Help, son wants a purple bedroom

[Thegreatgiginthesky]

My 4 year old son is quite adamant this is what he wants. I am a bit worried however that as he gets older he will want it changed as it could be seen to be a bit girly by his friends.

We have been looking at shades and we both like Little Greene Thai Sapphire as a slightly more masculine shade but am worried it could be too dark. What do others think?

https://www.littlegreene.com/thai-sapphire

We will use it just on one wall. Does anyone know of something similar but slightly higher in tone? I am keen to avoid lilacs.

But it’s so dark! A brighter purple like the one you just quoted is so nice for a kid’s room. Remember, he is a kid.

A bit girly?
A BIT GIRLY???
It's exactly the colour that Ozzie Osbourne would have chosen when he was 4.

@Thegreatgiginthesky I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that you should be proud of yourself for having raised a Prince fan. For him to recognise the musical genius of the Purple One so early in life shows great promise. It took me into my late 40s to truly understand how talented that man was. I don't much care for all of his music, and the term genius is often thrown around, but musically he has to be just that.

Here he is playing at the George Harrison tribute 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

I think that's a lovely colour. I would do all four walls purple, but if you really only want one, then I think a light to medium shade of grey would look good.

My husband's bedroom was purple when I first met him and it was wonderful. My daughter was desperate for a black bedroom when she was 11. Thst was 20 years ago and I've still got black walls now that it's my office. I love it!

This, I never get it when parents insist on choosing the colour scheme for their child's bedroom. Inevitably it ends up being 'tasteful' and the opposite of what a kid wants.

@Fgfgfg 😮😮😮😮😮. I've never seen anything quite like the purple house. But I must admit I think I really like it 😆

Let him have a nice bright purple wall. I'm not a fan of lilac either but a really bright one would be cool. You could get a few colour strips and let him choose.

I don't think bright or dark purple is really considered a girly colour, I've definitely seen boys in my daughter's class with purple hoodies, headphones etc.

It's one wall. Take your child to a paint shop or order a sample colour chart and let him pick the exact colour he wants. If he wants to change the colour at a later date (for whatever reason), that's fine, just paint over it (if it's particularly dark, you may want to use lining paper first, as others have suggested).

FWIW, the favourite colour of many of the boys in my son's social circle is pink. There's no such thing as a 'girly' colour.

So purple is girly now? Ok then

😂

This is making me a bit sad, actually. My nephew's favourite colour was purple when he was around 5 or 6 and he was already worried that he wasn't really supposed to like it. Although he's into heavy metal now so maybe it was the right colour all along 🤷🏼‍♀️

I would encourage it if you ensure there is Green and White somewhere in the decor as well.
Dont tell him that his room is decorated in Suffragette colours😂

My teen dc has red wall. We put banana split (bright yellow) on the other walls as really brightens the naturally dark room.
Another has kiwi crush (lime green) with dark blue feature wall - and it makes the room lovely and bright and airy. You could do one feature purple wall and then the rest yellow or kiwi crush

https://images.app.goo.gl/oeERw9NsDJVBSA1V8

ffs OP
parenting 101- do not give your child choices about something and then ignore or over rule what they choose
and girly????
colours are just colours
toys are just toys
clothes are just clothes

and- even if we accept the bizarre notion of a colour being 'girly'...
what is wrong with girls, eh??

We painted dd1's room purple at the same age because it was her favourite colour, and had been since she was aware of colours.
Within 6 weeks she changed her favourite colour. 🤣

It was a lighter purple though and looked very nice, even if dh did put the wallpaper on upside down. It was a Disney one, purple with sparkly stars and was gorgeous. Dh spent a day putting it on and I said "did you realise it's upside down." He was just saying "ha ha" when I pointed the tiny Disney copywrite sign. It didn't matter at all really, but it amused us at the time.

About 5 years later she changed her favourite colour back to purple, but we'd moved house since then.

I would just paint it that colour, but if you really don’t want to could you compromise and paint something neutral for now and then focus on purple bedding, rug etc that can be swapped out later if he goes off purple?

I let my two choose the colour of their rooms because as someone else said it's their space so I wanted it to be nice (for them at least!)

One of mine has had sunshine yellow, bright orange and lime green at various times 😬

Also just a random side note my dh’s favourite colour is purple, and he is a stereotypical manly man.

I’d just let him choose the shade of purple he wants, it’s his room. The very dark purple you shared doesn’t look like a very fun shade for a little kid.

Take him to B&Q and buy the colour he likes.
Keep furniture white.
Re-paint walls in a few years time if he changes his mind.
My nephew had a bright orange room well into his teens so it could be a while!

The gender stereotyping starts early. Let him have pink, blue, yellow, purple, any color he wants. There should be no such thing as boy colors and girl colors.

Give him his purple room.

In the past I would have been outraged at you, but then I had a boy the same age who was adamant he wanted a pink scooter and pink lunchbox and then refused to use them for school 😂. It was one of those super expensive Bento boxes, so it was annoying. He also adamantly denies ever requesting pink anything. What I would do is go for the purple, but make it a galaxy/space theme. If you Google galaxy bedroom there are some great ideas. You could also use purple fairy lights or purple sky projectors, purple wall hangings etc to make the room very purple but it can be changed easily without totally redecorating.

Either paint it the exact shade he wants, or say no to painting altogether. Don't make a thing of painting it 'for him' then do it the way YOU want! That's not fair, and more than a little over-entangled.

It's his room, his space, his opportunity to express himself. He'll likely change his mind, and more than once, as he grows, but it's only paint. If you're worried about the cost, choose a cheaper brand.

As for your classification of colours by gender, and casual ingrained misogyny ... 😫😤 🤯.

Yeah let him choose the colour he likes and paint the whole room with it, it will look great, cozy if it’s a dark purple or more fun I guess if it’s a lighter one, but yeah it’s a room you have given just for him, let him run with the things he loves, it will help him feel comfortable in his home and around his family and the more comfortable kids are in their own homes it can only help them grow into adults comfortable in their own skin.

All these little concerns about colours being girly and toys being gendered for example do add up, I certainly don’t want to turn your thread into a debate about this when your just trying to pick a colour, but you did say you were concerned about it. When I was a boy a friend at my mum’s cleaning job gave me a toy hoover I loved, my dad slung it out as soon as he got home because it was a girls toy, I hope I didn’t break his heart too much when I grew up and used a real hoover! So purple is for everyone, let him have it and don’t you worry another second about it, it would hopefully mean his mates who see it will in turn feel good about their own colour choices, just avoid purple that looks like cadburys wrappers if your loyalties are with other chocolate 😂