Color Alert: GREY/BLUSH/COPPER

My eighteen year old daughter (who has the color/design gene like her Dad) texted me the following. . ."Have you written any design blogs on the popularity of grey and blush tones? I'm seeing a lot of that on Instagram interior pages."

Of course I hadn't. I actually felt I already addressed that when I blogged about Pantone's 2016 color(s) of the year: Serenity Blue & Rose Quartz. Then I started thinking about it...

Broken down, those 2016 colors basically read as baby or powder blue and baby pink. . . traditional nursery or baby shower colors. Not the easiest color combination to use when creating a space in which you want to dwell on a daily basis. While considering my daughter's statement, I realized that the masses are taking this difficult proclaimed trend and morphing it into a more realistic and livable adaptation of what the color gurus have passed down from above. From the look of it, the combination of grey and blush (added with another trend in metallics: copper or rose gold) seems to truly be the colors everyone can't get enough of.

"The new hit of color combination for home décor is right in front of you. It is a subtle combination of the ultimate romantic colors: blush, gray and copper. Bring some warm spirit into your living room or bedroom by using the nude pink or other shades of pink, combined with grey as the base, and highlight the blush with cooper color or real copper elements. You can be brave and decorate your interior in this mood, or you can just use these colors in details, combined with white as a base. It depends on your taste and readiness to often change the interior details." - World Inside Pictures

"Blush—or as Pantone officially named it, Rose Quartz—is the new grey, according to the folks over at Apartment Therapy. The pale pink color can be used in a variety of ways throughout the home. Use the soft and delicate shade to give blank walls some warmth. Or you can feature it as a more lively and energizing pop of color on a couch or with patterned curtains; either way, it looks surprisingly grown-up (no Barbie dreamhouse vibes here!) and perfectly complements a variety of colors." - Country Living

"If you’re looking for subtle, understated décor with a generous dose of sophistication, opt for a classic grey and dusky-pink colour scheme. It’s perfect for almost every room in the house, whatever your style." - Sheerluxe

"Other selling points of decorating with these shades are how stunning they look together and how well they play off other shades. Combine copper and/or blush with stark white for a crisp finish or against cream for a decidedly more romantic look. Analogous shades like rust, melon, and even deep yellow, also make pretty companions. If you crave more of a contrast — or just want to boost the drama in your room — try mixing in darker shades: navy offers a classic, preppy counterpoint, while black lends an air of sophistication. For a luxe look, consider gray or greige, whose warm undertones echo those of copper and blush." - Above and Beyond Blog

"Use rose gold or copper detailing on furniture, as this looks especially glamorous in contrast with grey timbers. When it comes to walls, duskier tones of pink are a more understated and subtle choice. Look for warmer tones like Plaster II from Paint Library". – Natalia Miyar of Helen Green Design

"Whether or not you've heard the term "Millennial Pink," you certainly know it when you see it. It's the hue - not quite salmon but also not rose - that has been taking over home decor, fashion and even company branding in recent years. Diverting from classic, loud bubblegum pink, Millennial Pink is meant to make a statement." - Elle Decor

"You've seen it everywhere: backgrounds of inspirational Instagram quotes, Glossier's beauty product packaging, Rihanna's newest fashion line — this is the year of millennial pink. While design enthusiasts may know it as Scandi Pink or Rose Quartz, this soft rosy color has been coined the color of the moment for the Tumblr generation by New York magazine." - Refinery29

There might be a scientific explanation for the sudden ubiquity of this muted tint. It bears a resemblance to Baker-Miller Pink, a color that has been proven by a study published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry to reduce stress and aggression.

"Even if you haven’t heard of Millennial Pink, or didn’t know that it went by this name (it’s also known as Tumblr Pink and Scandi Pink), you’ve seen it. At first, in 2012, when this color really started showing up everywhere, it appeared as a toned-down version of its foil, Barbie Pink, a softer shade that looks as if all the blue notes have been taken out. By the time everyone started calling it Millennial Pink in the summer of 2016, the color had mutated and expanded to include a range of shades from beige with just a touch of blush to a peach-salmon hybrid" - The Cut

"What’s interesting about this to me is that when I look at the color known as Millennial Pink — and I’m scouting many more pink interiors lately, particularly in designated rooms like the kitchen — I’m not going, 'That’s pink.' Yes, it’s a flattering color — people love to go to restaurants that have pink lighting, because you look so good! — but this particular shade is sort of copping out a little bit because it’s so beige-y that it’s safe. So actually, it’s not really pink." - Wendy Goodman

December 2014: Of all pink-related tags on Tumblr, #palepink becomes the most popular, used even more than #pink itself. Some take to calling the shade Tumblr Pink. Tumblr’s fashion and art lead, Valentine Uhovski, says, “Tumblr Pink is a tone that somehow merges the millennial futurism and mid-century idealism all at once.”

September 2015: Apple reveals the rose-gold iPhone. On Twitter, people immediately start calling it “the pink iPhone.”

November 2015: Pantone picks Rose Quartz, a light peachy-pink, and Serenity, an almost-periwinkle blue, as its colors of the year. Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, says that the Agnes Martin exhibit at the Tate Modern, which featured both colors prominently (and came to the Guggenheim next), was a big reason they were chosen. She adds: “The use of light pink with metallics is really interesting — this nostalgic and old-fashioned color that’s being used in high-tech.”

February 2017: Drake posts a photo on Instagram wearing a light-pink Stone Island puffer coat. Stone Island says that color is “sold out nearly everywhere.”

“Posts with a pink thing in them perform better. A normal post might get 1,500 likes, and the pink ones get 4,000, so it’s hard to break out of the cycle, because that’s what people want. It’s hard for us to say pink is over, because our readers and followers still love pink, and I still like it in furniture and objects." - Monica Khemsurov (Sight Unseen co-founder)