January 1, 2007

What's the Right Color for Kids' Rooms These Days?

Traditional Pinks and Blues Still Popular, but Many Other Colors Are on the Rise

Cleveland, Ohio ... According to American Baby magazine, a child is less likely to tire of a room scheme that contains several colors, often a mix of pink, blue, yellow, red and even green.  So, if you were going to re-do your child's room in the near future, just what is the perfect color for kids these days? Are there particular colors that will actually help a baby's development? And when is the right time to change the decor from a nursery to a toddler setting; or when to switch from tween to teen décor?

Are (or should) a room's color patterns be influenced by the child's love of cartoons, movies, action figures and other pop culture? Or is that being too commercial for his or her own good?

Donna Schroeder, Dutch Boy Paints Color Marketing & Design Specialist, notes that "Of course kids love their cartoons and action heroes, but parents are savvy enough to know they can satisfy their child's interest in Sponge Bob, Spiderman or Barbie with a really cool pillow, play table or poster rather than doing an entire room in a fleeting theme.  Kids' tastes change very quickly, so while you’re probably going to redo his or her room periodically, stick with a good mix of pastels and then accessorize."

And re-doing a kid’s room periodically is just the half of it.  New research shows that - on average - a child's room is redecorated or repainted at least four times by the time he or she is 14 years old.  And that’s a lot of effort if you’re making over extremely intricate, themed rooms.  It’s much easier, timesaving and affordable to repaint or theme with paint.

Painting kids' rooms is a fun, easy and inexpensive way to update their living space.  It’s also important to involve your child in the decision process so he or she can help create a memorable space to call his or her own.

To assist, Crayola® and Dutch Boy® have created a partnership designed to make all these decorating stages fun and easy with a complete, 96-color palette of Crayola colors tinted in Dutch Boy Kids' Room Paint.  It is part of the new Color Simplicity paint selection system from Dutch Boy, and it includes a number of fun, unique color selection tools and color chips sure to generate the child’s enthusiasm for a room makeover.

The new Crayola colors for kids' rooms allow parents and children to work together in creating a special room for the child. The Crayola palette features a vast selection of colors, along with 16 recommended room themes and designs.  This allows the parent and the child to be creative and unique in the color scheme they want to use.

But is there a right color or colors to choose? According to Schroeder, deciding what colors to paint a kid's room need not be overwhelming.  She notes that a little forethought and some fundamental knowledge on color selection are all that’s required. In particular, she notes the following colors are attributed with different, positive emotions, and can either be combined in families of complementing hues or as accent colors:

Red: Excitement, energy, love, warmth, power

Orange: Energy, sunshine, youth, warmth, tropics

Yellow: Joy, happiness, cheerfulness, idealism

Green: Nature, environment, healing, restful, peace

Blue: Peace, pure, calm, harmony, clean

Purple: Wealth, noble, luxurious, wisdom

Brown: Earthy, homey, organic, comfort, stability

White: Light, clean, pure, new beginnings

Gray: Security, reliable, conservative, dependable

Black: Strength, elegance, power, mystery, wealth