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THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 Mary Kom: inside CAMPUS A motivational • SIS to launch new facilities for masterpiece academic excellence P | 4 P | 8-9 FOOD • How to make the perfect tomato soup P | 6 WHEELS • Nissan’s small car excels at affordability Decorating a bedroom for a “tween-age” child P | 7 is complicated. It’s great to give growing HEALTH adolescents some • Diets work, but creative freedom. But the brand will they reject at age 12 doesn’t matter the colour palette and furniture they begged P | 11 for when they were 10? TECHNOLOGY • Google’s Android One adds to Samsung’s worries in India P | 12 LEARN ARABIC DESIGNS • Learn commonly used Arabic words FOR TWEENS and their meanings P | 13 2 PLUS | THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 COVER STORY Tween bedroom’s a balancing act By Melissa Rayworth ecorating a baby’s room is all about what mom and dad want. But decorating a bedroom for Da “tween-age” child is more complicated. It’s a great place to give growing adolescents some creative freedom. But will they reject at age 12 the colour palette and furniture they begged for when they were 10? Kids grow up fast enough that par- ents may not want to rush the process by removing all childhood whimsy from their rooms. But we also don’t want to redecorate each time our kids get just a bit more mature. So we’re left walking the line between playful and Mom-I-can’t- believe-you-bought-me-this-furniture. Here, designers Michelle Workman of Michelle Workman Interiors, Brian Patrick Flynn or Flynnside Out Productions and Betsy Burnham of Burnham Design offer advice on design- ing a tween bedroom that has ample storage, homework space and enough cool style to keep kids happy year after year. Cooler Colours Kids love colour, but it’s practical to start with a neutral base. Flynn suggests going all-white on walls and ceiling but adding texture “to keep all-white from reading flat or sterile.” “I use 1-inch-by-10-inch pine planks on the walls and install it horizontally,” he says, “then have it all whitewashed or painted solidly. This brings architec- ture to the room and also creates a lin- ear backdrop for showcasing favourite things.” Workman recently designed a bedroom for a 10-year-old boy with gray walls and cabinetry. “Gray allows you to layer either cool or warm colours on top,” she says, “whereas beige tends to only work with warm colours, and then the room becomes too warm.” PLUS | THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 3 She added a navy leather sofa (“a expensive wood or MDF (medium-den- pullout for sleepovers,” she says, “and sity fiberboard manufactured to look leather only gets better with age”), plus like wood). And “don’t be afraid to use a rug, throw pillows, an ottoman and Ikea as a resource for inexpensive cabi- chairs that included shades of orange netry that can be given a built-in look and turquoise. The result: playful but by adding crown molding and base- not immature. boards,” Workman says. Another approach: “Red, white and For free-standing storage pieces, blue has become a modern classic for Flynn suggests hitting a flea market boys and girls,” Flynn says. or garage sale: “This way, the tween has “For a masculine touch, I’m a fan something cool that becomes a huge of sticking with rich navy and fire- part of their room’s design, but also is engine red. Girl spaces are an excel- packed with practicality. Some of my lent fit for more muted blues such go-to items are Danish modern desks as robin’s egg or sea foam, and more with sleek drawers, rustic metal lock- poppy shades of red such as cherry,” ers and three-drawer dressers to use he says. as nightstands.” What if your kids have their hearts set on colours you think won’t work? Unexpected Finds Respect their input, Burnham says, “Tweens are still finding themselves, but adjust the shades as necessary: so it’s tricky to decorate their rooms “It’s your house, too. If you don’t want with one particular style,” Flynn says. a school-bus-yellow wall, what can His preferred style for tweens? you live with? Maybe a dijon, or maybe “Eclectic.” the school-bus yellow is his bedside Workman agrees that vintage pieces lamp.” If your daughter wants purple, — especially those already banged-up “maybe it’s a gray lavender,” she says, and scratched to perfection — are per- or another shade of purple that “she fect for older kids’ bedrooms. Vintage won’t get sick of in six months.” chairs can be recovered in fresh fabrics, and antique furniture can shine Wilder Walls with a new coat of glossy paint. For walls, “tweens and teens tend “I like to use vintage items, and to favour bold patterns, and find wall- industrial style for a tween boy’s bed- paper cool due to its vintage, retro room,” Workman says. “I created a appeal,” Flynn says. huge lighted sign out of tin letters that “If wallpaper is too much of a com- spelled out the boy’s name. There was mitment,” he adds, “consider a graphic a definite cool factor to this, and it’s treatment on the walls with paint. the type of ornamentation that won’t Stripes are classic and gender-neutral, be too ‘baby’ later on.” plus they’re not too difficult to paint.” To tie disparate flea-market finds together, keep the colour scheme con- Smarter Storage sistent. And to protect the tops of Toys, trophies, books, papers and a desks, dressers and tables, Burnham whole lot of electronics: Kids have an advises having a piece of glass cut to awful lot of stuff. cover them. Burnham suggests choosing a wall “I am a real believer in creating a “that can accommodate 18 inches of kids/tween/teen room that utilises depth or 22 inches of depth,” and have classic ‘adult’ fabrics and furnish- built-in cabinets and shelves installed. ings,” Workman says. “I had a client “Built-in cabinetry is so very handy that had no fear using antiques in her in a tween room,” agrees Workman. It children’s rooms, and those children allows “an easy transition to a teen- had a deep respect not only for their age space” because you’re not dealing own space but for the rest of the home with furniture that the child may no as well. She never had to redecorate longer like. those rooms, because they went from Custom carpentry can be expensive, child to adult with only a change from but it’s an investment in your home’s stuffed animals and toys to guitars and value. You can save money by using less drums.” AP 4 PLUS | THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 CAMPUS / MARKETPLACE Qatar Philharmonic with Han-Na Chang invited to SIS to launch perform at prestigious concert halls in Europe new facilities he Qatar Philharmonic Guest engagements in com- Philharmonic will perform Pyotr for academic Orchestra will travel to the ing seasons include debuts with Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony TRoyal Albert Hall in London the Gothenburg, Cincinnati and and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second excellence next month to perform the music of Indianapolis symphony orchestras, Piano Concerto. ‘The Sunrise‘ from Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich while recent engagements include ’Seemorgh‘, part of ’The Persian hantiniketan Indian School Tchaikovsky and Iranian-American appearances with the Staatskapelle Trilogy‘, which opens the per- (SIS), as part of its con- Behzad Ranjbaran in a sold-out Dresden, WDR Sinfonieorchester formance, will receive its Proms Stinuous development plan, appearance at the BBC Proms. The Köln, Seattle Symphony, National premiere. Born in 1955 in Tehran, is launching five new facilities to Philharmonic will also be joined by Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Iran, composer Behzad Ranjbaran‘s support quality enhancement in its Music Director Han-Na Chang Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo musical education started early the academic arena. and pianist Denis Matsuev. The con- di Napoli Philharmonia Orchestra, when he entered the Tehran Music The school has introduced mul- cert, to be held on Sunday September Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Conservatory at the age of nine. timedia enabled teaching facilities 7, will be the first by a Gulf-based Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, He came to the United States in and Tech-Next E-learning digital ensemble in the 120-year history of the Grosses Orchester Graz and the 1974 to attend Indiana University, content in the Secondary and Sr The BBC Proms, the world’s largest Singapore, Tokyo, and Tivoli sym- and received his doctorate in com- Secondary classrooms which will classical music festival. phony orchestras. Han-Na Chang position from the Juilliard School, be extended soon to other classes In September 2013, Korean Han-Na first gained international recognition where he currently serves on the to make learning enjoyable and Chang became the Music Director of for her precocious musical talents at faculty. meaningful. the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra the age of 11, when she won both the Following the Proms, Qatar The school website is made as well as Principal Guest Conductor First Prize and the Contemporary Philharmonic will travel to Rome, dynamic and interactive for of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester, Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich Italy, alongside pianist Boris effective communication with the both appointments immediately fol- International Cello Competition in Berezovsky to perform in Santa stakeholders and for dissemination lowing her debut appearances with Paris in 1994.

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