Persnickety Pink: When working with Wilsonart to design our new collaborative collection, Retro Renovation® by Wilsonart® — the pink colorway — “Retro Renovation® First Lady Pink” — was arguably the most difficult to get just right. While in Las Vegas, we learned from the Wilsonart team that indeed, reds are super tricky, because of how inks interact or some such.

At one point during product development, when were pulling our hair out over trying to get this colorway “just right,” we asked our key Wilsonart contacts if they could take samples in-progress on into the pink-stravaganza bathroom at the Ralph Sr. and Sunny Wilson House – the home built by Wilsonart’s founder in 1959. The goal: to compare our possible samples next to real deal laminates from back in the day so’s we could all pick.

Designer Beth Randolph — yes, that’s her in the photo — went above and beyond – and right into the original “Cinderella bathtub” – to compare two finalist alternatives. Beth sent this photo to Kate and me to memorialize the testing and wrote:

“We looked at a couple of versions at the Wilson House,” she said, “One version looks great with the tub tile, another version looks really good with the vanity. I’ll send you chips of both.” ????????

Notice Beth’s emoticons, this is how we were all feeling at this point:

????????

Hey: It’s very difficult to get good color-correct photos of pink, too. So: If you’re considering using Retro Renovation® First Lady Pink in your project, get samples first! Samples will be available from Wilsonart on Feb. 1.

We went with the more coral-y pink. Tee hee, thank you, Beth and Andrea!

See all of our stories about our
new collection of boomerang laminates:
Retro Renovation by Wilsonart