Eye candy for the maximalist

January 2, 2021 12:44 PM

There isn’t a hint of white in designer Ms Pink’s home, claims the Guardian, above an image of a white and neon-green wall in the London flat of Ms Pink. To be fair, there isn't much white. Liquorice Allsorts, a pair of striped tights, the motion graphics from Top of the Pops and an X-Ray Spex album cover are just some of the surprising visual references that have inspired the kaleidoscopic home of Ms Pink and Mr Black – a creative duo.

... Ms Pink’s punchy aesthetic is increasingly in demand and she has recently started to take on commissions for interiors projects. “I do realise that my home is really Marmite,” she concedes. “But that’s fine because nobody else has to live in it. People live in the space that they want to live in.”

posted by Bella Donna (46 comments total)

10 GBP says they have a secret room, hidden away, a kind of sensory deprivation tank to retreat to when the volume needs to be turned down for a little while.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:04 PM on January 2, 2021 [14 favorites]

I think maybe Ms Pink just overdosed on decades of soothing Scandinavian Modern (or maybe not). If you want a visual vacation that is colourful but a little less, er, energising, Architectural Digest has some goodies. Check out the dome ceiling produced in Morocco for the Key West, Florida home of a Hollywood type and the Lisbon, Portugal, sitting room of a banking-heir-turned-top-decorator PLUS 23 other colourful interiors. Less vibrant; still fun. It is still gray and dark here in Sweden so these make for a nice (temporary) change of scene.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:10 PM on January 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

Omg 😍
posted by supercrayon at 1:10 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

Did y'all check out their shop? Typography tea towels, wild wallpaper, etc. Pretty fun in moderate doses.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:14 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

Perhaps the visual equivalent to all your food tasting like lemons, limes or grapefruit. No Maillard reactions allowed...
posted by jim in austin at 1:18 PM on January 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

Feels one notch over on the dial from Losa Frank.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:39 PM on January 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

My eyes, the goggles do nothing! I can see if you're into that sort of thing it's very striking, but still... ouch.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 1:40 PM on January 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

This couple definitely seems on the same page aesthetically, philosophically. I'm glad they managed to find each other, esp. coexisting during a pandemic and the attendant lockdown.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:41 PM on January 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

I would rather live in this flat than one covered in the acres of light knotty wood and finished concrete (with a single uncomfortable chair, natch) that seems to have been the rage in modern architecture for at least a decade now. (And I like minimalism, generally.)
posted by maxwelton at 1:42 PM on January 2, 2021 [18 favorites]

Looks like William Morris finally hooked up with the Memphis Milano crowd.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:52 PM on January 2, 2021 [10 favorites]

It's intense and too much for me, but I would still rather live there than walk into a Forever 21 store ever again. Ugh, so many random bright patterns all over the place. So many mannequins with mismatched outfits.
posted by NotTheRedBaron at 1:54 PM on January 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I had to start rereading before I realized that this Ms Pink is not Tula Pink, who also provides eye candy for the maximalist.
posted by clew at 1:59 PM on January 2, 2021 [11 favorites]

Thank you so much for posting this! I love it! I think part of what inspired me to pursue graphic design as a career was the interior of Pee Wee's Playhouse. If I could live in Pee Wee's Playhouse (or this flat), I totally would.
posted by Slothrop at 2:07 PM on January 2, 2021 [8 favorites]

Thanks for turning me on to Tula Pink, clew. Those designs are amazeballs!
posted by Bella Donna at 2:11 PM on January 2, 2021

Perfect setting for the disgusting English candy drill...
posted by chavenet at 2:17 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

Imagine waking up hung over in it though
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:05 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

Oh there’s a whole lot of white there.
posted by spitbull at 3:14 PM on January 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

> I do realise that my home is really Marmite . . . People live in the space that they want to live in

I'm taking this as encouragement to attempt building a home out of actual Marmite.
posted by 7segment at 3:22 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't think that "white and neon green" wall is actually white -- looks like a paler pink to me.
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:38 PM on January 2, 2021 [7 favorites]

How the hell did the editors let that "isn't a hit of white" line go through under a picture with about 30-40% white in it?
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:42 PM on January 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

I couldn’t help thinking how this would look coming home after a funeral
posted by stanf at 4:53 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

I’d love to see it in person but definitely not live there. Not for me! But I’m glad they’ve made a home they adore. It’s very well done.
posted by obfuscation at 4:55 PM on January 2, 2021

"punk" home decor always reminds me of Leigh Bowery's Star-Trek-themed bower.
posted by ovvl at 6:02 PM on January 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I love it! I’ve always thought the 70s mod decorating style was under appreciated. The string art on the wall really put it over the top for me.
posted by TedW at 7:14 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I love the aesthetic of their shop. Otoh I can think of few things less punk than paying 45 pounds for a pillow that says “punk” on it.
posted by supercrayon at 7:15 PM on January 2, 2021 [10 favorites]

While there is plenty of white there, earth tones seem to be missing.
posted by TedW at 7:16 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'd love to see it in person and see how the colors and patterns shift room to room. The uppper staircase in particular I like.

My default would be a lot more minimalist, but it would be fun to try out something really vivid at least once.
There was a post here once with a house in I think Texas that was done up in really vivid patterns that I liked.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:50 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

The kitchen is interesting to look at, but overall much muchness. I guess that's why there is so much beige used generally... Also that reminds me of why I love minimalism.
posted by blue shadows at 8:28 PM on January 2, 2021

(It also looks like pale pink, etc., not actual white.)
posted by blue shadows at 8:29 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am no expert on punk, so perhaps am simply underinformed, but I am dubious about Ms. Pink's self-identification of the decorating style as punk. Perhaps "influenced by her punk background" may be accurate to some degree. But look, when I, a now upper middle class university professor, get streaks of interesting colors dyed into my hair for me by a professional stylist at a salon in my mid 30s and seemingly start a small trend of financially secure, not at all socially marginalized local older ladies also dying streaks of interesting colors into their hair, despite my working class background and despite the superficial aesthetic similarities with punk hairstyles, that is not punk.

(My mother first dying stripes of interesting colors in my hair in my dorm bathroom my first year of university? That was kinda punk, albeit unintentionally and mostly due to the part where my mother DIYed it in my dorm bathroom, not due to the actual aesthetic style (I just thought the colors would look neat).)
posted by eviemath at 9:17 PM on January 2, 2021 [10 favorites]

people are at their most actualized, I think, when they find a way to passionately indulge their obsessions without really hurting anyone. This classifies as that. I love it but I don't need to live in it.
posted by philip-random at 11:30 PM on January 2, 2021 [7 favorites]

Sitting on my purple velvet sofa in front of my orange flocked drapes and Christmas decorations made entirely of multicolor pompoms and black-and-white striped ribbon, it occurs to me that while my style is not this maximalist, it's certainly in the same universe. I've currently got white bedding (it's restful against the pale peach walls, blue and ochre rug, and turquoise accents), but that's the only intentionally white thing in my decor. I have this theory that people decorate their homes in the colors they look good in, and unsurprisingly, I don't even wear much black or white—plenty of pumpkin, violet, teal, mustard, coral, and emerald, though.
posted by mostlymartha at 12:03 AM on January 3, 2021 [8 favorites]

In the words of Philip Larkin: 'Not a bad place to be, / Yet it doesn't suit me.'
posted by verstegan at 4:07 AM on January 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

mostlymartha, your Xmas decor sounds divine! I live in a rental that is white white white white. It is a small space with a small loft with a single window facing north and white was not the best choice but I don't want to be forced to repaint when I move. So I am in the process of slowly slowly wallpapering much of it with a lifetime's collecting of home photos. Washi tape is saving me.
posted by Bella Donna at 4:21 AM on January 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

Just looking at this place is triggering a fight-or-flight response.

It's a well-executed take on an interesting aesthetic but stepping foot in that flat would give me an anxiety attack.

And yea; perhaps there's no #FFFFFF deployed anywhere, but there's loads of shades that are close enough to pure white to give way more of a 'hint' than that strapline suggests.

(I recently bought a 100-year-old farmhouse with loads of lovely old wood, and between the darker wood tones, walls painted in an off-black, and all furniture and decor in wood, leather, linen, metal and wool in the neutral natural colour spectrum I'm likely the polar opposite of these people, and while not as controversial my choices are similarly not to everyone's taste. To each their own.)
posted by myotahapea at 5:37 AM on January 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I would love shopping in a store that looks like this. I would hate living in a place that looks like this.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:07 AM on January 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

Finally, I was able to load the Architectural Digest page -- it is gorgeous, I could look at it for hours. As a certified Danish Architect, I'm not supposed to like stuff like this, so it is a bit like watching porn, but I'm adult, I can do it.
Ms Pink is a bit too much for me, I'm afraid.

That said, I live with loads of color and I love it when people are surprised that an architect can do that.
posted by mumimor at 6:43 AM on January 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

When we bought our current house a year and a half ago, the walls were a really awful greenish grey, so we immediately painted them with a much better shade of grey. It was a huge improvement, but over time we've started adding more color. A bright coral wall in the kitchen, with jade green curtains. On Tuesday we painted a couple walls in the living room an incredible green that looks emerald in warm incandescent light, but the blues really come out in the cool winter sunlight and suddenly it's a gorgeous peacock teal. And we just got a brushed brass curtain rod and navy curtains to hang in that room today. My office/guest room upstairs is a light raspberry pink. The bedroom is a dark eggplant.

I'm middle aged and just now realizing that as much as I may aspire to a minimalist, monochromatic living space, it's not what my heart ACTUALLY wants. So now, fuck whether my home is on trend or Pinterest-worthy or even period-appropriate to its 100-years-old age, I'm going to paint it colors that please me to look at. Especially in these pandemic times, we're the only ones looking at it anyway.
posted by misskaz at 7:09 AM on January 3, 2021 [8 favorites]

I appreciated this because, although it's definitely too much for me (and I love bright colors), they are so in control of it. I mean, it looks good. It's apparently chaotic, but it coheres. They know exactly what they're doing. I can certainly appreciate that.
posted by Orlop at 8:52 AM on January 3, 2021 [5 favorites]

I appreciated this because, although it's definitely too much for me (and I love bright colors), they are so in control of it.

This is what I liked!

I would never want to live there, because it's not my style. For one thing it's just too curated. The design is cohesive in part because they're very careful about what types of objects are in view.

But it's their style, they chose it, and that's lovely. I think it's great when people are able to say "fuck it, I don't like what's popular or safe, and I'm going to do what I like." It's fine if people have more conventional tastes too, but it's nice to see variety too.

I appreciate that even more now after settling into a place I expect to stay a long time, after years of white and beige apartments. I'm limited more by what I can afford, but my eventual goal is to make my space something that a lot of people would hate because it's too dated, too moody, or whatever.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:42 AM on January 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I couldn’t help thinking how this would look coming home after a funeral

I think if you like it it would look like "life goes on" and minimalist white would look like the waiting room in a hospital.

I have been thinking about two anti-mainstream designers named Pink and how they are sort of traditionally feminine and sort of definitely not, and how the categories themselves shift if I concentrate on one or the other. One more would make a Trend Piece - perhaps someone named Rose? But the next visual example I can come up with is Kaffe Fasset.
posted by clew at 11:36 AM on January 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ms. Pink reminds me of two women I know, both wildly creative, both of them unable to stop the flow of Art which then ends up surrounding them in the best of ways, in fact it seems that their life is Art. I once wrote about Amy that "sparks of Art fly off her, and then more, and then more yet, and each spark flaring brilliantly, and beautifully, poetry and prose and colors and patterns and I get frantic, I'm seeing these miracles and their beauty and their greatness, and I want desperately to build ornate reliquaries to house for all time each spark as they flare, but all of the craftsmen in the world could never, ever keep up, so these reliquaries do not get built, and much of this flat-out pure Beauty, which should be saved for all time for all of humanity, to enrich humanity, they flare past, and they are gone, and I know that I'm lucky to see them, regardless my sadnesses of their loss for all who do not see them."*
*Not an exact quote, don't want to dig around and find those words written November 2002. So it's not exact and it's not been edited down but it gets us in the neighborhood.**
**Yes, I loved her.

~~~~~

Two of the wallpapers in their shop -- Geometric White Wallpaper – Dazzlecam 1 and Geometric Blue Wallpaper – Dazzlecam 2 -- both make me feel as though the soul of Matisse saw what they were up to, inhabited them for just the briefest of moments and insisted on those two colors set into those patterns, and then back into his afterlife, which presumably is vivid and colorful and bold and fun.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:44 PM on January 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I am a different variety of maximalist, but I adore both the color pink and Wire’s 154, so game recognizes game etc and this is marvelous.
posted by thivaia at 7:43 PM on January 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I want to visit them, often!
posted by Omnomnom at 2:14 PM on January 4, 2021

I love this. It’s a lot more coherent and balanced than you’d think from the description. As a wise drag queen once said, animal print is a neutral.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:11 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'm fascinated and impressed by the places the design blurs the relations of walls and steps to each other -- a lot of the house is in dazzle camo. I would personally find it difficult to live in -- an architect once sighed and remarked that I certainly like "legible design" -- but it's a gesamtkunstwerk.
posted by clew at 12:37 PM on January 5, 2021