Thinking pink: bold designs bring the hot pastel home
Stop panicking: it’s really just light red.
No other colour gets dissed and dismissed as often as pink when it comes to home design. Yet in home decor, shades of pink have circled through a number of decades, often in tandem with other colours — grey, chocolate, navy and preppy jade green.
For the past three years or so, pink has been re-emerging in Europe. More precisely, beige-y blush kept cropping up in upholstery and even cabinetry at the Maison & Objet shows in Paris. Not uncommon in Scandinavian countries, pink easily streamed into housewares as well, with whisks, salad utensil sets and peelers. Variant shades like petal, carnation and even deeper rose started inserting themselves into fabrics and cabinetry. Attractive mixable metals like rosy copper or pink-toned glass or quartz are showing up in lighting, tabletop and accessories.
“To most consumers, pink is associated with a child’s room,” says Ann Haagenson, divisional merchandise manager for Anthropologie. “So it has taken a while to progress into the living room and master bedroom.”
The retailer is selling bedding, lighting and votive holders in the colour. “But blush or ‘biche’ (fawn in French) is the most flattering colour for the home.”
Designer Tobi Fairley loves blush for furniture and fabric design.
“It’s a fabulous barely-there pastel that combines pink with an almost taupe tone,” she says. “I like to mix it with navy or citron to balance the sweetness.”
Fairley offers some tips on effortless ways to integrate the colour into decorating:
Accessorize: “Small-scale linen pillows make an easy update to a sofa, bed or low living/casual areas.”
On the tabletop: “I have a blush pink/stripe vintage dinnerware collection that makes me smile when I have my morning coffee.”
Go large-scale: “Try an upholstered sofa in blush pink leather. It is a divine statement piece that is both soft and hard. It will be the envy of any guest.”