August 15th, 2014

Think Pink!

Loyal readers of this blog already know it: my trademark is a pink tulip and there sure is a reason for this. To say I have a soft spot for pink is putting it mildly. I loooove pink. Not only the pastel colours, but also and especially fuchsia. I can’t help it but pink makes me happy.

Nonetheless I have long since resisted succumbing to the lure of fifty shades of red-mixed-with-white (or the other way around.) Maybe because I’m supposed to be a grown woman and pink usually is associated with an immature girly kind of taste in, well, everything.

In fashion I noticed this problem pretty soon. I had a nice skirt in soft pastel colors and was yearning to find matching soft pink tights. Well, forget it. They just didn’t seem to exist in women’s sizes. But as I am not one to give up easily, I finally found them between the children’s clothing items at H & M just when I was about to collapse from sheer physical exhaustion (mental note to self: next time, go there first since they carry young girls’ sizes that also fit slim women.)

When I surf the net looking for the meaning of the color pink, I encounter the site of Perron 11. There, Jennifer van der Meer descibes it as follows: “Pink is the color of passion, love, kindness, femininity, truth, peace, care, sweetness, trust, pragmatism, initiative, rational and calm power, humor, compliance, self-respect and appreciation for another, faithfulness, independence and tolerance.” Oh well, you won’t hear me complaining about all that, no sir! And could it be a mere coincidence that next to this definition I find the image of a cute little pink owl?

Thinking about my special experience with my “own” owl in the tree of my backyard I tend to think not (to readers who don’t know what I’m talking about, I recommend that you read the columns on this blog with the title “Het jaar van de uil” (1) en (2) – in that order – and then you’ll understand why (unfortunately though, these columns have not yet been translated to English).

Reinforced by this characterization of my favorite colour, I decided to make up for all these years that I didn’t dare to admit I love pink. So what if everyone thinks I have never outgrown my teens? I refuse to be ashamed (anymore).

And thus I decided that I could very well turn my study into an oasis of pink. After all, it is my study so I can do with it as I please, thank you very much (ok, so H., my significant other, also uses the computer there once in a while, but that doesn’t count). So I fearlessly bought a carpet in a bright shade of pink that I put right smack in the middle of the room. No evading that one.

Fortunately, the rest of the room is very light: the walls, curtains and desk are all white and one wall is from floor to ceiling covered in white high gloss cabinets. The shelves are filled with lots of books and pictureframes (and yes, some of them are fuchsia. Not the pictures, but the frames). Therefore, I decided the room could do with different kinds of pink. So I put a fuchsia laptopholder on my desk that instantly makes it look a lot nicer, dotted the window-sill with pink candles and put some bright pink cardboard boxes on the shelves. The result? A welcoming, happy and vibrant working environment that radiates a lot of positive energy and pizzaz.

I even dared to put some pink shades in my livingroom (as in: throw pillows, paintings and flower pots), but because H. also resides here and has to be comfortable (and he sure is, ask him), I combined it for his sake with some fresh limegreen just to be on the safe side. For spring and summer that is, because when daylight saving time ends, so does the summery colour in my interior decorating  so in October it will be replaced by warm and rich dark brown hues (I’ll get back to you on that one later on on this blog).

Pink continues to show up in different places, though. In my garden, you’ll look in vain for yellow, orange or red flowers but what you will encounter are pink, purple and white ones.

All-in all, I found out that turning fifty is great.

If only for the prerogative to finally think pink.

© Pascale Bruinen