When I was a teenager, my parent's actually LET me spray-paint my walls in my room. It was great. It let me be creative and express my "teenage angst." And we just painted over it after it was turned into a guest room. I agree that it's important to let kids express themselves creatively.

Awesome idea! I'm the dad of the house and I toy with graffiti designs. Maybe I'll get some masonite and "decorate" my office!

Of all the things there are to worry about when raising a child, how she decorates her room is the last on my list. Short of actual demolition, as long as it is easily painted over, etc., I couldn't care less. You have the rest of your life to be "tasteful."

I gave my daughter some paint and let her go to work in her bedroom. She created a piece on the wall that was really just a bunch of brush strokes in red and other bold colors. It was an expression of herself. When she went to college in Sept. I had it painted over. It took a few coats of paint but no big deal.

A child's room is their escape from the world. It is their haven. I think it should express their style and tastes. My three have vastly different looking bedrooms because they each have very different personalities.

Must respecfully disagree with @Whitehouse design. It would be disrespectful if he had not have asked permission and just done the graffi without his parent's consent. Instead, he worked with his mother to figure out a way to get his design up on the walls of his room.

A child's room is their space. It is where they begin to make the decisions that eventually will lead them to an adult design sense and their own individual taste. As long as there are no dirty dishes or clothes spread around and the minimum level of clean is maintained, let the kid decide. However, it was understood in our house that we were only buying paint once every three or four years, so you were going to have to live with whatever color you chose.

I didn't always agree with my kid's choices, but I figure that I'd pick my battles and room decor, hairstyle and (to a certain extent) clothes weren't where I wanted the fight. Grades, social peers, responsibility, family life - those were where I drew very clear lines.

There is pretty much nothing that primer and paint won't take care of. One of our daughters did a most amazing interpretation of the Prayer of Saint Francis covering a 12 foot length of her bedroom wall. It was her space, her home, despite the right of "ownership" of us, her parents. I loved her expression, and it was easily changed by the next owners. Yes, the downside was I could not bear to paint over it before we moved so we included a "paint" allowance when we sold the house.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. My mother was a total control freak about "her" house. She wouldn't even allow me to cook anything for fear I'd "make a mess." She created what she considered a to be a beautiful bedroom for me - bright pink shag carpeting, a floral bedspread that had to be removed before I could even sit on my bed much less sleep in it, and frilly drapery. No David Cassidy or Donny Osmond posters dared grace by walls. I was always so jealous of my friends' rooms. I wasn't really allowed any self-expression, is it any surprise I left home at 18 and never looked back? LOVE the comments above. THESE are mothers who understand that to truly love someone, you simply must allow them individual freedom and self-expression. Allowing them to "own" their bedroom is a really easy (and painless) way to show them respect. My guess is that respect will be returned.

My parents let me choose my own wallpaper at age 4 (a fantastic, dizzying tropical leaves print), let me deface/paint/Sharpie all over it as I entered my teen years, and for my 16th birthday spent a week together peeling that same graffitied wallpaper and repainting my room with spare white walls and black trim, as I requested. They weren't the greatest parents otherwise, but they always let me do with my space as I chose. As an adult, I am a working artist and freelance in interior design. As a mother, I allow my children to do what they wish with their playroom walls, and allow my daughters' desires for their rooms' colors to be honored. They are both creative and confident!

Our son loves color, and we let him choose his wall colors as soon as he expressed an interest. He did wild things in his room as a teen, and is now a dual fine & graphic arts major at an art school. We were very happy to nurture his love of art, color, & design.

In almost every interview I read with designers, they have a story about having decorated their childhood bedroom. As long as a kid's ideas are safe, inexpensive, reversible, and not against a landlord's lease conditions, let 'em do whatever.

If you live in a rented space where painting its against the rules, or you think you might want to save their art (say, to take with you, when you move), the masonite is a fabulous idea!
When my youngest was about 4, she wanted flowers, rainbows, butterflies etc. I thought it would be fun, so talked to her dad, and he became furious at the idea of even touching the walls in our new home. :( So, I posed to her, the idea of painting all of those things on her furniture, instead, and that's exactly what we did, and we had a ball doing it. Later, the other kids in the neighborhood were envious.
When I left her dad, she asked again about her new room (she was 9, by then), we made a deal to save the money for the paint, together. A month or so later, we spent a weekend turning the primary colored room into a white room with all of the bright jewel tones, flowers, etc., and we both loved doing it. It masses us smile, just walking in, and she was happy.
Now, she is 16, working at a real job (not just babysitting), and is very competently saving for, planning, and when possible, buying the things she wants to have and decorate with now, and for her own place, college, and beyond. She even keeps her room clean and takes care of her stuff, because she understand delayed gratification, saving for what you want, and hasconfidence in herself, her abilities, and is still realisticly hopeful.

I surround myself with people and an atmosphere that *I* like in the whole house - I see no harm in letting her do the same with her room.