popcorn and a couple of drinks. Foam footstools are super easy to move around the room, and make great extra seating when friends are over.

Floor Cushions
Floor cushions are almost as fun as the furniture. Kids like sitting and playing on the floor, so having some bold colored, huge pillows to make the floor a little more comfortable is welcome. You can find foam cushions in every shape and size, and if you like to sew, you can certainly design your own out of craft foam. Purchae foam that is at least three inches thick to guarantee a comfortable spot on the floor. You can make quick, easy slipcovers for your homemade foam pillows out of pillowcases and Velcro. Simply sew a strip of Velcro along the opening of the pillowcase, and voila, instant pillow cover.

Every kid cave should have its fair share of foam furniture, because the furniture is inexpensive, versatile and durable. It is light enough for children to move and rearrange by themselves, and it is available in all sizes, shapes and colors. Now let the kids help pick out wall decor to define their tastes and interests: From rock and movie star posters, to beach theme tropical wall hangings or their own framed paintings and drawings, there are lots of ways to add color and fun to the walls.

Photo credit to Mattastic!.

While the perfect room to design is a completely empty one, more often than not you do not get that option. Usually there is something in the room that has to stay, and it is something that you would rather see gone. Since you frequently do not have a choice, when you are faced with a living room with a sea of blue carpet and your only couch is green, you may think that there is no way to reconcile these two clashing elements in your room’s design.

Blue as the Deep Blue Sea
One of the simplest ways to work a blue carpet in with a green sofa is to select a beach palette for your room’s color scheme. Start your room’s design by painting your walls a clean, basic white to neutralize the two colors. Hang a grouping of beach photos or tropical wall art on the wall in frames that echo the colors of the couch and the carpet. Use sand colored picture mats to temper the pop of color on the wall. If you have trouble finding frames that are the perfect colors, you can certainly buy frames unfinished and paint them in the appropriate colors.

Include a sleek, white coffee table in your room’s design and let it set the tone for the room. Now you can pull the blue from the floor up onto the couch by adding solid colored throw pillows in blue and white to the sofa. Add accessories to your coffee table in green, blue and white to pull the three colors together. For example, a large blue, glass bowl filled with white seashells elevates the blue from the floor. Add a natural piece of driftwood to the table for interest. Or add blue and green pillar candles in a grouping on the table. By using the ocean and beach as your inspiration, you can creatively blend your blue carpet with your green sofa.

Finding Balance with Florals
Another simple way to marry two otherwise unrelated colors is to find a fabric that uses the two colors harmoniously, and then incorporate that fabric into your room’s design. Keep in mind that your pattern should blend the two colors that you are trying to reconcile. Look for bold Hawaiian prints or easy flowing floral patterns. If you do not find a fabric in your own neighborhood fabric shop, then you can always look online to get ideas for patterns that you may enjoy. As you are searching, whether the design is bold or delicate, try to find a pattern that supports the style of your room.

Once you find the right fabric in the right color and with the right design, the rest is easy. Use the fabric to make throw pillows that you can place on the couch. Fashion a set of curtains from the fabric to pull the blue from the carpet and the green from the sofa up onto the wall. If you enjoy sewing, you may want to trim the carpet with your floral fabric to really pull the room together. You can use patterns in you wall art, lampshades, wall art trees and upholstery, so use them to coordinate the room and tie together two elements that may otherwise seem quite disjointed.

Decorating a teen girl’s bedroom can be a tricky task. Finding just the right color combination can be tough when you are dealing with a finicky teen. Luckily, there is one color combination that seems to always work for a teen girl’s bedroom, and depending on the intensity of the color you can design a sweet or funky room. So the next time that you are tasked with helping to design a teen girl’s room, think pink and green.

Lots of Dots
One of the easiest graphics in the world is a dot, and as it turns out polka dots are in style right now. Add pink and green to a polka dot motif, and you have the makings for a trendy teen bedroom design. To add polka dots to the wall, start by painting your walls in a couple of coats of your base color. Solid white will work well, or you may prefer a very washed out pink tone for your base. Then cut a circle from a piece or cardboard and trace a circle on the wall. Place the dots randomly throughout the room, and then fill them in with pink or green paint. Add solid pink or green curtains, and pull the colors into the bedding including sheets, pillows and comforter. Since you have polka dots on all of the walls, keeping your fabrics in solid blocks of colors helps to keep the dots from overwhelming the space. Now you are free to add polka dot accessories, either store bought or homemade.

Pink and Green are Perfect for Flowers
Pink and green is an inherently feminine color combination, and in nature it is found in many different flowers. So if your teen is a real girly girl, you can take a cue from nature and offer her a room of flowers. Any floral pattern works for lampshades, throw pillows and curtains. You can pull flowers up onto the walls using wallpaper reminiscent of the Victorian era all in pink and green. Then add solid pink bed linens adorned with floral patterned throw pillows making the bed a feminine focal point in the room and hang a white metal wall grille above the headboard. Add a green throw rug to the floor and green tie backs for the curtains helping to bring all of the elements of the room together. Pink and green flowers offer an organic and very feminine design for a teen girl’s room.

A Bedroom Retreat
If your teen has a bit of the Diva in her, you may want to concoct a spa like atmosphere in her bedroom, you can use pink and green washes to elevate the room to spa status. Find natural wood furnishings for the room, and add plush pillows to the bedding adding a delightful tactile quality to the bed. A couple of plants and a metal tree wall art will enhance the spa atmosphere, and a comfortable chair for lounging will complete the spa feel of the room. Pink and green are really versatile colors for a teen girl’s room, and with them you can go in any design direction that suits your teen.

As you use pink and green to adorn your teen girl’s bedroom, you can control the colors to give the room any style that you wish. Go bright and bold for a contemporary room, and keep it soft and pastel for a more traditionally feminine room. Pink and green are really versatile colors for a teen girl’s room, and with them you can take the room in any design direction that suits your teen.