Letting a child paint their bedroom bright orange ... would you?

[AChickenCalledKorma]

We have extended our house and everyone is moving into "new" (or heavily refurbished) bedrooms. I promised the children that they could choose their colour schemes.

DD2 - aged 7.5 - wants bright orange walls. We are talking the full monty - think Tango adverts! She is totally opposed to any compromise options (have tried suggesting peach walls and orange lampshade but she was unimpressed)/

The sensible half of me is saying "she'll get tired of it" and/or "she'll never sleep" and/or "she'll have a constant headache". The other half of me is saying "stop sounding just like your mother, if you can't have a ridiculous bedroom when you're a child, when can you".

Would you let her?

[Potterer]

My two sons have bedding that is multicoloured but I always pick a colour for the walls from that. So ds2 has a dinosaur duvet cover from Next, it is basically navy blue with a lime green dinosaur on it and I painted his room lime green.

Weirdly, ds1 also has a duvet with about 5 colours on it but he chose the same green as his brother.

When I first painted it, it looked like a homage to plutonium. It literally glowed. But once the furniture was in it helped break up the colour.

I would hate someone to dictate the colour I paint my bedroom, it is the one place in the whole house that a child has that is truly their space. It isn't shared with anyone.

My mate has two children, both their rooms are painted beige like the rest of the house but she let them have the bedding they wanted. It just looks wrong, the room doesn't gel at all. The tones are all off.

Let her have her orange bedroom, and then upload a photo so we can see it.

[Sofi1]

Orange is too bright for a room where he has to rest, i will suggest to paint in orange just one wall that he cannot see from the bed

[blossombath]

Good for you OP agree with others who say it's worth letting kids express themselves. Loads of nice ideas on here, too. Good for her for not wanting pink

[Stokes]

I also had an orange bedroom when I was a teenager. I bought new bedding and curtains that were blue, green, orange and yellow and it was actually my mum who suggested the orange walls. It was a reasonably big room with white furniture, I had the ceiling and the bit of wall above the picture rail white as well and painted the door, radiator, skirting board and picture rail a strong yellow. It was a deep orange with a lot more red than yellow, which is nicer imo.

I had it from my early teens to early twenties and loved it. And no, it never gave me a headache or trouble sleeping!

[princesschick]

I had a bright orange room as a teenager in the 90s, with the very popular orange / yellow / red check bedding and curtains from Next, red gloss window sill and a reclaimed filing cabinet spray painted in red with alternate yellow / orange drawers. I was soooooooooo happy that my parents let me choose and took great pride in my room / having friends over. I slept all the time (even through some mammouth hangovers as an older teen), studied well and got good grades. In my early twenties I had a deep fushia wall and baby pink other walls - lots of chrome and white and pale oak furniture. So I've done all of the colour experimenting and it's all out of my system. I'm soooo happy my parents let me have what I wanted and let me express my own personality so that I had my own space in the family home.

Anyway, it's out of my system and our current cottage (still being renovated) is all lime wash neutrals and pastels now. We're using a limited palette of brights for accents in cushions, lamps etc.

I say let her! She'll talk about it for years and won't resent you for going back on your word. Plus it means it's lovely to feel like you've got control over your own space in a family home. A little sanctuary to go to with friends / pursuing hobbies.

Oh and it didn't stop my parents from selling their house, although the buyers did grumble about the "bright" children's rooms (my sisters was sky blue and bright lime green!) and having to redecorate as soon as they got in!

Hope that helps?

[MortifiedAdams]

Get yourself on Pinterest - lots of inspiration!!

[Startail]

That Argos stars and stripes quilt is exactly what I was thinking with the BHS links, perfect.

Then you can pick up the bright blue, red, yellow and green, for plastic crates, lampshades, rugs, cushions etc. way more easily than matching the orange.

[Dothraki]

My mum decorated my bedroom orange - it was lovely, it always seemed warm and cheerful. It was never a problem getting to sleep.

[nickelbabe]

ah.

[Ilovexmastime]

Let her, I don't see why you wouldn't when you've already promised

I let my DS's choose their colours for their new bedroom and DS1 went for bright red - walls and ceiling - and DS2 went for bright yellow. I was very unsure at first, particularly regarding the ceiling, but once you get the furniture in, it's not so in-your-face and now I really like both rooms.

[Sokmonsta]

Could be worse. I had a friend who painted her room in bright orange, green and yellow stripes.

[jaynebxl]

Do you mean after walls are plastered, nickel? General advice is that you can paint once the plaster has gone pale pink, so up to a week.

[nickelbabe]

don't you have to leave the walls about 6 months before you can paint them?

[BikeRunSki]

Well, you did promise! Don't make promises you can't (or won't ) keep !

FWIW, my uni BF had an orange room and it was actually really nice. It was a big room and quite sunny, so not over powering at all. He had yellow curtains. Much nicer than the grunge/goth that everyone else was into! For your DD sounds much cheerier than pink/purple/butterflies.

For a child's room with orange walls, I'd look at the rainbow bedroom range that JojoMamanBebe do. DS has the duvet cover and lampshade. A bit pricey, but lovely.

[ihearsounds]

You don't need to do it on lining paper. 2 maybe 3 coats of homebase magnolia will cover it up. I finally stripped the hall, it was orange and purple under the paper. Couple of coats and then the colour I wanted sorted it out, which was a pale aqua.

The only time magnolia should be used is, imo, is to cover up dark/strong colours. Also sorted out a black bedroom.

[AnAirOfHope]

Yes I would let my dd chose how she wants her bedroom.

I like orange. As a comprimise three white walls and one orange. It will look nice and bright and clean.

When the light is turned off it will be dark so she will sleep

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Sorry Nickelbabe - yes I saw the lining paper thing. Still thinking about that one - I agree it would make it easier to re-do, but we've also just paid a couple of plasterers lots of £££s to make the walls lovely and flat and ready-to-paint .

[EnterNicknameHere]

Argos have a nice star spots and stripe range that would look nice with orange.

I'd let her but then I love the colour orange.

www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/COLOUR+MATCH+SPOT.htm

[WhichIsBest]

I saw, :) I was reiterating!

[nickelbabe]

I said thatat the beginning.
no one ever listens to me :(

[WhichIsBest]

Agree you should paint on lining paper!

[Acandlelitshadow]

I'd totally let her have it.

Ds2 had Action Man paper with tango orange paint above for a few years. Painting over when we were ready was no biggie. The room is now a tasteful muted blue although if you look very carefully you may still see a tangerine spot or two in places

[Acandlelitshadow]

I'd totally let her have it.

Ds2 had Action Man paper with tango orange paint above for a few years. Painting over when we were ready was no biggie. The room is now a tasteful muted blue although if you look very carefully you may still see a tangerine spot or two in places

[nickelbabe]

I've got a GoTab mary

I've got the keys set slightly apart, but the crystsls go in different directions whether you hold it left or right handed and I think it doesn't like the left handed way.