A Pink Bed, a Bright Yellow Desk, and Half-Painted Blue Walls Prove That Things Get *Really* Fun When Kids Pick Their Own Room Colors

A kid’s bedroom is their safe space. It’s the tangible expression of their personality and an environment that cultivates personal growth, imagination, and creativity — especially when they’re involved in designing the room and picking the paint colors!

That’s what Linda van Houts, who owns this vibrant home in The Netherlands, believes. When van Houts, who co-owns the interior design company Atelier9Interieurprojecten, set out to design Dexter and Stella’s (her kids!) rooms, she combined freedom and sentimentality to make everyone happy, and the results are wonderful. Here’s a closer look at the rooms.

Van Houts gave her kids free rein to choose whatever color they wanted to adorn their bedroom walls. Dexter opted for Histor’s “Trouw S 1060 B” and only painted half of the walls. “We thought it would make the room more cosy,” van Houts writes. “The whole wall blue would be too much, but like this, it’s fresh, and it ties everything together.”

On the other hand, Stella wanted to paint her room pink with a wallpaper accent wall. (Van Houts isn’t sure of the exact paint shade, but Benjamin Moore’s “Pink Powerpuff” is a close alternative.) Letting Dexter and Stella choose their colors was a pretty rewarding choice. “They were really happy because they chose everything themselves,” van Houts shares. “Stella’s room used to be all pink, but the yellow desk came down from Dexter’s room. Now the room is even more colorful than it already was.”

There’s no doubt that both Stella and Dexter’s rooms are bursting with color — and it’s not just because of the striking wall paint. The yellow desk that was once in Dexter’s room but now brightens Stella’s was actually hand-crafted and painted in Histor’s “Citroen s 0570 g90y” by van Houts’s dad. Additionally, Stella’s vintage bed was adorned in Histor’s “Zoet s 0540 r20b,” and the vintage armoire modernized when they covered it in Histor’s “Plots s 1055 b90g.”

The bedrooms in van Houts’s Netherlands home are a testament to the joy that can come from involving your kids in the design process. “I like that it’s spacious, colourful, and bright,” van Houts writes about her favorite part of Dexter and Stella’s rooms.

• Furniture — IKEA
• Lamp — Kartell
• Rug — Dutchbone
• Desk chair — Vintage (here’s a similar shape from Amazon)

• Rug — Rozenkelim.nl
• Desk cabinet — IKEA
• Bed — Vintage (here’s a similar option for IKEA)
• Desk — Custom
• Lamp — IKEA
• Armoire — Vintage (here’s a similar find from Home Depot)