Beyond the Pale: The Grown Up Way to Do Blue & Pink

Quick, what do you think of when you picture the colors blue and pink together? We’re guessing your answer has something to do with babies, because traditionally, blue and pink are baby colors. Pantone’s choice of Serenity and Rose Quartz as co-colors of the year in 2016 did a lot to rescue this pairing from the nursery, but this post is not about sweet, pastel shades. My current favorite iteration of blue and pink is unexpected and surprisingly grown-up: deep, rich navy and dusty pink.

Whether you want to call it dusty pink, or blush pink, or millennial pink, and whether you think it’s a throwback to the ’80s or a statement about current attitudes towards femninity, you can’t deny that this light, desaturated pink is the color of the moment. It’s absolutely everywhere, often paired with pale blue or gray or even other, darker shades of pink, but together with navy it has a particularly sophisticated allure. Navy gives pink a certain solemnity, and pink keeps navy from being too boring and dour. They’re an ideal couple, two partners who bring out the best in each other.

Above: This restaurant space in Australia, spotted on DesignBoom, is a design of We Are Huntly, the firm that was also responsible for this too-beautiful gym-that-is-not-a-gym. It’s also the space that that first made me aware of the possibilities of this color pairing, thanks to the particularly arresting photo at the top of this post, which crept into my Pinterest feed and also my heart.

The Paris home of Beatrice, spotted on Inside Closet, features all kinds of intriguing color combos, including deep navy and dusty pink in the bedroom.

Deep blue art contrasts beautifully with a pink wall in this space from Arte Domus.

Deep, rich blue and a light light pink meet in this photo from IKEA. Painting the duct pink is a particularly nice touch.

In this space from Maison Hand via Honestly WTF, dusty pink and deep blue meet in linen, the material of the moment.

And finally, from Adore Magazine, here’s the now-familiar combo with a few new friends—a touch of gray, and an unexpected (but quite welcome) jolt of teal.