Your teenager is moving to the basement. The basement has more room, and it’ll be a great place to hang out with friends. Now that you’ve decided that this is the right move, you’re not sure how to go about it. Try some of these teenage basement bedroom ideas to design a room that your teenagers will enjoy, even as their tastes change over time.
1) Masonry Windows
A basement bedroom probably doesn’t have a lot of windows, but any windows it has will be at ground level. To protect your teenager’s privacy, and keep them safe, make sure you have windows like these that are difficult to see through. You’ll need one exit that your teen can use in case of a fire, but you can still install a frosted glass window or at least keep curtains drawn for privacy. Make sure that any windows that can be opened can also be locked from the inside.
2) Bold Paint Colors
Light colors are best in dark rooms, but most teenagers never get a chance to pick their bedroom colors. You don’t want to take this chance away from them, so if they don’t want a light color, have them choose a bold one like this. Use glossier paint to reflect light and make the room seem brighter. This will make the room more cheerful, as dull or dark colors can feel depressing in a room without a lot of natural light.
3) Under-Stairs Hangout
While the space in this video is too small for a teenager, you can learn how to create an under-stair hangout for your teen. You’ll want to build the hangout up off the ground, but you can use the entire stairway to create a hangout that’s six or seven feet high at the end. Make sure it’s long enough for your teenager to stretch out, then calculate the height of the seat based on how long you want the bench to be.
4) Room Divider
Your teenager now has a spacious room in the basement, or at least a private one away from the rest of the house. They’ll want a way to divide up the larger space into small sections. This way, they can have one area to hang out with friends, and another that’s just for them. Teenagers are often fickle, so use a divider like this instead of permanent walls. Since your teen can move the partition, they can use it to customize their room as much as they want, and as often as they want.
5) Soundproofing
Teenagers can be loud. While any noise they make will be reduced because they’re tucked away in the basement, you still don’t want to hear their music coming up through the floorboards. You also don’t want your footsteps or the sound of the well pump turning off and on to keep them awake all night. Use this guide as a resource for soundproofing your teenager’s bedroom to keep noise from traveling through the floor and stairs.
6) Beaded Curtains
Beaded curtains like this one are a cool way to divide up space if your teen has a large basement room. Your teenager can hang them on their own, or you can arrange the curtains any way your teenager wants them. You can even create a second room or closet with a beaded curtain for a door. If the basement bedroom is dark from a lack of windows, weave string lights into the curtain to add light to the room.
7) Insulate
Basements can get cold, and they’re one of the noisiest parts of the house. While you might expect a basement to be quiet, they actually have noisy things like furnaces and water heaters, and any footsteps on the first floor sound much louder from below. Insulating the walls keeps the cold out, and the insulation acts as an effective sound barrier. Put insulation in both the walls and ceiling to make sure noise and heat are kept out. This way, you know your teenagers will be comfortable, and you won’t have to hear each other through the floor.
8) Full-Length Transparent Curtains
The basement probably has a limited number of windows, which can make it feel depressing. Your teenager might not care, but you want the space to be warm and healthy for them. Since you can’t have natural lighting and a nice view, you can at least make it feel like the room isn’t an underground bunker. Hang transparent curtains like this on a wall to make it look like there’s a window. You can put them in front of a lightbox or some light strips to add to the effect of light shining through the curtain.
9) DIY Bamboo Room Divider
A basement bedroom gives your teenager space to hang out with friends or be alone, but if they have a big bedroom, you’ll want a room divider. While you can get a generic room divider, this partition from Amazon has a more natural look. The bamboo adds a multicultural feel to the room and brings a little bit of nature into the basement. This is important, since basements can feel far removed from the outdoors, and teenagers need exposure to nature now more than ever.
10) Add Windows
Teenagers often have the habit of sitting in the dark playing games or reading, so they might love a dim basement space with few windows. You, on the other hand, probably don’t want them living in a cave. Adding a window will increase the amount of natural light that gets into the room, and give a place for the teenager to escape if there’s a fire. This guide will help you figure out if and how you can add a window to your teenagers’ basement bedroom
11) LED Lights
If your teenager’s basement bedroom is dimly lit without natural lighting, you’ll want to add plenty of lights. Give your teenager some RGB strips to light up their room like the one in this picture. They can tape the LEDs anywhere, such as under their bed or around the ceiling, or even spell their name. The color-changing strips will look cool in their room, and they’ll add a little more light to the area. Your teenager will probably love them, and they can be rearranged on a whim.
12) Fake Window
If you can’t have a real window in your teenager’s bedroom, you’ll want something similar. While there’s no true substitute for natural light, you can simulate the view out a bedroom window with this poster. The poster is realistic, and it’ll make your teenager feel like they’re in a foreign and picturesque coastal town, not in a dim basement. The poster can be removed without damaging the wall, so if you or your teen changes their mind about it, you can remove it with no harm done.
13) Minimalist
Teenagers are hard to predict, and their desires and preferences sometimes change too often to keep track of. Rather than try to predict what your teenager will want, build a minimalist bedroom like this, and let them do the rest. Use the furniture to create neat shapes to inspire them, like the way the bed and desk in this picture are combined. Their basement bedroom is a chance for your teen to express themselves, and providing them a unique yet minimalist room will be a great way to jump-start their imagination.
14) DIY Night Lamp
While magazines have fallen out of fashion in some circles, many teenagers still read them. If you or your teenager reads magazines, this night lamp is a neat craft you can do with old magazines. The LED lights make the lamp look neat, and you can get RGB light strips with a remote so your teenager can change the lamp color at will. The finished lamp will splay a neat striped design across the walls, so it makes a good night light if your teen doesn’t like to sleep in the dark.
15) String Lights
Teenagers have long been fascinated by unusual light fixtures and lamps, and string lights are no exception. If you’re trying to get more light into a basement with no few or no windows, give your teenagers a strand of string lights. They can add it to their decorations like in this picture, or weave it into other parts of their room decor. The important thing is that they’ll be getting light from a different angle, which helps simulate natural light. Natural light is healthier for children’s brains, and helps them focus.
16) Attached Bathroom
Your teenager has this space entirely to themselves. They’re turning their bedroom into a hangout, recreation room, and of course, a place to sleep. Adding an attached bathroom off their bedroom will keep their friends from traipsing through your living room, and give them a sense of freedom. More importantly, you won’t have to deal with annoying bathroom habits, like endless bottles of hair products or hour-long showers. You can use this article to help you plan your basement bathroom.
17) Glitter Paint
Not everyone is a fan of glitter, but if your teenager likes it, this is an appropriate time to use it. Add this glitter to latex paint when you paint your teenager’s room. There are many colors to choose from, so you can match it to their paint choice. The glitter will catch any light that comes through the windows and brighten the whole room. This glitter additive from Amazon won’t fade, and it’s non-toxic, making it the perfect choice for your teen’s room.
18) Colored Light Bulbs
If you don’t have a lot of windows, you’ll need a lot of artificial light. Even if your teenager’s basement bedroom has windows, you may want them covered since they’re on the ground floor. If you have to use artificial light a lot, try these colored light bulbs. They give your teenagers a chance to customize their room by changing the light colors, and the warm light is suitable for a sleeping space like a bedroom. They can also impress their friends with the color-changing bulbs in their new hangout.
19) Fake Window With Light
If you want your teenage basement bedroom to have a window, but the structure of your basement doesn’t allow it, you can use this video to make a fake window. While sunlight is healthiest and stimulates the brain, light that copies natural lighting is the next best thing. Use LEDs to mimic the sunlight coming through the window as in the video, and add curtains to complete the effect. Make sure you have a remote to turn it off at night.
20) Light Curtains
Most of your teenager’s decorations will be the same things they’d have in an upstairs bedroom, but there are a few crucial differences between a regular bedroom and a basement bedroom. The basement probably has fewer windows, and if this is the only bedroom in the basement, it’s probably a lot bigger than an upstairs room. Use these light curtains to separate spaces. This way, you get more light to compensate for the lack of windows, and your teenager can divide up their bedroom space if they want.
21) DIY Wall Niche
Your basement bedroom is probably finished with drywall, which is the most common way to finish a wall. If the bedroom doesn’t have a window, you can make a false window niche by cutting into the drywall. Use these instructions to create a niche in one of the interior walls, then add battery-powered LEDs to the top of the cubbyhole. Your teenager can display things there, or you can make it look like a window to add light to the room.
What would you add to a teenage basement bedroom? Did we miss any ideas? Please let us know in the comments below.
