Raising a teen can be challenging, but one of the most rewarding things about it is that your child becomes more independent as the years go on. Young teenagers become more motivated to learn to take care of themselves. Most teens would instead control their bathing, hygiene, and clothing choices. They would also rather claim full control of their rooms as shrines to their growing personalities and private sanctums than go through the emotional roller coaster of those teenage years.

As a parent, the best thing you can do for your teen is to help them build the independence they need. Parents do this by giving them space and the tools to create a new lifestyle based on the adults they are becoming.

A big part of creating that life is giving your teen control of their teen bedroom, as well as the bed itself.

Let’s talk about how to help your teen smoothly gain control of their room, redecorate to suit their personality, and maybe even keep it organized.

1. Choose a New Color Scheme

Teens often pick a new style or go through phases of trying out different styles, and traditionally, this comes with resistance from parents. Teens want to paint their room black; parents say no.

Instead, you can hand your teen their independence and remain the voice of reason by encouraging them to redecorate.

If your teen has gone through some personality changes, offer to help them design a new room with an all-new personal color scheme. Most teens will jump at the chance to spend a little bonus allowance picking out paint colors, posters, new bedspreads, and accent lamps for their rooms. And you become one cool parent for facilitating that.

Not to mention, you still retain the veto power over black walls or extreme construction.

2. Buy All-New Personal Bedding

Bedding color and style matters a lot to a teen. Even if your child didn't care about favorite colors or cartoon bedding in the past, a teen is more likely to want sheets, pillows, and blankets that now reflect their new idea of themselves.

If they feel punk, sporty, hippie, or goth, decorating their bed in that style is highly rewarding and serves as the centerpiece of the entire bedroom.

3. Try Seasonal Sheets

If you live in a region with an extreme temperature difference between summer and winter, consider offering your teen the option of choosing seasonal sheets. It's a practical decision that many teens will be surprised to learn they are ready to make. This decision involves knowing one's body and personal preferred sleeping temperatures.

They’ll practice critical thinking and decision making skills by balancing their preferences and budget. It’s up to them if they prefer flannel sheets in the winter, lightweight sheets in the summer, or if they'd rather spend their budget on a color variety of year-round sheets instead.

4. Give Them Blanket Options

Interestingly, the same choice can be used with blankets as well. Your teen may also be interested in switching out a fluffy winter blanket for lighter summer blankets, or for having a small collection of throw blankets to fine-tune their sleeping temperatures.

These are also mature personal choices that are all part of a young adult building their own space and sleep environment.

Allow your teen to explore a few blanket options and encourage them to think about their year-round comfort in addition to what looks the coolest.

5. Design the Storage

Do you want your teen's room to stay tidy once you grant them full control of the territory? Then start by equipping them with the tools to tidy the place during this redecoration project.

When choosing new decorations and furniture, also talk to your teen about where they plan to put their everyday items and long-term storage keepsakes in the room design.

Adding a single shelf for containers or cube-storage can make a world of difference in your teen's ability to keep their area organized.

6. Repaint the Walls

Most teens want to repaint their walls. They may or may not want to paint them practical colors, but the ability to change the entire ambiance of the room feels incredibly powerful.

And, incidentally, it's a sign of status in the teen world to be able to paint your room something cool.

So if you're a homeowner or your landlord allows it, you can offer your teen an incredible opportunity. Provided, of course, that they choose a practical color and take responsibility for painting carefully with drop-cloths and painter's tape.

7. Try Smart Lights

If you can't repaint the walls, try a programmable LED smart light. These lights screw into a standard socket, but you can control the color and brightness of the light through a mobile app or your smart home. Your teen can completely change the look and feel of their room just by changing the color and intensity of the bulb.

Smart lights are surprisingly affordable, and if you're renting, they allow your teen to change the color of their room without paint.

8. Replace the Light Bulb and Switch Covers

Interestingly, you can also change the look and feel of a room's decor by changing a few surface-level details. Your light switch covers, for example, can be replaced with the application of a small screwdriver for themed covers. Get glow-in-the-dark covers, LED-lit covers, or light covers featuring their favorite sports team or art style.

You also don't need to change the whole light fixture to change how it looks. Just the light cover. A different shade, even a homemade one, can impact how the room looks from the basic decor.

9. Add an Area Rug

Finally, you can significantly change how your teen's bedroom looks with the addition of a new area rug.

Area rugs can even lay on top of carpet, and they serve multiple purposes in the teen's room.

First, the area rug can give them a themed, dark-colored, or detailed floor design without actually reinstalling any flooring.

Second, an aesthetically pleasing floor is a motivation for your teen to keep their clothes off of it if only to admire their rug.

And third, an area rug protects the actual carpet from pizza and soda spills while the rug may become a sacrifice to teen carelessness over the next few years.

You can help your teen become more independent by giving them power over their rooms. By inviting your teen to redecorate and guiding them toward practical decisions, you can also emphasize a more functional lifestyle and identity for themselves as they grow into their new personalities.

From a smart light in the socket to all-new personalized bedding, the key is to give your teen practical choices that will nurture their adult independence.