Karen McCartney writes about a teenage rite of passage: the bedroom re-do.

The teenage bedroom is a subject with which I have a deep affinity. As the clock ticked past my daughter’s thirteenth birthday, as though programmed by some dark external force, there was a seismic shift in what was allowed to be in her bedroom and what was no longer acceptable.

It started with a major purge where her curated wall display of childhood photographs was dismantled, cute art pieces from her grandparents were given the elbow and (as this timing coincided with the abandonment of a serious pursuit of classical ballet) all her gold statues and multi-coloured ribbons were boxed up and relegated to a cupboard. For some time thereafter I found small clusters of discarded items placed discreetly outside her bedroom door with the clear message that these things no longer passed muster.



It is not that the end result is bad; in fact, if I am honest it is better. She had retained a beautiful Kirra Jamison painting I had bought at an Inside Out magazine auction and an exquisite James Gordon boxed paper artwork. The childhood photos were replaced with what I can only describe as ‘soft edgy’ images torn from magazines – a bit of model Cara Delevingne here, some typography mantras there, and a nod to nature, ice-cream and sunsets as befits the Instagram generation.

Concessions were made on both sides. She agreed that it might be hard to scrape the ‘owls in trees’ decal from the cupboard door, the last of the Neon tetras died and so the fish tank, once so hotly desired, was retired while the yearned-for doona cover and pillow set in indigo shibori became a new addition.



Re-doing your room is a rite of passage and has an element of empowerment in that you can express your own personality rather than that imposed upon you by well-meaning parents with a design mindset. She spends more time there now and despite the desk, task light and desk chair, homework seems to be mostly done sitting in bed.

It has indeed been an exercise in give and take and while some things have gone to the charity shop we are too sentimental to let them all go. Hence they are hoarded in boxes for the time she is charmed enough by them to take another look – in say 10 years!