22 Ways to Pop Off With the Color Pink
Pink may have been pigeonholed as the go-to hue for little girls’ rooms and otherwise feminine spaces, but the rosy color has the capacity to be so much more. With shades ranging from pale and ethereal to vibrant and powerful, pink has a place just about anywhere, whether it be indoors or out—coating the entire facade of a building or gracing the bathroom in the form of floor-to-ceiling tile. Don’t believe us? Take a look at how the designs below used pink as a power color.
Luis Barragán’s Cuadra San Cristóbal
It goes without saying that one of the greatest masters of color was famed Mexican architect Luis Barragán, who used pink to dazzling effect in several projects, including Cuadra San Cristóbal.
In a bathroom otherwise dominated by the neutral tones of Statuario marble, a powder-pink wall of cabinetry adds a colorful contrast—and creates ample storage to boot.
A good dose of inspiration from Luis Barragán turned a dark and beleaguered midcentury house into a family home for the ages. The paint colors chosen by the residents and architect Linda Taalman are American Cheese and Blushing Bride, both by Benjamin Moore, creating a tapestry of color and texture.
A bedroom in a renovated townhouse in Harlem, New York, makes the most of a tight space with orange-tinted pink walls. Pink bedding keeps the space monochromatic but adds depth with a range of reddish tones.
A subtle, just off-white shade of pink was chosen for the bathroom in a 17th-century home in the Swiss Alps updated by British architectural designer Jonathan Tuckey. The wood-lined walls give texture to the space and foreground the claw-footed tub.
Mexico City–based architecture firm PPAA designed a 624-square-foot, modular concrete dwelling with a dusty pink finish as one of 32 housing proposals—each representing one of Mexico’s 32 states—designed for Laboratorio de Vivienda, a showcase of easily replicable, affordable, and environmentally friendly homes in Apan, Hidalgo. At a cost of just $18,000 to build, it employs locally sourced, cost-effective materials to keep within its tight budget.
The residence and acknowledged masterpiece of 20th-century architect Alden B. Dow in Michigan begins with a visit down a small flight of stairs to the Submarine room, which is just about flush with the level of the pond outside. The pink ceilings refract the light off the water.
Upon entering into this 1950s home in Germany, visitors are greeted by a wall of storage in a dusty pink hue, giving the space warmth and efficient closet space in one fell swoop.
If pink walls aren’t your thing, consider pink tile in a graphic grid offset with other materials, colors, and textures, like matte-black fittings and wood cabinetry. Together, they give the room a modern edge.
In the renovation of their 1920s bungalow in Los Angeles, homeowners chose Mark Motonaga and Guy Clouse opted for Dawn Pink paint by Benjamin Moore in the main bedroom—even painting the ceiling for an enveloping effect.
At the Brooklyn outpost of The Wing, the all-women co-working space, a meeting room is swathed in a mature color palette of monochromatic pinks with matching un-upholstered Beetle chairs. The walls are covered with wallpaper depicting the the face of women.
The renovation of a Victorian-era home in Portland, Oregon, included updating the entry area with new storage and a muted pink hue, picked in collaboration with the client. "She wasn't afraid of color," says Stephanie Dyer of Dyer Studio, who paired it with a deeper burgundy shade for the doors.
The rosy, matte pink of the kitchen cabinets bleeds into the living room of this playful apartment in Japan, but is starkly contrasted with the striped green-and-yellow floor and blue backsplash in the kitchen and furniture in the living room.
This Singapore apartment, renovated by Takenouchi Webb, features a guest bathroom covered in eye-popping flamingo-print wallpaper.
An unusual pairing of pink and deep green find a happy match in this renovated apartment, which was DIY’ed by the homeowner, comedian Mamrie Hart, and her friend Claire Thomas, a creative director. "I am used to painting," says Thomas, "but I was not emotionally prepared for the amount of trim in the bedroom." Cedarville, a pastel pink hue, and Green Bayou, both by Dunn-Edwards Paints, now cheer up the space.
Bespoke mosaic tiles in several shades of matte and gloss pink, along with red Bisazza tiles, create a dramatic ombre effect in this bathroom. The light above the bath is a special-edition, red version of the 2LG Studio Capsule collection designed in collaboration with Cameron Design House, who noted that "pink and red aren't a traditional color combination, but they work really well here."
At a renovated home in Pennsylvania, the orange kitchen countertops were swapped for custom concrete countertops. The cabinets were painted Pink Ground by Farrow & Ball and paired with Build.com hardware, giving the kitchen a warm glow, in particular thanks to the natural light coming in from the double exposure of the windows. The kitchen sink and faucet are from Amazon, while the tile is from Lowes.
In a seaside holiday home in Taiwan, two goals were the focus of the design: a dominant pink palette, reflecting the homeowner's favorite color, and a feline-friendly interior for her three cats. The pink hues are offset by the easy-to-clean, dynamic terrazzo surfaces, and the pink is given depth and texture thanks to a mineral paint.
In a renovated home in Herzliya, Israel, contemporary minimalism keeps the space bright and light with white steel, light concrete floors, and light furniture—with the exception of a bathroom, where square pink tiles bring a bit of color.
Glass partitions framed in powder-coated metal slide back to make flexible use of the floor plan in a 1,206-square-foot apartment, where color blocking the rooms also help break up the different spaces. The pink walls of the living room tie into the pink furniture in other rooms, keeping a sense of continuity while still differentiating between areas.
A midcentury home in Palm Springs has a pretty pink facade offset by aluminum grilles. Providing shade as well as decoration, the grilles were designed by John deKoven Hill, lead architect in the office of Frank Lloyd Wright, who took over the firm upon Wright’s passing in 1959.
Home to architect Michael Artemenko, co-director of FIGR Architecture Studio—along with his wife Emma and their young daughter—this renovated heritage home in the Melbourne suburb of Cremorne uses a portal-like corridor painted a vibrant pink to connect the original period home to a new wing.
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