Pesky, your office/craft room is the perfect space for decorating to suit you and you alone! Go for it with the pink, since you love it! As for a color scheme, I think the shades in Zuzu's Petals famous living room are pure perfection. I love the reddish-pinks, the soft leaf-green walls and crisp white accents. Heavenly.

Of course, in your own room you could go heavier with the pink tones and accent in the leaf green and white. Just for color inspiration (not necessarily pattern, although I do love cabbage roses!) ...
{{!gwi}}
Pink and taupe are pretty together too.

Pink is fine but be careful with the pink you choose. As an overall impression, the pink in the fabric is pretty warm on my monitor (more similar to the second floral posted by auntjen than the first)...and if you aren't careful you could end up with pepto-bismol.

Aaack, I completely blanked on the fact that you want to keep your existing window treatment and don't want to paint green! (Sorry - doing too many things at once, I think!) Anyway, I do agree with palimpsest - the first floral I posted is all wrong color-wise, but I think you could pull tones from the bottom pic and create a lovely palette. Definitely think "antiqued" tones - perhaps that deeper, reddish-pink below the rail, combined with the softer, "whispery" shade of pink above.

My DH is in process of painting our bathroom Martha Stewart Ballet Slipper pink. It is a warm tan pink- just like a ballet slipper.
Hopefully I will get to move in and play in a day or two!

Martha Stewart did her entire Edsel Ford house in splashes of pale shades of pink. It's gorgeous of course.

Pantone's color of the year is a hot pink(honeysuckle) so actually it's IN!

This is so typical of timing. The pink/mauve of the 80's/90's has finally been totally ostracized..... so it is now safe for a newer pink to enter. (kind of like what people are saying about brass finish- it was so out for so long that now it is fresh and new:).
I have to say that in my last house, I had a very pale pink bedroom and living with it- I loved it. It was very warm and uplifting, very calming.. It was pretty subdued but definitely pink. It really was a wonderful color to live with.

You may know that my living and dining room walls are pink! It's not a "fashion color," but you're thinking outside of the box, imo, and what's wrong with that? Do we all really need to choose from the same 10 colors, when there are hundreds, thousands, of them out there?

Certainly, a space tucked away for you to create in with pink walls would be more than fine, imo! I think it would be a refreshing, unexpected look, and one that suits the space well.

I agree with Palimpsest. Avoid the Pepto/bubblegum pinks! As AJ said, something "antiqued" would be ideal. Cooper's Ballet Pink sounds beautiful, subtle and soft.

Mine is BM's Queen Anne Pink. It's one of the historical colors, which can usually be counted on. I agree with Sheilaaus, when she commented on the warmth pink brings to a room. Absolutely! Achieving warmth was my main goal when I selected my wall color and that goal was achieved. People comment often about how warm the rooms feel, and at night with lights on, it just sort of glows in there like candlelight!

Btw, it's not only women friends who approve of it. Sometimes I think men like it even more than women for some reason!

Oh and my DH is not painting the bathroom pink under pressure! He likes the color, and likes that it is complimtary to skin tones- at our age- we dont want to be chubby, wrinkled with a green cast to our skin!

Pink and green has never gone out of style with the preppy set- I think it was the mauve and blue together in the 80s that are now dated.
You should see the historic room in our building- marvelous to die for architectural details- true to the age of the building- 1800s I believe.
BUT- in the 80s- it was painted mauve, with blue( and yes you are visualling the correct combo in your heads)And even painted the cornocopias of fruit at the top of the columns- in colors- instead of leaving them white. And of course there is the requisite mauve and blue flowered WT that obscures the arch of the original windows!
It is my favorite room- because when we have meetings in it I daydream about how I would repaint.
I dont think it was pink that was particulary dated, it was the combo of mauve and blue that was de rigeur in the 80s.

I love pink, too. Our LR used to be pink, which worked for us (even DH) because our woodwork was dark and there was lots of it (ceiling beams, windows, mantle, etc). In that room, we used Chippendale Rosetone. However, I think my all-time favorite pink is Odessa Pink. (Both are HM historical colors.) We painted the LR in our beach house this color, and I just love it.

I happen to love a pink and gray color scheme, and Odessa Pink works well with gray. We painted our fireplace in the same room a gray (wish I could remember the name -- something like Seattle Gray?) and I really like the combination.

Pink walls are very flattering to skin tones and also affect mood positively. If you like it it's a great color, especially for an office/craft room. However, as others have said, be careful of which pink you choose - unless you like bubblegum or pepto pinks. I once had a bathroom that was the latter. I actually like colors that have a pink tone such as the spice beige in my bedroom.

Here's a slideshow from Country Living mag which shows how others have used pink.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pink home decor slideshow

It's only paint! Do whatever pleases you!

It's only paint, but it is a lot of work or money!

Just as you need to avoid Pepto-pink, don't make the very first paint mistake I ever made...that is to go so far to the brown/neutral that you end up with Band-Aid Walls like I did in 1989.

I agree that either of the two Historical pinks mentioned would be a good place to start. I also love Martha's pinks and used her Rose Tinted White (old K-Mart color) in the bedroom of our summer house. The closest BM match is Woodland Snow, which resides at the top of a strip of warm gold colors like Yellow Squash and Acorn Yellow. I am only telling you this, because you sometimes have to look in unusual places (the browns) for a pale pink. If you look at pale pinks, you can end up with Pepto!

My current guest bath is Tropical Sand which is at the top of a strip of cool, pinky browns. It looks great with the gray and white tile and bright white fixtures.

Pink is my favorite color, and other than having a pink bedroom in my teens, I rarely decorate with the color. I think my fear is that I could easily go the super sweet, super girly route, and it would just be a hot mess.

Pal, my old living room was done in Pepto Bismal. I held a bottle of it up to the wall, and it matched perfectly! lol

But it looked good because we had a lot of green in there and it was almost like summer garden year round.

Pesky, my sitting room is SW Redbud and it looks nice. I'm not sick of it at all. I get a lot of compliments on the room when people pass through it to the kitchen.

Not sure what the spot on the wall is, but the room is decorated differently now. I also use low lighting in it which makes it look better.

This picture was taken with a flash.

Amy, Woodland Snow must be on the Preview deck? I just tossed mine last week; it was such a mess. I couldn't find it on my Classic deck. Also couldn't find Tropical Sand. I remember when you were considering Queen Anne for the bathroom. Would love to see the colors you did use! Need to replace my Preview deck!

I have a question for you if you don't mind exploring this a bit further. I'm looking at all the HC pinks. Sheraton Beige (57) looks a bit band-aidy to me. Would that be an example of what you are speaking of? How does it read to you? I like your suggestion to look through the beiges but to be careful there too.

I know that you know I was quite ambivalent about my pink walls at first. Largely I think, due to strong bias some have against the color, it not being a "fashion color," it not being "neutral!"

You were a person here who encouraged me to keep it and seemed to like it, but only IF, you emphasized, *I* liked it. I was surprised (pleasantly) that a color specialist felt at ease with using pink for living/dining room walls.

I am fascinated by the whole topic of color...how it is used well, and the psychology of it. Your input on these threads is always so educational & interesting.

I'd start with the pink suggestions given above. I really like your curtain.

Oakley, Your room isn't reading Peto at all on my monitor but a deep rosey color. I really like that pillow on the chair!

When my daughter did her babys nursery, she wanted a faint pink color on walls and went with a BM Affinity paint called Head over hills. She had it mixed in BM regal. I think it is a very pretty soft pink. Here is a photo in case you are interested in it.
{{!gwi}}

I think that's the Redbud sitting room, not the old Pepto living room.

Yes, very cute pillow!

Hi Stinky. I appreciate your kind words. :-)

Yes, Woodland Snow and Tropical Sand are both in the Preview deck, which is funny, because I specify more colors from the Classic Colors deck as a rule.

Sheraton Beige could certainly go all bandage-y on you. Georgetown Pink Beige would really give me pause. But, color in a room is about two things mainly -- light, both direct and reflected, and relativity. Relativity meaning what else is in the room, skewing a particular color.

In a room with a lot of bright clean natural light, Sheraton has the potential to present as a pale apricot color, warm and beautiful. If you live next to a blue house and the sun happens to bounce off the blue into your Sheraton room, it will start to get all muddy and probably not be a "pretty" color to live with.

Similarly, in a room with a brown sofa, the walls will look relatively pinker and could be quite pleasing, depending on the brown. Put a burgundy sofa in the same room and...well...you get the picture.

The truth is, there is no way to reliably predict what will happen because there are so many variables that contribute to the appearance of a color on the walls, including colors in adjacent rooms, color rendering index of your lightbulbs, whether it is summer or winter, the mats on your artwork, your trim color, etc. Add to that the subjective nature of human vision...what you say you see is not what I say I see...and there is just no way to say how you will find Sheraton Beige in your own home.

I will tell you that if you use it in the hallway, next to your Queen Anne living room, it is almost 100% predictable that it will look like Band-Aid!

It seems as if you have made peace with your LR color, btw. Hope so...I have always thought it was completely appropriate and quite pretty. But, I am not into fashion or trends when it comes to wall color. It is simply too limiting.

Now, that said, I have to chuckle a bit at how similar in feeling Oakley's Redbud and Lyban's daughter's Head Over Hills are to the "new" color for 2011. I find Honeysuckle to be disturbingly garish, but one can always find a better rendition of a trendy color, something easier to love for the longer haul.

Regarding pink in general, there is a designer out there who was quoted as saying that every room needs something pink. I generally don't latch on to those aphorisms, but it is something that resonated with me and I continue to think about it for my own spaces. I think pink can be a light-hearted color and I often look for ways to bring a little more of it into my own surroundings, even though it essentially "goes with" nothing I own.

I love pink rooms. My only caveat is many pinks don't look good with orange-y wood floors. Do you have a large rug or are your floors dark brown or very light?

Wow! Thanks for making me feel justified! A coworker mentioned that her newly purchased house had a pink accent wall in the living room and she couldn't wait to get rid of it. I told her I had had a pink accent wall in my old house that everyone but me hated. I also painted pink stripes on my bookcases.

I love the idea of pink & cream...so I might have to check out these color suggestions. I could paint the upper part in the pink, the paneled part in the cream, then the light yellow-y floors wouldn't be too bad. If I chose the right creamy color, the white blinds & trim ought to work too.

I had a pink ceiling in my old apartment. It was 14' and had heavy plaster cornice (in white) bordering it. I guess it was a ballet pink, but it varied from looking off white to light shrimp colored depending on what the atmosphere was doing. It was interesting.

Amy, thanks so much for the detailed reply! Interesting stuff! Can't wait to get my hands on a Preview deck and check out those colors!

I completely see what you mean about relativity and variables (sounds like we're talking about physics!) Can see how, for example, Sheraton Beige could read as a lovely apricot color WITH the right rugs, sofa, lighting, but could look down-right pukey (sp?) or band-aidy, with the wrong stuff and light. Guess there's no "looks great everywhere, with everything" color, but some colors, I would imagine, are harder to work with successfully than others. I think Sheraton Beige may fall into that category!

Yes, I have made peace with the Queen, and even really enjoy and appreciate that I don't have a trendy color in those rooms. You say the color is "appropriate." I agree, and that's another dimension to color selection that is seldom talked about.

It's not just a matter of "Well pink looks great with chocolate brown. You have a pink sofa, paint the walls brown!" There is also the "fit" with the mood and style of the furniture, the artwork, etc.

Chocolate brown, gorgeous as it is, would just be all wrong with what's going on furnishing/mood wise in my rooms. Though pink+brown should= color formula success, it would really be a disaster there,'cause color selection is about more than just interactions between colors! I have just learned/realized this over the last couple of years. Fortunately I didn't choose chocolate brown from the beginning, or some other color that would make my sofa "pop" as the HGTV designers are always determined to do!"Pop" is not the answer for every room!

Amy, it's a complicated business you're in! Thanks for sharing your expertise so generously.

Pesky, this is all more than you bargained for I bet! I think your ideas sound lovely & tasteful and will suit your room very well! Please share pics!

A "pink" story. For ten years I worked in a Male Prison. It was unusual enough to be a female employee there but my office was in the housing units. When it came time to paint my offices, I had them paint them in a lovely soft light ballet pink. It never failed to please me and it never failed to make people stop and start! I have fond memories of that pink!

The bathroom walls are finished now in MS Ballet Pink and my DH will be painting the trim a cream color- it is on the chip with the ballet pink.
I can't wait to get in there and put up the toile shower curtain.

"Just as you need to avoid Pepto-pink, don't make the very first paint mistake I ever made...that is to go so far to the brown/neutral that you end up with Band-Aid Walls like I did in 1989."

OMG! That is exactly how the entire interior of our leased house is painted - in Band-Aid colored walls! I've never known how to describe it & now I do. DH will be thrilled. ;)

I love pink (it is my actual given nick-name after all "Pinky") but having the Band-Aid walls has really gotten to me. It's very difficult to work with. Thankfully, we've been given permission to re-paint whatever we want as long as we're willing to go to a neutral if the landlords deem it necessary. Fine by us!

We are actually hoping to buy this house and the current guest room would eventually become DD's room. I really want to paint the guest room pink but DH is fearful. It has to be a subtle pink that will liven up the room which has windows that face northeast (more or less).

Thank you so much, pesky, for starting this thread. I'm getting some good color ideas.

My living room is painted BM conch and I love it. It really makes the QS oak woodwork look beautiful, so much so you don't really notice the pink right away. The biggest problem with a pink room I've had is trying to get fabric for window treatments. DH didn't want a floral, making it a real challenge. I finally found a pink pinstripe that will work but pink is not a mainstream color so there are few adult fabrics designed to coordinate with it.

Skyedog, I agree... "pink is not a mainstream color!"

I had ivory panels and cornices with a tone on tone pattern made for my living room & am very pleased with them. Your pinstripe sounds adorable. Any pics?

pesky - Do you know the name of the fabric your window treatments are made out of?

auntjen - Can you tell me where you found the 2nd fabric you posted?

Laurie

I feel as if this thread is a present just for me! I love love love pink, in all its iterations. I have a powder room I painted in Rani Pink / Hot Pink / Raspberry (people have different names) and maybe it would be considered Pepto by some but by me it is called FABULOUS!

But that's about me and not about your room. I agree with what I read above, about a shell pink or subtle ballet slipper pink, one which brings out the pink in your WT. I would NOT recommend my bright pink! (for your space, that is)

I love the fabric of your WT and look forward to seeing your space develop! Happy New Year.

RM, I have always loved your pink parsons end tables!

Stinky, I am in the middle of making my drapes and will post when I am done. I can link a picture of the fabric (it is much prettier in person). I bought my fabric from Schindlers and paid more than this so if anyone is looking for pink silk fabric here's a great buy!

Here is a link that might be useful: RL paxton stripe rose

Beautiful, Skyedog!