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Designing a teenager's room to reflect his or her interests can end up costing more than you bargained for. Teenagers' interests can be short-lived, and your investment will be for naught if your darling son decides soccer is better than baseball, or your daughter no longer enjoys her beach cottage room, and wants to paint the walls black.

So what can a parent do to decorate her child's room without wasting money? Design with change in mind.

Your son likes sports, all sports, and has since the first time he picked up a football. You can decorate his room with a sports theme, using bed linens in coordinated team colors, coverlets and curtains patterned in sports equipment, and posters of sports stars for the walls.

Then he discovers girls and wants his room to look like a New York loft.

Now the theme is international playboy. Because you painted the walls taupe, purchased a standard oak desk with coordinating bookcase, you needn't invest vast sums of money to change the look of his room.

For the bed, use crisp white and chocolate brown bed linens and a cream colored coverlet. Add wood blinds for window treatments and black and white photos of city skylines to give the room a refined look. Add a few oak desk accessories and you've transformed the room from sports arena to sophisticated showplace.

Your daughter, on the other hand, dresses like a hippie and wants to save the rain forest. For her, paint the walls a soft green, buy cotton bed linens in green, and hang photos of rain forest animals. Be certain her desk is made from wood from growth-managed forests.

Details could include beaded curtains for the closet and hemp curtains for the window, all tying in with the color green.

Then one day your activist trades her peasant blouse for a white button down shirt and decides to champion women's rights in the work place. She's gotten her first job.

Time to change out the photos of animals for those of Gloria Steinem and Alice B. Toklas. Take down the beaded curtains and replace them with a door that has a full-length mirror. Replace the hemp curtains with green roman shades and the bed linens will still work.

The trick with teenagers' rooms is to paint the walls a neutral shade or soft color, and buy standard, timeless furniture. Do not apply wallpaper; it's difficult to install and more difficult to remove. Express your young adult's interest through impermanent dcor, such as bed linens, curtains, and accessories.

Perhaps your child is interested in history. Frame a few antique maps for artwork and add a globe to the desk accessories. A stack of 19th century schoolbooks makes an interesting side table. These can be found on ebay for very reasonable prices.

Is your offspring an aspiring writer? There are countless prints of quill and ink, stacks of books, or portraits of famous writers to decorate the walls. Choose a quote from your teenager's favorite author and have it engraved on the cover of a leather journal. The journal is not only useful but adds a decorative touch to the desktop or bedside table.

Whatever interest your child has today can be easily expressed through a few simple items. Decorating with change in mind allows you to update your child's room without a great deal of cost or time. It also allows your child to add to the theme with items he or she finds of interest.

Just remember, some day your darling will move out. You will stand in the room and think back to all the transformations it went through, each reflecting a new interest of your child.

And then, you can turn it into that reading room you always wanted.

Learn more about this author, Shelly Mcrae.
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