One important thing a parent needs to do for their young adult is to stress the importance of education and hard work to succeed in life. With this in mind, a teenager needs a clear working space to be able to focus on school projects and to complete their homework to their full potential without distractions and disturbances.
One of the best ways to do this is to create a unique area for them to study which is away from their bedroom and hanging out area; this defines clear boundaries between leisure time and work time.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the liberty to building a home office for their child in a spare room. With a small house, it can be difficult to find somewhere quiet and unassuming for your teenager to work so creativity is key to assisting them with this.
Using the Guest Room
You may not be in a position to liberate your guest bedroom from its primary duty, as you may often have visitors and need a place for someone to sleep. Due to this, removing the bed and creating a home office for your teenager may seem problematic.
There are a couple of ways in which you can utilize the space in this room to create a teenage work hideaway without completely ridding of its primary bedroom function.
1. Replace the bed with a loft bed
Loft beds allow for maximum floor space in a room as it is uninterrupted by the presence of a bed. By raising the bed, you create a sheltered area perfect for a desk and workspace that your teenage child can use for their school work.
A great idea is to use a dressing table instead of a bed. That way you can assign some for the drawers for guests staying and some for your child’s work equipment. By using a dressing table instead of a desk, it makes the room look more homely, doesn’t detract from its initial purpose, doubles up as a dressing table for when guests stay, and still provides an ideal work environment for your child.
2. Fold Down Desks
If you’d rather keep the bed on the floor, why not look at placing a fold-down desk in the guest bedroom? That way your child has a surface to work on away from the rest of the house, which can be put away when visitors come to stay.
Incorporating this with a high shelf for books, folders and stationary, the desk and the working equipment can be hidden away and easily reached when necessary.
Hiding in Cupboards
We all have built in cupboards in our house that we fill with things we may one day need but actually never use; under the stairs, in bedrooms, linen closets. Why not repurpose these cupboards and turn them into tiny little work-spaces for your teen? Although this may seem like an odd idea, http://www.menshideaway.com will tell you all about the different ways you can decorate and make the best uses of your rooms. You can surely find a space for your teen in the strangest places in your house!
By building a countertop or desk into the cupboard, installing shelves and placing a stool under the desk, the workspace fits neatly inside the cupboard and can be closed off when not in use; hidden from view. However, when your teenager needs to work, they have a workspace fully equipped with a desk, a lamp, shelving for their books, and a place to keep their stationery.
Looking up High
Time and time again you will hear the benefits of installing a mezzanine floor in a bedroom. Although you want to separate your teens sleep and chill-out area from their work area, mezzanine floors are a great way to compromise.
By placing a small half-floor high in their bedroom, you can create a space for working that is physically separate from their downstairs bedroom. Unlike the other options, you’re actually creating an office for your teenager that is theirs; a workspace that doesn’t feel like it’s in the way, but in fact belongs there.
Every parent knows it is important to give their child a space to work, and encouraging education in the teenage years is especially important to their success. Separating their work and leisure is important in promoting that need to learn and succeed, and finding the right way to do it in your home is easier than you think. Just get creative.
Freelance writer, Emily Jenkins, loves to travel and take advantage of the freelance aspect of her work. Currently residing in Thailand, she’s just moved into a new house and has been tasked with redecorating every room. While looking for inspiration for her house, she’s found articles that cover everything guides from painting a football mural, to building a window seat for the kitchen. With so much out there to look out, she believes that there’s need for more concise and relatable ‘how to’ home articles, and hopes to help the cause.