Word-association time: Read the word “teenager” and what pops into your mind? No doubt, “angst.” Remember trying on three outfits in that eternal struggle for the perfect look?

Teens always will be obsessed with style. And inspired by TV programs such as “Trading Spaces,” “MTV Cribs” and “Design on a Dime,” they are adamantly expressing their taste in the decor of their bedrooms.

Check out Jessica Laub’s room and you’ll see a lime green wall decorated with giant orange flowers. Descend into the depths of Jack Spina’s basement bedroom and you’re transported into a world of earthy textures, colorful posters and snowboards.

“Teenagers want a space of their own that tells a grown-up story,” says interior designer Lane Elisabeth Oliver, who helped both teens with bedroom makeovers.

A successful bedroom makeover requires several steps, Oliver says.

• Find a theme for the room, inspired by a favorite object or a recent vacation.
• Set a budget and stick to it.
• Choose bedding.
• Choose paint.
• Set a timeline.

Jessica Laub, 14, had outgrown her room on the second floor of her family’s Denver home.

“I like to keep things organized, but I had so much clutter it didn’t look that way,” Jessica says.

“We needed to utilize the entire room to make it functional,” Kate Laub says.

For inspiration, Oliver and Jessica pored over catalogs, selecting a bright orange coverlet patterned with giant red dots.

Jessica and her mom did the painting themselves to save money.

To make the space more efficient, Oliver suggested Jessica replace her room-hogging double bed with a single twin tucked into a recess in the room.

The next step was a “shopping spree” in their own home, where they found plenty of free furnishings.

“We found an old dresser in my brother’s room and painted the drawers,” Jessica says. “We found an old lamp in the basement and attached ball fringe to its lamp shade.”

Jessica fell in love with a wall hanging, but its $350 price tag was a budget-buster. So she and her mom found three giant flowers made out of paper at Bed Bath & Beyond that cost $5 each. Oliver determined how they would be spaced and Jessica’s dad, Doug, nailed them to the wall.

Jack Spina, 16, was growing so fast he was bumping into the walls of his family’s Denver home. He was also leaving a sea of dirty clothes on the floor of his dingy basement room, says his mom, Linda Wright.

“So I thought, why not create a space where he is comfortable? Jack has this great sense of style, an eye for design; I think most teenagers do.”

Jack also had acquired several favorite possessions — a snowboard, a skateboard poster, Buddhist prayer flags, a wire motorcycle sculpture from South Africa and a Jackson Pollack poster. But the room was a mishmash.

Oliver guided Jack as he picked out bedding and accessories.

“Literally within about 45 minutes, everything was picked out,” Linda says.

The raised platform bed offers storage and is a focal point, covered with a multicolored quilt. A seating area made out of a pair of daybeds is covered with more colorful fabrics and stocked with large pillows covered in shaggy textures.

“I like it a lot because it’s kind of separate from the rest of the house and it feels like it’s my own,” Jack says.

Inspired by the success of Jessica’s room, Kate decided to help her youngest daughter. Emma had been pleading for a bedroom of her own, but the only space available was a 9-by-10-foot seating nook off the upstairs hallway.

Kate and her husband created a temporary wall out of rice paper screens. Emma chose a beach theme, and Kate pasted a huge mural she found on the Internet on the wall.

The bed’s box springs were placed on the floor and the mattress covered with bedding Emma picked out from a Garnet catalog. Another paper screen was hung from the ceiling along with starfish to create the feel of a cabana roof and a palm tree above a wicker chair where Emma could curl up and read.

“It’s like you are inside of some kind of a hut looking out onto the beach,” Emma says.