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Mood Hue: Baker-Miller Pink

20071016pink.jpg

Pink for peace? For one juvenile detention facility in Florida, it's worth a shot.

According to a research paper published in 1981, Baker-Miller pink, a shade which is "kind of like Pepto-Bismol, only deeper," was found to lower heart rate, pulse, and respiration.

 
 

Two years ago, the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center West in Tampa painted a holding cell this exact color and called it "the pink room." When youths got out of control and aggressive, they were transfered to the room to calm down. It seemed to work.

Would this rosy shade make you chill out? If you're curious but don't want to commit an entire room to this experiment, order a MoodMaster poster (which is apparently one full page of this perfect pink) and stare at it to de-stress.

Quote & photo credit: St. Petersburg Times

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Comments (14)

I had a feminist roommate in college and she painted her bedroom like this to look like something that was very close to her. Maybe the mentality here is that throwing the juvies into this room is like throwing them back into the womb and giving them another chance.

I'll bet they just had left over paint. http://www.doncesar.com/

posted by art on October 16th 2007 at 8:15am
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ha ha! it took me a while to get what "very close to her" meant, art. i'd bet that a less-than 48-hour detention here would be visually pleasing but i think the color would start to grate against the kids' psyches if they had to spend a longer time staring at that color.

posted by *heather leaf* on October 16th 2007 at 8:23am
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this room in this color makes me want to kill myself.

posted by Hamro on October 16th 2007 at 9:23am
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I once had a dorm room this color. Inherited from the previous tenant and not allowed to paint over it. On the upside pink is a sacred and notoriously restful color.

I'd think a very pale pink would have the same effect. My sorority house redid all the bedrooms that color and it was really nice.

posted by Lady J on October 16th 2007 at 9:32am
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Anyone know of the Pantone equivalent?

I used to have a similar color on the desktop on my monitor, specifically because it calmed me down. Now I trade peace for a random sampling of pictures I like, but maybe I'll put in a screen's worth or two of this pink, for good measure.

posted by Joan A. on October 16th 2007 at 9:39am
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Joan A.-

Scroll down to the bottom of this website for some color close-match formulas.

posted by jessica on October 16th 2007 at 9:57am
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I'm in the military and had to stay in a room with this nauseating color. I guess I can see why they would chose to use this color, but it's so nauseating to look like you're living in a bottle of Pepto.

posted by ll on October 16th 2007 at 10:22am
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Yuck. It makes my brain hurt.

posted by Monica on October 16th 2007 at 11:40am
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Obviously this is meant as torture. I'd go completely nuts in that awful place.

posted by Leah Hannah on October 16th 2007 at 11:56am
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Ok, the room's as grim as they come but the color's only a tiny part of that, and most of the problem is not the color itself but its relentlessness--that & the ghastly lighting. Don't get me wrong: I'm not a big fan of the color, but I don't hate it, either, probably because I've never tasted Pepto-Bismol.
All I know is that Miles Redd's way cool living room proves how great a strong pink on the walls can look, provided, at least, that there isn't a concrete bed in the room.

posted by magnaverde on October 16th 2007 at 12:39pm
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During my college years I went mad for pink for some reason, and although it's not my favorite now, I still like it. This color just seems very soothing on the eyes to me. Put in a nice white floor, dress the guard in a soft dove gray, add some soft pendant lighting and a white barcelona-chair-type pad on the bench, and I think we could definitely sell it as a "office worker rest cube" in Japan. (They are far more civilized there, recognizing that we sometimes need to crash for an hour or three in a quiet space.)

posted by kuroneko on October 16th 2007 at 4:49pm
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Thanks, Jessica!

posted by Joan A. on October 16th 2007 at 5:01pm
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one sure way to drive me ballistic!
it makes my head spin and my stomach ill just looking at all that pinkness!
i can accept that it may be a soothing colour, but that's taking it just a little bit too far!
i agree with Lea Hannah, this is psychological torture!

posted by candida on October 17th 2007 at 12:12am
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they become catatonic as a way to shut out the colour. Or maybe they just stare at the floor (which is brown).

posted by Deb of Oz on October 17th 2007 at 3:42am
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