When choosing a paint color for a girl’s bedroom, there is a lot to consider. Will the chosen paint grow with your child? Is it a suitable shade that reflects their personality? Is it a color that gets the balance right between sparking creativity and encouraging sleep? The color you pick sets the tone for the rest of the design to follow, so it’s crucial you get it right.
Color plays a pivotal role in helping your child sleep says head of creative at Farrow & Ball, Charlotte Cosby. ‘It can even agitate them, so the importance of picking the right color for a child’s room should be well thought-out,’ she says.
Heather French of French & French Interiors also points out that kids’ spaces need to be active and engaging to spark imagination and creativity. ‘For us, that means taking more risks and using and layering bold colors and prints for a playful effect.’ Here we run through our favorite kids room ideas for color in a girl’s bedroom.
What are the best paint colors for a girl’s bedroom?
It’s crucial to think outside the box when designing your little girl’s room, and avoid going down the traditional, stereotypical route of picking pink for a girl and choosing blue for a boy. There are a whole world of colors to have fun with that won’t leave your child feeling anchored to a particular color scheme, and there are plenty more colors that will resonate with your child than just blue and pink. Make sure you speak to your child when beginning the design process and listen to their likes and dislikes, this is an opportunity for kids to feel part of the collaborative process.
‘Bedrooms for girls must speak to their personality, not their gender,’ says Heather French of French and French Interiors. ‘Stereotypical pink for girls, in our experience, is an imposed phase, something they will grow out of too quickly. We like to take into consideration both what the child will enjoy now and also what they can grow into.
‘Let’s say they love butterflies, rainbows, and clouds. We’ll make sure the bed feels soft like a cloud and that the room feels cheerful like a rainbow.’
Here are 8 wall color ideas that work particularly well.
1. Neutral tones
(Image credit: Farrow & Ball)
Neutral colors are a great place to start when deciding a bedroom wall color for your girl. They are gender-neutral, flexible, and can age and mature as your daughter does. In a neutral bedroom, the accessories, soft furnishings, toys and books are what provide the color and personality.
‘I tend to lean towards gender neutral colors in children’s bedrooms rather than blue or pink,’ says Fanny Abbess of The New Design Project (opens in new tab).
‘Most kids’ rooms are filled with toys and bedding, so a neutral, like a cream for example, provides a lovely backdrop that can be accented with colorful accessories, artwork, or wallpaper,’ Fanny adds. ‘The neutrals I select for boys bedroom ideas tend to have cooler undertones and for girls, warmer undertones.’
‘A favorite paint color of mine for children’s bedrooms is Cloud Cover Benjamin Moore (opens in new tab), a go-to white subtly shaded with a touch of grey-blue.’
This example, from Farrow & Ball (opens in new tab), is a School House White, a soft, off-white with warm undertones.
2. Yellow
(Image credit: Simon Brown. Design: Beata Heuman)
Yellow is an invigorating color to use as a girl’s bedroom idea, and is a great example of a gender-neutral shade that doesn’t conform to any pre-prescribed stereotypes.
In this example, the London-based designer Beata Heuman (opens in new tab) used this rich tumeric tone in her daughter’s bedroom in their riverside house. The wall mural motif featuring rabbits is fun and playful, a whimsical design for a growing girl.
3. Green
(Image credit: Julie Reinhart Design)
While your priority may be to create a restful girl’s bedroom where your child is encouraged to sleep, using blocks of primary color is a great kids room paint idea, and can make the space a creative place for your child to grow.
‘In this bedroom we used blocks of colour to create a cheerful effect in the room,’ explains Julie Reinhart (opens in new tab), Toronto-based interior designer
‘When choosing vibrant colours for a kid’s bedroom I think it’s important to balance it with some softness so the overall space is easy to live in,’ says Julie. ‘Here we wrapped three walls in a soft sky blue and painted one wall in bright green. Using vibrant colours can express a child’s personality and creativity.’
4. Pink
(Image credit: Olivia Outred)
Just as much as you may want to avoid painting a girl’s room in pink and putting them in a gender-defined box from an early age, it is, generally, just a great color if used with good intentions. It can look great on walls and in a bedroom can give off a calming and peaceful vibe.
In this scheme by Olivia Outred Studio (opens in new tab), the pale pink is used in a den-like nook in a grown-up way. ‘We used ‘Coral’ in Pink by Soane Britain (opens in new tab) in this child’s bedroom,’ explains Olivia. ‘The pinks are strong and quite grown-up, they could happily be used in a study or drawing room too, and are not overly childlike or feminine, which will help with the longevity of the room.’
‘The curtains are double-sided, with matching ‘Coral’ on the outside and Haversham Amerylis on the inside, the wide stripe made us think of circus tents, and our young client loved the circus feel,’ Olivia adds. ‘We chose yellow woodwork, and soft white walls so that children’s paintings could be pinned all over the walls without clashing colors.
‘For children, a sense of magic and adventure is top priority.’
5. Red
(Image credit: Benjamin Moore)
A bold pop of red can really invigorate your girls’ childhood bedroom. Cool the red down with some softer tones and soft furnishings. This color is from Benjamin Moore (opens in new tab). ‘Red is a great colour for a girl’s room, as it creates a sense of energy and playfulness,’ says Helen Shaw of Benjamin Moore.
‘Even if the room doesn’t have a lot of natural light, red is a good choice, adding instant warmth to a dark or small bedroom. Use it with plenty of white to prevent it from becoming too dominant, and add in accent walls of other shades, or a chalk paint wall for extra fun.’ There are plenty of great colors that go with red, including pink, blue and even green, that can make the scheme feel fun and energizing.
6. Blue
(Image credit: Kate Guinness)
Blue is a soft tone that is suitable for a girl’s bedroom in that it is calming and peaceful. Here, the blue walls are offset by the warm tones of the blind, chairs and rug. ‘When choosing a wall colour, we love to create children’s bedrooms that can grow with them. Using textiles and colour help to build layers and add interest,’ says Kate Guinness (opens in new tab) who designed this blue bedroom scheme.
‘I wanted a fun blue but one that would grow with the child and not be too babyish. I love how the warm red tones work with it, it’s a canvas for lots of colour and texture.’
7. White
(Image credit: Bellybambino)
White is the perfect color to paint on the walls of your girl’s bedroom. It is crisp, calming and flexible. As your child’s room fills up with trinkets and toys, photos and books, this is what brings those accents of color.
A white bedroom also makes for a perfect space where your child can grow, so when those toys start getting replaced with more adult possessions, white still works as a long-term color choice.
8. Orange
(Image credit: JD Design)
Orange is another color that is bright, fiery, bold and energetic and makes for a great scheme for your daughter’s bedroom. The color is warm in tone, adding that bit of sunshine to your home’s design. Your options range for warm terracottas to soft pastel peach tones, or you could opt for something bright and energizing, like this teen girl’s bedroom.
Tips for picking paint with your child
When picking paint colors, to make the decision-making process a smooth one, there are a lot of handy hints and tips you can adopt. ‘When decorating a child’s room, it’s a good idea to sit on the floor so you can appreciate the dimensions of the room from a similar height as that of its occupant,’ advises Joa Studholme, color curator at Farrow & Ball (opens in new tab).
Another aspect is the quality of paint you are using. ‘When painting a child’s bedroom, it is best to use eco-friendly Modern Emulsion,’ adds Joa. ‘This is not only safe for use in nurseries but also super tough to cope with the rough and tumble of teenage life.’
The decoration of children’s bedrooms is often the source of considerable angst – with the dilemma of whether to keep to the established color-flow of the rest of the house or to allow the child free rein. Even if you choose to keep the walls fairly neutral, some extra energy can be added by painting the floor in a playful colour.
Lastly, Julie Reinhart recommends looking up. ‘Consider the ceiling in your design. It’s an opportunity to create a focal point and add some whimsy to a room.’