Navigating Pink

“Pink is the navy blue of India.”--Diana Vreeland

At Shop Decorator, we like to experiment with wall colors which are often off the beaten path, bordering on provocative. We do not hesitate, for example, to paint a room black, knowing that the “queen of colors,” as Renoir described it, creates rich depths, a suggestion of underworld treasure, a noir atmosphere that evokes sophistication and excitement rather than gloom.

But recently we undertook a color challenge utterly opposite in temperament: we set out to paint a room peachy pink! And it was decidedly an adult room: un-frilly, paneled, even severe. How would peach- pink interact with rather hard-edged modern furniture? Could pink operate with any sort of seriousness in a room intended to express grown-up glamour?

We had to ask ourselves, why use peach, anyway? We listed the peach-pinks we loved: the slowly suffused blush of pink cheeks, peonies, the pink granite buildings of Scotland, the magentas of India, sunset over Riverside Park in the summers, pink grapefruit, and the deep pink of pomegranates, among many other things.

Pink and peach were clearly happy colors, colors which intensify mood and emotion, but the issue was how to use them in a stylish rather than sentimental or childish way.  We wanted our peach to promote happiness, not regression to an infantile state. The solution was to use  a sort of powdery peach color (Sherwin Williams SW 6618 “Cosmic Peach”), a color in which the mixture of palest pink and orange tones seemed a subtle suggestion rather than a saturated statement.

We had already decided to use the very tailored-looking Scale Sofa, upholstered in white Carson Canvas. The Scale Sofa, with wenge legs, is as business-like as it is beautiful. Paired with drapery panels patterned in Hexagon in Ivory/Gray, the paneled peach walls acquired a look of understated, paradoxical chic. A towering Ficus Lyrata tree in a stolid gray concrete vessel added the wonderful contrast of shiny dark green leaves. Over the sofa we hung a color photograph of a beach scene: gray-blue water, buff sand. The sober colors of furniture, drapes and artwork served to mute the ‘sweetness’ of the peach walls.

The total effect of the room is stylish, ever so slightly romantic, and definitely very adult.

Artfully mixed and matched, Shop Decorator’s wide selection of rugs, drapes and pillows is available in thirty subtle shades and a myriad of textures and patterns. At Shop Decorator, home is not only a place, but an experience, the setting most central to our families, friendships and visual adventures. Sign up to receive our newsletter with special offers!