The best pink paints
Welcome to my specialist subject
This post might be too long for email but works in the app or online.
I love pink. I’ve never not had at least one pink room in any house I’ve lived in. I still mourn a shade called Kinky Pink by an extinct company called John Oliver, who had a tiny shop in Notting Hill in the olden days. It was in every kitchen I ever had and people used to knock on the door to ask what it was.
When I say pink, I don’t mean millennial pink, RIP, or that sort of Fie-sir-I-am-but-a-maid pink, or those grey-pinks that veer into lilac. I mean classic, timeless pink-pink, from pig pink to raspberry. The reason I love it, apart from obviously finding it deeply pleasing to the eye - more than pleasing: uplifting, comforting, joy-bringing, lovely - is how intensely flattering it is in an interiors context.
It makes everyone look their best. Pictures and art and flowers look glorious against it. Lamplight bounces off it and glows. On a gloomy day, it makes the chilliest room feel loved. On a sunny day, it’s essence of summer. Dark, poky room? Pink turns it into a jewel box. Room so big it never feels properly lived in? The answer is pink. Pink makes a room feel so convivial that nobody ever wants to leave.
Crucially, pink is hugely flattering to people’s complexions at any time of day, and doubly so by candlelight. It literally makes people look more attractive. What more could you want from a wall colour?
I’m not an expert at much, but I am an expert at pinks. There are hundreds of pink paints on the market, and the vast majority aren’t very nice - something that is much truer of pinks, oddly, than it is of, say, blues or yellows. I spend a lot of my time saying (or thinking) ‘that pink is awful’.
Blue, in fact, is usually the issue with pink: some pinks with blue in them undo all the goodness and can look wintry - which is not the idea - and even faintly nauseating. Sometimes they remind me a bit of cold meats. So here are my favourite life-enhancing warm pinks. I know each of them personally. Online colour reproduction is not always brilliant, but I promise you these are all wonderful in real life.
Edited to add: there are further excellent pink recommendations in the comments, including news of Kinky Pink.