EXCLUSIVE: Bill Gates’ Daughter Phoebe Cringes Over ‘Horrific’ Childhood Bedroom Decor—as She Reveals Her Worst Design Disasters

Billionaire Bill Gates‘ youngest child, Phoebe Gates, is busy making a name for herself in the fashion world with the launch of a new startup—but she is quick to admit that, despite becoming an expert in the field, even she has experienced a fair few design disasters, particularly when it comes to decor.

The 22-year-old entrepreneur has come a long way since she made the decision to paint her childhood bedroom a “horrific” purple color—but she concedes that finding her ideal interior aesthetic has been a long journey, one that has seen her making a number of major mistakes.

Now Gates, who was raised at her father’s famous Xanadu 2.0 compound in Medina, WA, and her former college roommate turned business partner, Sophia Kianni, are lifting the lid on all of their worst interior decor errors in a bid to help others avoid the same mistakes along the way.

The duo, who met while studying at Stanford University, had their first shared design experience inside their dorm room—which, as it turns out, also served as the launchpad for their new company, Phia, a shopping tool that compares prices of new and used items across thousands of websites.

But while the Phia founders shared the same vision for their business, they reveal to Realtor.com® that their decor preferences for the dorm room where they first developed the app were decidedly different—differences that led to a rather over-the-top aesthetic inside the space.

“In college, both of us had really funny taste,” says Gates. “And so it was like Sophia’s side and Phoebe’s side, and you could totally tell whose was who. But, very colorful overall.” 

One way the pair successfully merged their styles inside their dorm was by displaying items to inspire their startup journey.

“The nice thing we did is, if we saw something interesting in class, we would tape it to the fridge for each other to see—like a cool article we read, something we were excited about, or a good user interview we’d had for Phia,” shares Gates.

“And so that was the space in the room—the little tiny kitchenette thing, because we had a little fridge and a sink—that was where the design congregated together.”

Using tape to post things on the refrigerator is just the type of nonpermanent transformation that’s generally allowed in temporary housing, such as dorms and rentals properties. Still, the Command Brand partners got themselves into a bit of a sticky situation with school authorities.

“We got in trouble for not doing damage-free design when we were first in college, for not using Command and then trying to pull things off afterwards and ruining the wall,” admits Gates.

“We taped up posters or something and then when you take the tape off, it, like, rips off the paint,” explains Kianni, who co-hosts “The Burnouts” podcast alongside Gates.

It seems both young activists prefer a more muted personal environment these days, perhaps because they each went overboard with color in their childhood rooms.

“Oh my gosh, my first childhood room was completely purple,” Gates says of her childhood home in Seattle. “Like, purple everywhere. It was horrific. I mean, there wasn’t a space that wasn’t purple. If there was a crack in it, it had to be made purple. Or pink, to be honest.”

“It’s so funny because I also, when I was younger, I had two different types of rooms,” shares Kianni about her childhood space inside her family’s McLean, VA, home. “I had a blue and pink room, and then the other one [was] blue and green because I thought I had grown past pink, but not past colored walls. 

“I also hung a ton of different posters and stuff like that on my walls. I had too many. It wasn’t even people, it was, like, posters of birds. I had the ‘Birds of North America’ book. I was just obsessed with birds.

“So, yeah, my childhood bedroom was super chaotic. I had, like, a furry beanbag. I had a cheetah blanket. I had a lot going on.”

Looking back on the evolution of their personal aesthetics is just one of the ways that the close friends are helping younger people to find their own style early on—with the duo now detailing their best damage-free, budget-friendly, and Gen Z-approved dorm design tips in a new podcast collaboration with Command entitled, “Sticking With Style.” 

“I have a lot of friends who do a lot of accessorizing with lights,” says Kianni. “I feel like that’s such an easy way to make a space look a lot more elevated, and it’s extremely cheap.”

And it’s not the basic color-changing LED strip light trend that exploded thanks to its popularity on TikTok in recent years that Kianni is referring to.

“Like, obviously there’s the LED lights and stuff like that, but one of my friends—and I high-key need to copy her because it looks so good—has this lamp in her room where it puts a sunset circle on the wall,” shares Kianni. “It’s like a TikTok trend, too. I’ve seen people post it. It looks so beautiful.

“I literally think she got it for, like, $20 or something, but her room basically now looks like it has a big, beautiful, orange halo on it.”

For the moment, that subtle orange glow put out by the light Kianni describes is currently “in,” yet Gates declares that its close color counterpart—the so-called “Gen Z yellow”—has had its day in the sun.

“I think Gen Z yellow used to be such a big thing that, like, every brand was doing that Gen Z yellow color,” she says. “I feel like that’s kind of fallen out of the fold now.”

Kianni adds that “the neons” and “really bright colors” recently adored by her generation also need to be sunsetted. 

Gates and Kianni’s previously colorful interior design scheme has evolved with each move: from their childhood homes to their college dorm and, now, to their own individual New York apartments.

“I feel like I’m a lot more minimalist now,” says Gates. “I really like a really nice black-and-white photo over the bed. If I can get fun marble nightstands, I love that. A really cozy white bed—I’m a lot more minimalist than I used to be before.”

“Honestly, completely the same,” agrees Kianni. “I used to be complete color-vomiting, like, color, color everywhere, and now I definitely gravitate more towards neutrals and basics. Most of the things in my apartment are white or brown or black.”

Yet the former roommates haven’t completely turned their backs on their original room aesthetics. Unlike the wall-damaging posters from their dorm days, there are a few design details in their homes and at their headquarters that they’re happy to keep around.

“I still love a pop of color,” says Kianni. “But now it’s like I have an accent of red; it’s not on the walls—it’s on the pillows.”

“I must have one, like, really cozy blanket,” adds Gates. “I’m not talking about an expensive comforter, but just a slough of really comfy blankets so I can create something, sit on my bed, get some work done, answer some emails at the end of the day—so I think that stuck, but hopefully not the massacre of the color purple all around. Although, Command could help me to hang some really nice purple frames. We might need to bring that into the office.”