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?

[elastamum]

I think that you should keep your word. That is far more important than a bit of paint. Ds2's room is red. He chose it and it looks great!

[HerRoyalNotness]

My friend has just done one wall in a herringbone in pink/white. that would look amazing in orange, and would break up the brightness of it somewhat.

[FluffyDavis]

My ds2 has two bright orange walls in his room and two white. It looks fantastic with an orange blind, desk, lamps and bright multicoloured bedding.
I have three boys and I let them all choose the colours they wanted. It is by far my favourite room and really cosy.
I figured it was the least I could do after they all had to sleep in the lounge for six month while we did the loft conversion

[JourneyThroughLife]

I would let your child have exactly what she wants....but the condition is that she lives with it.

My father did this for my sister and I when we were small. My father was an artist and wanted us to appreciate colour and how it affects people. I remember choosing a deep plum red/purple for 2 walls and a sort of wedgewood grey/blue for the other two walls, it was quite dramatic at the time (long time ago!) My parents must have been horrified but my father duly painted it, his condition was that he wouldn't repaint the room for at least a year. It was awful, really depressing to live with, terrible!! But it did me the world of good, it really brought home to me the impact of colour and I was very, very careful about the colours I chose the next time round - and I was still very young at the time.

It made a deep impression on me and these days I do interior design as a sideline...

I also let my own daughter choose her room colours from an early age. When she went through her "pink" stage she had a shocking pink room - walls, shelves, everything. It was dreadful. She rapidly grew out of it and became more mature in her colour choice as she grew older.... It's a really good idea to let children choose, they are bound to make mistakes but that's where the learning comes in.

[JourneyThroughLife]

I would let your child have exactly what she wants....but the condition is that she lives with it.

My father did this for my sister and I when we were small. My father was an artist and wanted us to appreciate colour and how it affects people. I remember choosing a deep plum red/purple for 2 walls and a sort of wedgewood grey/blue for the other two walls, it was quite dramatic at the time (long time ago!) My parents must have been horrified but my father duly painted it, his condition was that he wouldn't repaint the room for at least a year. It was awful, really depressing to live with, terrible!! But it did me the world of good, it really brought home to me the impact of colour and I was very, very careful about the colours I chose the next time round - and I was still very young at the time.

It made a deep impression on me and these days I do interior design as a sideline...

I also let my own daughter choose her room colours from an early age. When she went through her "pink" stage she had a shocking pink room - walls, shelves, everything. It was dreadful. She rapidly grew out of it and became more mature in her colour choice as she grew older.... It's a really good idea to let children choose, they are bound to make mistakes but that's where the learning comes in.

[JourneyThroughLife]

I would let your child have exactly what she wants....but the condition is that she lives with it.

My father did this for my sister and I when we were small. My father was an artist and wanted us to appreciate colour and how it affects people. I remember choosing a deep plum red/purple for 2 walls and a sort of wedgewood grey/blue for the other two walls, it was quite dramatic at the time (long time ago!) My parents must have been horrified but my father duly painted it, his condition was that he wouldn't repaint the room for at least a year. It was awful, really depressing to live with, terrible!! But it did me the world of good, it really brought home to me the impact of colour and I was very, very careful about the colours I chose the next time round - and I was still very young at the time.

It made a deep impression on me and these days I do interior design as a sideline...

I also let my own daughter choose her room colours from an early age. When she went through her "pink" stage she had a shocking pink room - walls, shelves, everything. It was dreadful. She rapidly grew out of it and became more mature in her colour choice as she grew older.... It's a really good idea to let children choose, they are bound to make mistakes but that's where the learning comes in.

[oopslateagain]

I told DD she could choose her colours, but I had power of veto. And I used it - she wanted solid black or navy! We've compromised with black on the bottom metre, then pale blue on the top. I had to bribe her with chalkboard paint though, so her room is going to be half pale blue and half black covered in chalky scribbles...

[JourneyThroughLife]

(Sorry, not sure why my last post came out twice!)

[MrsLHofstadter]

I had all 4 walls lime green and green carpet with white furniture when I was about 9. My friends had bright walls too, yellow, orange and pink. There was a lot of lilac around too.

I'd let her do it.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Wow - so many responses! And thanks especially for the pictures. I hadn't even thought about googling for orange bedrooms and some of them look really nice.

Yes, we are planning to stay in the house at least till they are all grown up, so re-selling isn't a concern.

And yes, I'm totally alive to the risk of this being one of those "mum promised but then she wouldn't let me" situations that stays with a child. And we will let her make the decision - it's more a question of whether we try and steer her thinking to something more restful or just let her go for it.

I like the idea of laying down an agreement that it has to stay that colour for a certain period ... and that she will have to help cover it up in 100 coats of white if/when she's had enough. Think we might go with that.

[CajaDeLaMemoria]

Orange can induce headaches - we wanted an orange kitchen but it was tough because everybody recommended against it!

It might be something to think about if a compromise is possible.

[MortifiedAdams]

Put lining paper up and paint that - if afrer a year she wants to change it, strip the paper off.

[Beckett3]

My son's room is a bright orange with black wardrobes, shelves etc and I must admit it looks brilliant in there.

He also has a scalectrix fixed onto a board that is then hinged on the wall so he can unhook it and play whenever he wants without it always being in the way, we've also painted the back of the board with black board paint so he can write or draw pictures or do his homework on it when the scalectrix is folded away.

I know I went off subject there, but it's only recently finished and the whole room is just great.

[sandyballs]

We said this to our DDs when we extended last year. They both wanted bright red walls and I reluctantly agreed as I had promised. I love it, looks fab with white furniture and black blinds. The only thing I wouldn't compromise on is the carpet as I wanted the same neutral carpet throughout the upstairs and thinking long term this wouldn't be changed for several years, whereas walls are fairly easily changed.

Go for it.

[GreenShadow]

Orange is fine - would much prefer that to a really dark colour.

DS2 has orange walls and it really looks quite good.

[Narked]

Another one here who still remembers their mother saying they could choose the colour of their walls and then painting them an off white insipid version of that colour. When I was 8.

[Whirliwig72]

If full on orange is a bit too much for you how about a white room with bright orange foot prints painted all over using a template? My cousin had this but with brown footprints and it looked fantastic!

[forgottenpassword]

My Dc wanted bright red. We compromised on red and white striped wallpaper on one wall and red accessories eg chair, bed. It actually looks pretty good.

[spiderlight]

To put it in perspective, my goddaughter, in a late-teen goth phase, painted her entire room in black gloss paint while her parents were away and then decided she didn't like it. At leas you'll get to help choose appropriate paint and make sure it's done properly.

[PoppyAmex]

Well, you promised so you can't really go back on your word.

And, no offence OP, but your idea of a peach room is so much worse!

Orange can look very tasteful, pair it with grey or bright white and it will be very modern scandinavian.

[nickelbabe]

when I was a teenager and we moved house, my sister and I wanted vlack walls. my mum wouldn't let ys byt she let us gave purple. in those days it was such an unusual colour that we gad to have it specially mixed.
it was a really dark proper pyrple.
my mum thought we'd regret even that dark, but it was a lovely colour and she even said that she felt reallycalm when she stepped in the room. so perfect for tantrummy angsty teenagers!

[AChickenCalledKorma]

OK - orange it is! Feeling so reassured by all the people who have already done it and still love it.

(DD1 says she is going for two walls in turquoise and two in a toning bright blue. Will definitely need to take a moment to refocus my eyes when walking across the landing from one room to the other!)

[Startail]

Orange and white, with turquoise, bright green and hot pink could look really good.

DD1 has a ikea quilt cover that's white with bright flower outlines that would work (sadly not this years) and I've seen striped ones too.
right kind of colours

butterflies, hearts and various stipes, both DDs have BHS butterflies they wash ok

The problem is bright orange against orangey pine furniture, if her her furniture is white melamine or can be painted white it probably would look better.