The teenage years can be difficult as children begin to draw away from parents and develop their own personality and style. One important and positive way to encourage this process is by letting teens decorate their rooms to match their current mood and taste.

Because this is such a time of change, chances are good that the rooms will go through an evolution. You can help this process along by starting with a room that is neutral enough to support all the changes to come. Here are some suggestions:

Keep it simple. A room with a strong personality will overwhelm any changes your teens want to make. In this photo, the carpeted floor is a crisp white, along with the walls. The white on white design supports virtually any color scheme. The pink/orange colors come from the bed linens and hanging lamp – both inexpensive and easy to change as your child’s tastes shift.

Choose plain furniture. This bed is interesting and yet its minimal lines open it to the possibility of many styles and colors. The four-poster provides opportunities for additional decorating touches by hanging fabric or accessories such as the fabric lamp cover to the right in the photo.

Look for temporary decor. The pattern to the left is actually a set of temporary decals. These are available in many colors and styles. You daughter can arrange and rearrange those to suit her mood. Shop the Internet to find these – there are many companies producing them. The other wall color comes from a large canvas. This piece is significant enough to command attention, but easily replaced later. You can find prints or just stretch fabric over a canvas frame to add color and style quickly and inexpensively.

Decorating their rooms provides a good way for teenagers to express themselves. And remember if they choose dark purple or black for the walls, it’s only paint. With luck you may get a room that looks as cute as this one does.

If you dream of a kitchen that’s beautiful and yet still designed for the serious cook, take a look at this Monterey Bay kitchen from Victoria Estates.

Let’s look at function first. The double oven provides a standard convection oven at the bottom, with a convection/microwave combination above. These are both set at just the right height for pulling out hot dishes without having to bend over or reach up, a good safety consideration.

The walk-in pantry is one particularly appealing functional feature. With plenty of shelves, food staples and serving dishes are only a step away. Larger equipment has a place here, and closing the door keeps any clutter out of sight.

The refrigerator is built in for style but still has the basic water and ice dispenser. To the left the cabinet and counter provide a perfect staging ground for a coffee-maker or other commonly-used kitchen appliances. There’s plenty of counter space to use thanks to the large island. Pendant lights over the island provide extra brightness for detailed tasks.

The island itself is more than a kitchen tool. A countertop seating area with enough room to comfortably seat four provides the ideal setting for everything from a place for a few couples to snack on appetizers while talking to the cook to a buffet setup for a much larger gathering.

From the standpoint of style, a designer touch is clearly evident. The rich cabinetry benefits from the judicious use of dark glaze to mark out the molding. 18 inch porcelain tiles are a softer reflection of the striking granite countertops. Choosing to cover the refrigerator and range hood in wood rather than stainless helps this kitchen retain a warm feel. The furniture style of the island helps make the transition from kitchen to living space smooth and connected. Altogether, an ideal kitchen.

Hanging art in a home requires more than a hammer and nails. Getting it right can make the difference between art that adds interest to a room and art that looks out of place.

It’s not about color coordination. Other issues are much more important. Here are some basic tips for arranging and hanging art in your home.

Think proportionally. A large wall will completely overpower a smaller work of art. You can save your smaller pieces for walls chopped by doors or windows. Another option is to group smaller works in interesting ways. This gallery approach demonstrates that smaller art can work well in a large space if it’s grouped.

Hanging art in a line at eye-level like this provides a clean design from a distance and an easy opportunity to study each piece from up close. Having all the frames in the same color also pulls the images together.

Another alternative with smaller pieces is to lay them out in a rectangular area, balancing dark and light as well as sizes. Start by laying them down on the floor where you can move them around until you have a pleasing arrangement. Another way to determine a workable layout is to cut newspaper to the size of each image, and tape the shapes to the wall with masking tape, moving them until you’re satisfied. Replace each newsprint shape with the appropriate painting, print or photo.

If you’re not sure which image or images you want on each wall, simply set the art on the floor just below where you’re thinking of hanging it. As you walk through your home, imagine it hanging on the wall above. Within a few days you’ll know whether it’s in the right place.

Are you someone who loves to read? Many book lovers find books taking over their homes and their lives. While books are a lovely addition to a home, in excess they stop adding charm and start feeling like clutter. If you’re in this situation, here are some suggestions to help you manage.

Read and release. Set a box in an unobtrusive spot in your home. After you read a book, ask yourself if you will ever want to read it again. If the answer is no, place the book right in that box. Once the box is full, take it to a used bookstore or donate it to a library or thrift shop.

Share with other book lovers. If you have a friend or family member who loves mysteries as much as you do, make arrangements to pass along your books once you’ve finished with them. They will be grateful and you will have fewer books.

Schedule a book review. With several boxes handy, look through each bookshelf and remove any books you won’t want to read again. Distribute those books among several categories: donate, sell, or give to friends and family.

Separate your reference books. You may have books that you use regularly for your work or hobbies. Separate those from other books and keep them organized in one place. That way you won’t be constantly passing over them when deciding which books to donate.

Add shelves. If you have sorted and removed all the books you can and you still have piles around the house, consider adding either purchased or built-in bookshelves. You don’t want your books to be clutter. Instead, create a way to enjoy them and let them add personality to your home.

Fresh flowers are a wonderful touch in any room in the home.  They can add a beautiful fragrance to a room as well as color and pattern.  A small bunch of flowers in the powder room or next to the bed in the guest room is a wonderful way to welcome guests.  Little touches like fresh flowers can add a lovely accent for not a lot of money. Here are some of our other favorite little touches.

For the bathroom, put lotions, q-tips, cotton balls, and extra bars of soap in glass jars.  Display these on a shelf or on the counter. It will make your bathroom feel less cluttered to have a uniform look to the storage.

For the kitchen, organize flours and pastas into glass or ceramic storage containers. You can keep these on the counter or shelf, if you have room, or in the pantry cupboard.  Use fruits and fresh vegetables in a bowl on the counter to add a pop of color to the room.

By the front door, or kitchen door, place a tray for boots and wet umbrellas. This will save your floors from moisture and dirt.  This way guests will know to remove their wet shoes and boots rather than track mud and water through the house.

If you are having guests over, place a few snacks on the Kitchen Island or coffee table for them to munch on when they arrive. A pitcher of ice water and glasses on the counter invites them to serve themselves if they are thirsty.

Many people have a season they prefer over all others. For some, fall brings to mind the magic when trees first change colors and then lose their leaves and the weather starts to snap. Others love winter with the opportunity to ski and play in the snow. Spring has its own magic when trees blossom and spring flowers bloom.

For those that love the summer, with lots of sunshine and weather that ranges from warm to warmer to too warm, this room helps carry the season with it all year round.

The first summer choice comes from the bright yellow paint on the walls. Yellow is a really tricky color to get right. You want it to remind you of flowers or sunshine, but with the wrong choice your room can look like the inside of an egg yolk. Take the time to test out several choices on your walls before making your final choice. Remember, an entire room of yellow will look darker than a small sample.

This couple chose white for the fireplace, bookshelves and molding. A white ceiling is also a good decision. With yellow and white together, this room looks even more like summer. The mid-range color on the wood floors also helps to create a fresh look. A dark floor would bleach out the look of the room, and too light a floor wouldn’t provide that much-needed contrast. If you want to go with yellow, think about that color choice as you select flooring and other permanent fixtures.

A neutral couch and clean-lined coffee table let the yellow stay the focus of the room, and a few casual yellow elements bring the wall color throughout the space. Spots of green and red – added in a natural way with fresh flowers and plants – echo the summer theme. With the right color and design choices, you can have a summer home all year long.

Now that you’ve put away your holiday decorations, before you put your home accessories right back where you had them, how about taking a few minutes to rethink your table tops?

Nothing makes a room feel stale more than having the same arrangement of accessories placed in the same places year in and year out. With everything mixed up due to the holidays, along with the start of a new year, now is the perfect time to take a fresh approach to your coffee and side tables.

To start, place all of your home accessories on your dining room table. Look at the large pieces that are left. Do you want to move that lamp? Would this side table look better at the other end of the room? The functional goal for small tables involves providing a place to put a glass from every seat in your living room. Do your tables meet that goal?

Once you’ve sorted your large pieces, take the time to consider where your accessories will fit. In this photo, the woman uses this side table for her cup, newspaper and phone. Therefore it’s smart to have one strong accessory, such as this plant, rather than several elements that would constantly get in the way.

Tables that don’t receive heavy use can handle more elements. Remember to combine different heights, and when possible set up your accessories in groups of three or five – odd numbers are more appealing. When you rearrange things, your home looks fresher and your treasured home décor selections will pop in their new locations.

Spring gardening may still be several months away for most of us. This doesn’t mean that you can’t start to dream and plan your summer garden. Soon enough it will be time to start seeds indoors for those summer flowers and vegetables.  If you can’t wait for seedlings, you can always start a small herb or lettuce garden on your window sill.

This kitchen has the typical window right above the kitchen sink.  If the sill is wide enough, this makes an ideal spot to start seedlings or have a container for lettuce and herbs.  You’ll be able to monitor the progress every time you are at the sink, and this will help you remember to water the plants.  Should you not have room on the sill but have counter space in a sunny spot, you can have an herb garden there too. Be mindful of water from the pots or container leaking onto the countertops, especially if you have butcher block wood counter tops.  Placing a tray underneath the pots can help prevent spills.

Placing seedlings or an herb garden on the floor should be avoided if you have pets or small children. Cats are notorious for eating house plants and herbs are no exception.  It’s best to keep your little kitchen garden up off the floor and on a counter or sill.

If you have two rooms that open one to another, you can use color to coordinate the space. Today’s trend of open floor plans mean that living rooms, dining rooms, family rooms and kitchens may all open into another room. Coordinating color between the rooms does not mean that you have to exactly match wall colors and surfaces between the rooms. Playing off a coordinating color palette allows you to mix up the colors to create a flow of design for both spaces.

This home is a nice example of using color to create flow between the foyer, living room and family room beyond.  Red and warm grey can be seen in all three rooms in different shades and on different surfaces. Using these colors in all three rooms unifies the three spaces, making them feel part of the same design plan.

In the foyer the red of the Chinese lacquer chest is carried onto the area rug, which also has a warm gray in it.  The area rug is repeated in the living room, where the sofa is covered in a similar grey to the rug. The red in the rug is then picked up in the chair upholstery in the family room.  White and brown, from the wood accents, are also used in all three spaces.

Carrying the same colors throughout the spaces moves your eye from room to room and gives the entire design a cohesive and polished look.  Limiting the color palette to three or four colors will also help the flow between spaces.