While staying in the coolest AirBNB in the Houston area for my son’s 16th birthday (it was a jail cell!) to go to a Franki Valli concert, we came across the Color Factory in Houston as a possible attraction idea. It looked really cool but a little “Instagramy” for us compared to Seismique. Ultimately I let me teen decide and he chose the Color Factory – and I’m glad he did!
I’ve never been to Seismique, so that is on our list the next time we are in Houston! My son and I are a little camera shy, but after the first room or two ended up loving the Color Factory and took tons of photos!
Even cooler – you don’t HAVE to bring your own camera/phone for pictures because the Color Factory has camera stations set up throughout the building! Although I still recommend having your own! The pre-set camera stations had pictures we could not have captured with our phones which was cool.
This is the first art installment you see when you walk in to buy tickets – and I definitely can appreciate some cool art! I can only imagine how many hours it took to tie up each one of those strings in place!
Walking in I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the Color Factory, but the first room had me feeling some Dr. Seuss vibes!! I regret not getting some cool photos in here but like I said, we’re kind of camera awkward so it took us a while to warm up!
All of the “floating” balls were so cool and the walls were trippy!
One thing that I didn’t realize when we decided to go to the Color Factory, is that it’s SO much more than JUST interactive art exhibits – which honestly by itself is cool enough. But what put our visit over the top was random “treat’ stations like these macaroons on a rotating belt to try.
We also had a DELICIOUS ice cream stop where they even had a vegan option for us dairy allergy folks!
AND for another cool surprise – one of the stops in the art exhibits we actually got to choose our own Color Factory souvenir to keep which was included in the price of admission! We both chose cool Color Factory collapsible cups.
One of our favorite spots – and most exhausting – was this galactic looking moon ball pit! It was a GIANT ball pit – do NOT let the photo above fool you on its size!!! I was just trying to get it all in one shot. This made the absolute coolest photos if you could wade over to them!
It has been a long time since I have been in a ball pit – I didn’t remember how difficult it was to get through!!! My teenager was absolutely in awe and had a blast. The sensory experience here was phenomenal and worth plenty of extra time to enjoy.
They even had camera spots on the ceiling! It made me wish I had the whole family with us! This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.
Ultimately I think this was my son’s favorite room. Do you remember those little hidden pictures you would need to wear red glasses for in order to see the image clearly? This ENTIRE ROOM had hidden art and messages everywhere! It was definitely an immersive sensory experience!
He spent a really long time in here exploring every message!
This is another one of those spots where having your own camera isn’t good enough and you’ll need to use the Color Factory cameras! You’ll need to join hands and touch the side panels in order to complete the circuits which make the “You Are Magic” sign light up!
Although it was quick and we didn’t really get to see the exhibit because it was behind us – it made for a cool photo stop!
Each and every room we walked through was COMPLETELY different than the one before. It was certainly well thought out! I’m sure you’ll recognize the giant Lite Brite style pegs here! And YES – they were all usable! We spent a while creating a “Space Invaders” style wall and taking a bunch of pictures.
Since we were visiting the Color Factory during their Halloween fall event – there was a room decorated with loads of gorgeous pumpkin backgrounds for photos! This was towards the beginning of the experience and what really opened us up to being there!
When we walked in it just looked like a giant room with a few decorations, except that there was paper confetti floating from the ceiling and blowing around! Every time we tried to lay down for pictures we got a mouth full of confetti which was hilarious!
It really helped break the ice and nerves of just walking through taking photos!
At the very end of the exhibit at the exit was this neat looking color panel wall. It was easy to walk by, but the cool thing was, this is a color palette of places they featured IN Houston! Every color panel had an image of someplace you could visit in Houston that matched the color on the door!
There was even a whole map on a different wall with other artsy recommendations to follow around the city! We stopped at a few of them since we had some time to kill but I loved the connection it made with the rest of the city.
Overall, it was a 10 out of 10 experience! We were a little nervous going in and unsure what exactly the experience was, but I am 100% I have the photo memories now of our experience and it made for a really cool birthday for my son!
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