Pink has potential to please more than just little girls

"I fell off my pink cloud with a thud." — Elizabeth Taylor (1932-) English-born American actress.

The object of my desire was a red or gold garden seat. You know, those awesome ceramic or porcelain accessories that can be used as a seat or a side table, plant stand or anything your little heart yearns for. So, back to my quest. I went to a specific home store because I knew that its millions of items were mostly separated by color. How easy to shop.

While wandering down the aisles of reds, golds, greens, blues and aquas, there it was — sitting there all peaceful, serene and bodacious — an entire row of pink. Now these accessories were not for baby’s rooms — they were grown up things — and did I say pink. And, they weren’t Southwestern pink.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a collection. When I was a teenager, I had a pink bedroom; I even had a pink princess phone. But I got over that, and not for, lo, these many years, have I seen pink like this.

A lot of new mothers don’t even want pink these days for their babies; they prefer more subtle colors that don’t designate a "little girl’s" room or a room that looks too babyish. And when shopping for baby clothes, you see more greens, yellows and white for little girls than pink. Poor pink; I guess it really does get a bad rap. It’s really not even its own color; it’s a combo of red and white.

But, pink also has quite a history and certainly represents brave endeavors, such as breast cancer awareness. Pink has been the girl color and blue the boy color since the 1940s. And where would we be without pinks in the sunrise and sunsets? It’s been said that if you are "in the pink" you’re healthy and that pink rooms give women a great glow.

So, let’s take a closer look at pink in the home.

Both red and pink are associated with love; red is passion and pink is considered romantic and charming. Pink becomes more sophisticated when used with black, gray or dark green.

Pink also is used in feng shui. According to About.com, "You could almost say that, as a feng shui color, pink literally soothes the heart and fills it with love! The widest use of pink color in feng shui is in the Southwest area of one’s space, as it is connected to love and marriage. The feng shui element of Southwest is earth, so fire color is perfect as it creates earth in the productive cycle of the feng shui five elements. You can bring the fire energy with the wall color or furniture and décor accessories.

"The most common pink used in feng shui decorating is a gentle pink, although the hot version of it, the magenta pink, is used more and more often, as it brings very fiery energy, especially when coupled with orange, also a fire element color."

Now we know. Pink is not dead, it’s just taken on a new life, a trendy life, and it’s not relegated to the nursery. It’s in Wikipedia; it has its own pages on the Internet; it’s part of decorating legend, feng shui; the pink lady still haunts local bars; pink Cadillacs roam the ‘burbs filled with cosmetics; and, … OK, I think I’m done!

Personally I can’t warm up to pink, but if you have a penchant for pink, go for it. Match it up with more neutral colors so you don’t feel like you’re living in a powder puff. And keep mirrors around to get the glow.

And, seriously, if you have some really creative photos of pink in your space, I’d be tickled pink to see them. OK, I’m stopping now.

Carolyn Muse Grant is a founder and president of the Architectural & Decorative Arts Society, as well as an interior design consultant/stylist specializing in home staging. Her Inside Spaces column appears weekly in the Home section of the Review-Journal. Send questions to creativemuse@cox.net.