I grew up in a pink room. Light, insipid pink. I hate pink. Pink walls, pink curtains, pink rug, pink bedspread. Pink, pink, pink. Who invented that awful color and assigned it to girls? Ugh. So when I turned 13 I asked to paint my room, offering to do the work myself. Problem is, the walls had to match the existing curtains, which left me a choice of a deeper pink or the-seventies-are-so-over avocado green.
I went with the green.
You would have gone with the green, too, wouldn't you?
When my middle two began sharing a room I lovingly lazured the walls in a glowing outdoor palette of sun yellow, grass green, and a deep blue sky on the ceiling. I so wanted to give them a beautiful and peaceful space to sleep and play in. I think that parents tend to want to create cozy and beautiful spaces for kids when they're little and have less say about how their room looks. But then those kids start growing up.
My almost-12 son is asking to redecorate his room. I can tell it's mostly about wanting to express who he is. Kids don't have many venues for self-expression: rooms, clothes, and hair. That's about it. And I have decided to let my kids make their own decisions about all of it. Blue hair? As long as it meets theschool's standards, fine with me!
But some parents have some difficulty with this. My son wanted to paint his room black, naturally, but I had to demur, blaming the landlord. And he has quite good taste and so led me through Ikea showing me what would work, but in reading this article I got the idea that parents aren't always comfortable with their kids having complete control over the self-expression of their rooms. Rental issues and cost (which can obviously be a big issue) aside, what's the big deal? Especially if the kid is willing to do the labor and change those black walls to something more neutral when they eventually move out? I say let kids make mistakes. Let them live with crushed-velvet animal prints. As long as the room's not a health hazard, who cares?
