A housing for a portable electronic device includes a molded base and a nano-particle coating. The nano-particle coating is formed on the molded base. The nano-particle coating has nano-particles comprising a material selected from the group of zinc sulfide (ZnS), cadmium sulfide (CdS), tellurium sulfide (TeS), zinc selenide (ZnSe), cadmium selenide (CdSe), cerium oxide (CeO2), zinc oxide (ZnOx), tin oxide (SnO2), zinc-europium orthosilicate (Eu—ZnSiOx), barium-magnesium-europium aluminate (BaMgAlOx—Eu), and gadolinium-yttrium-europium borate ((Y, Gd)BO3—Eu), the nano-particles have predetermined sizes for producing different color.