Colour Class #11 — Playful Maximalism for Kids’ Rooms

Photo credit Céline Hallas

For the eleventh chapter of our Colour Class series, we journey to a charming house in Frederiksberg, built in 1898. This historic home provides the perfect backdrop for our latest project: transforming a children's room into a feminine, pink, and maximalist space. Our goal was to create an environment filled with various colours and activities while avoiding the typical sweet pink girls' room stereotype.

In this session, we explore the innovative use of baby pink in a non-traditional manner, showcasing its versatility and unexpected appeal. By integrating a rich palette of hues and playful elements, we have designed a room that is both vibrant and practical. Discover the techniques we employed to harmonise bold design choices with functional needs, ensuring this children's room is truly unique.

Location: In Frederiksberg, there are streets where no two villas are alike, and each house exudes history and fantastic craftsmanship. On one such street stands today's house, built in 1898. Here resides Cathrine with her husband Anders and their two young daughters.

Mission: To create a feminine, pink, and maximalist children's room with space for many things, many colours, and many activities, without creating a typical sweet pink girls' room.

Colours:In a room within a house that is as filled with historical details as the area it is in, it was time to create a proper children’s room – one made on the children's terms, where playful chaos is welcome. The task was clear: it had to be pink, even baby pink, the perhaps most classic colour for a traditional girls' room, but it must not become traditional or sweet.

The first decision was to paint all the walls and the ceiling a soft pink, paired with a traditional and soft green on all the voluminous historical woodwork, which also includes two built-in cupboards with glass doors. If the woodwork had been more minimalist, this combination might have seemed traditional, but the setting here creates a serene drama. The beautiful window is framed by airy curtains that match the woodwork beautifully, and the floor is matched with playful soft neutral tones in a chequered pattern.

Then the real fun with colours begins. Storage and a desk in the purple Iris colour make a significant visual impact in the room, and together with almost primary colours in blue, red, and green, layers of colours are built up through small and large details. A light blue Flint chair here and a light yellow Vanilla noticeboard there.

Ultimately, the pink colour serves as a large canvas where life, colours, and play unfold.

The lesson from this joyful room is not to pigeonhole colours – baby pink can certainly appear anything but traditional children’s room-like.