7 Creative Ways to Balance Style & Comfort In Your Dream Home
Canadian families are close. Teenagers forge a good relationship with their parents and often seek out love and support from them all the time. Parents should likewise make sure that this relationship is nurtured as the child grows. The best way to create a loving and welcoming environment for your children is to make your home warm to them. So, how do you strike a balance between style and comfort when you have adolescents around?
Meeting Adolescents
Once children reach their adolescent years, they tend to seek more independence from their parents. It could be a tough time since not everything they want coincides with what their parents want. Even simple things like designing the home can be a source of friction. To help avoid potential problems, here are tips to balance style and comfort with the help of your teener:
1. Design with your adolescent in mind.
Unlike when they were kids, adolescents would seek more independence from their parents. The house should accommodate this need for more privacy and space.
Give teenagers the opportunity to develop more independence while they can still participate in family activities. Design your home in a way that you can still encourage your teens to join you at the table for dinner or for some chat after a long day.
2. Consider their opinion.
Teenage years is the time when kids learn to use their voice and assert their opinions. The best place to healthily start using this power is at home. Honour what your children want especially with their own rooms and in communal spaces.
You can also use this to your advantage as most kids are social media savvy. You may include them from your project with interior design Mississauga professionals by asking them to find designs that your family would love to recreate.
Pinterest and even home design applications are the favourite go-to of many teens. Ask their opinion and see how much better the design will come together.
3. Create communal spaces.
Although teens seek to be more independent, they still need the feeling of belongingness that the family can offer them. The best way to nurture your family’s closeness is to create communal spaces where families can gather together and where the kids can hang out with their friends.
Communal spaces do not have to be limited to the dining and living room. You can use your backyard to serve a larger crowd. Let the kids design a corner for when they have friends over. Again, aesthetic inspirations found online would come in handy in these spaces.
4. Add a second living area.
Kids would prefer that they can talk freely, watch movies, or enjoy other activities without the direct supervision of their parents. When they have friends over, they will appreciate getting that space where they can just be themselves.
Set a second living area aside for this purpose and let go of fears that you will not be able to supervise your children. On the contrary, having that space may actually encourage them to prefer hanging out at home than elsewhere.
You don’t need a very big space for that. For example, you can turn the space under your modern stairs from a Toronto maker as a “hideout” for your teens and their friends as it can offer them the privacy they need.
When designing this living area, choose smaller couches to accommodate the kids. You may also ask them to add elements that express their interests. Girls may prefer elements like interesting lights and fur carpets while boys may appreciate having a gaming setup.
5. Make rooms more personalized.
A comfortable bedroom is not just one with a soft double mattress from Hamilton or Toronto but also about the layout and design that one wants. You can choose to keep the bed as your focal point of the bedroom but the kids would likely ask for other furniture that can accommodate their friends, too. Allow them to express themselves by designing their own rooms.
6. Make outdoor spaces functional for the rest of the family.
A good space for your family, and your teens to while the time with their friends is in the garden. Make sure it is conducive to barbeque parties or lazy afternoons by having enough vegetation around. You can find many maple trees for sale in Ontario so your backyard or garden will have enough shade for gatherings. Teens can also build tree houses as additional spaces to enjoy.
7. Go for both function and aesthetics.
One of the reasons why Pinterest is very popular among teens is because they give ideas on how to arrange rooms to look “Instagrammable” without sacrificing comfort. Ask your teenager for some “inspiration” so you can make the whole house fit both to your family and your child’s personality.
Once the kids grow up, they start to become more expressive of their wants and that is best shown in how they want their private spaces to look. Others may view their children’s growing up phase as a challenge but this could be a perfect opportunity for you to bond as well. Your teenagers can be of great help in designing and making your home more comfortable.
