close

Blush Pink: It Ain’t Over Yet

Oh it’s a funny thing all that trend business. We are all influenced by it – it’s impossible not to be – and after all you can only buy what’s in the shops. But there are some things that, these days, I just know I like because I like them. I’m also, at the grand old age of 50, pretty good at knowing that if I like that thing now then there’s a good chance I will like it for ever. Sure I might rearrange the wardrobe from time to time and push things to the back but they nearly always work their way to the front again eventually.

pink velvet and linen chair from atkin and thyme
pink velvet and linen chair £399 from atkin and thyme

And so it is with blush pink. I loved it as a child when it was called dusky pink. Then muddy pink (meaning it had a dollop of grey in it to stop it being too girlie pastel). On through pale pink, millennial and blush. I still love it. It’s great with a dash of black to toughen it up a bit. I have teamed it with grey of all shades and so, even if you are complaining it’s ubiquitous, have you.

metal frame dusty blush chair £699 from westelm
metal frame dusty blush chair £699 from westelm

As many of you know, if you follow me on instagram, I recently painted over the dark grey sitting room walls in favour of fallen plum by Cassandra Ellis. And guess what? That blush pink is fabulous with it. Which is handy really because tomorrow Enid’s chaise longue is going to the upholsterer to be repaired and recovered by the lovely Sharon at Vintique Upholstery. I will tell you more about that in due course. but know that it will be mostly, yes, blush pink.

blush cotton velvet chair £599 from made.com featuredin Glossier's pop up space
blush cotton velvet frame chair £599 from made.com featured in Glossier’s pop up space

Now not everyone has a chaise longue. Actually let’s be honest – not everyone’s cat has a chaise longue. God knows I get roundly shouted at if I dare sit on it so while it is gone, I will be moving the two arm chairs from the library into that spot. Which also means I will have space to take all the books off the shelves and paint them plum to match the sitting room walls. Because suddenly the grey looks wrong in there. But that’s another story too.

blossom jemima armchair £758.70 loveyourhome
blossom jemima armchair £758.70 loveyourhome

I know I should get going with this story. Which is that even if you don’t have a chaise longue (for yourself or your pet), there are some great blush pink armchairs out there and if you’re in the market for a chair then you might want to consider that as a colour. Dog owners perhaps not – it’s not a colour that loves mud, but cats tend to be clean when they climb on furniture so it’s not mud you need to worry about. Moulting is another matter, but given that every animal moults pale on dark furniture and dark on the pale, there’s not much you can do about that.

rose pink velvet armchair from graham and green
rose pink velvet armchair £495 from graham and green

The other point is that modern stain resistant velvets mean you can be more daring with your colours as materials are a lot tougher than they used to be. And, pale pink – great with dark walls, lovely with pale. The trend forecasters are still pushing pink and green; pink and grey isn’t over and just have a look at pink and plum. Or pink and blue. Turns out it’s a fabulous neutral that goes with everything. Is pink the new grey in fact?

miss behaving armchair from £1,150 from sofaworkshop
miss behaving armchair from £1,150 from sofaworkshop

So here, in the spirit of being enormously helpful at not only helping you spend your money but giving you justification in why you should (which is the important bit), are some of the best blush pink armchairs around. Some are new, some you have seen before. All would be welcomed into The Mad House if I wasn’t waiting to see (and see being the operative word here because it will be look don’t touch for me as far as Enid is concerned) my very own blush pink chaise returned to me next week.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

9 Comments

  1. Like wood tones with too much blush, I find this trend too difficult to blend into many schemes.

  2. Please may those of us not using Instagram see your sitting room walls in the plum paint?

  3. I’ve been feeling the same way lately and it kind of soothes my brain to know you have noticed it too. I genuinely thought blush would start to fade – that it was too trendy last year and it would slip quietly away. It has not. I’m actually slightly annoyed at myself that I still really like it and am drawn to it. I want all those damn chairs and I have no doubt I’ll love your – sorry, Enid’s – chaise. My current favourite colour combo is blush, peach and burgundy or blush pink, mustard and black. I want to do whole room schemes around these shades and both contain blush. And I’m fighting it. Maybe I just shouldn’t fight it and accept that it’s a colour I love and that I’m not actually just being influenced by a strong trend? Maybe it really is the new grey? x

  4. Slightly off topic but did you go matt or modern emulsion for the Cassandra Ellis paint? I am about to paint the front room Tea Rose (entirely your fault btw) and was wondering how you got on with it? The Fallen Plum looks fantastic, it’s a subtle difference but just looks more modern.

    1. I used matt as there’s a lot of furniture in here and the walls don’t get touched much. Would use modern emulsion on stairs and kitchens where you need to clean more.

  5. I remember loving the dusty pink of – when was it? Better not say – a frighteningly long time ago, anyway – but being an earthy colours sort of person I’ve never indulged in it since. But now the combination of a new home and the current fashion for blush (even the plasterboard the builders are using is a warm pink) seems like a sort of permission to free my Inner Girly. I’ve got a big pot of pink paint which I am using to cover areas I don’t like – a sort of “if thine eye offends thee, paint it pink”. I add a dollop of yellow ochre and/or burnt sienna to modify the colour for north facing spots, and I’m pleased at how well these warm blushes (hot flushes?) go with the earthier tones (I inherited one room painted largely in dark brown), so fortunately I won’t have to change my clothes to match my decor.

  6. Ooh was really pleased to read this! Am being drawn to pink in our dining room but have been worried it’s just a trend. But I love pink and it’s nice to have some friendly reassurance it goes beyond just being trendy. Now to pick *which* pink velvet chair we should have…

  7. I’ve just painted my sitting room with a pale pink and then a much darker pink underneath the dado and included the skirting board too. Thought it was going to look a bit 90’s but I really love it now i’ve got used to it. I couldn’t run to really expensive paint so I used Crown heritage range. Very happy bunny. So glad you’ve said pink is still in as I felt a bit late to the party! Thanks Kate. Love your posts.

  8. I like velvet and I also like pink.
    A great combination of chairs, of course the one that I like best costs the most!

Comments are closed.