Setting Plaster vs. Dead Salmon – what's the difference between these iconic Farrow & Ball pink paints?

Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball, and Farrow & Ball’s slightly newer release Setting Plaster both sit within the increasingly familiar spectrum of warm, organic, earthy pink tones, and both regularly top Farrow & Ball's best-selling list.

The two are seemingly analogous, so similar in fact, to many, they’re practically indistinguishable. However, as always with color, there are key differences that mean that once in situ, their distinguishing features, their merits, idiosyncrasies, and uniqueness become much more apparent.

If you are searching for a deep, muddy shade of pink paint, then it's highly likely these two famed hues are on your list. If you’re weighing up whether to decorate with Dead Salmon or perhaps looking to decorate with Setting Plaster instead, then it's worth bearing in mind, they can behave surprisingly differently depending on the context, appearing very differently from one room to the next.

Setting Plaster vs. Dead Salmon

So, which of the two shades gets the winning vote? Dead Salmon or Setting Plaster? We asked designers and color experts who have used both of these shades for tips and insight into which shade works best and where.

Out of the many emerging interior trends this year, one that seems set to last is the trend for raw plaster, limewashed walls, an earthy, almost unpainted look. As stark white paint and icy-cool gray have fallen out of favour, muddied, ructic pink tones, that deliver the much-coveted look of informal, easygoing, mellow spaces, have become the new color trend we are all dying to recreate.

‘Decorating with pink has seen a renaissance in interiors in recent years,’ explains Interior designer Alex Keith, co-owner and founder of Otta Design. ‘Farrow & Balls Setting Plaster and Dead Salmon are firm favourites of ours within our interior projects, they always work beautifully with their soft, warm, dusky undertones. Neither Dead Salmon nor Setting Plaster is too sugary sweet, which is key, as it means they work as a backdrop to any setting.’

UK-based interior designer Olivia Caplan uses both colors regularly in her interior projects. Recognized for bringing traditional English country character to her residential design projects, you would be excused for expecting her to use lashings of white, pale gray, and baby blue paint within her projects. However, the quintessential English look has undergone something of a redefinition, with natural, crude shades like clays, teracottas, and brownish pinks taking centre stage.

‘Both colors are classics and unerringly popular for a reason,’ Olivia explains. ‘Setting Plaster is certainly paler and a touch more crisp. Whereas Dead Salmon has a richness to it with slight mushroomy undertones.’

As Olivia points out, the defining difference between the two is their saturation and undertones. Whilst Setting Plaster is ever so slightly more blush (but note, it is worlds apart from a true blush pink), Dead Salmon leans warmer and slightly darker, with a more apparent brown undertone.

‘Setting plaster is a brighter, lighter pink with warm yellow undertones,’ explains Alex, ‘Whereas Dead Salmon is a much more subtle, muted pink-ish tone with more than a hint of brown to it.’

With that in mind, it might be that your preference is becoming very obvious. But, with these fundamental differences in mind, which would work better in certain areas of the home?

Interior designer Sean Symington chose Setting Plaster when designing this pink kitchen. ‘We chose Setting Plaster over Dead Salmon for the kitchen cabinet color as we wanted something quite light and soft,’ explains Sean. ‘With the joinery being such a prominent feature in the space, it was important that the color felt airy and pretty, allowing the architectural details to shine,’ he adds. As you can see, when drenched in light, as this open plan kitchen is, setting plaster can become much more of a coral-hued, somewhat confusingly, pale salmon pink.

When deprived of light, though, Setting Plaster has a distinct shift in attitude, becoming much toastier. ‘Setting Plaster works perfectly in a north-facing room as it warms it up considerably,’ notes Alex. Indeed, as Alex says, the warmth can be coaxed out, the rosy pink pigment reduced, when used in light-poor areas of the home. Depending on your desired effect, it might be that Setting Plaster looks the most flattering out of the spotlight, and is a wonderful way to warm and enliven an otherwise icy and sullen space.

Patrick O’Donnell, the brand ambassador for Farrow & Ball, has some advice on the perfect color pairing for Setting Plaster. ‘ Even the softest of our gentle pinks Setting Plaster, can feel thoroughly modern when mixed with moody greens such as Green Smoke or an unexpected partner in Hague Blue,’ he notes.

By contrast, Dead Salmon appears much more of a warm taupe with a pinkish tinge than a crisp pink with a brownish tinge, as Setting Plaster is. Owing to its mushroom undertones, Dead Salmon feels much more cocooning. Dead Salmon (not named after the deceased fish, reassuringly) doesn’t appear salmon at all, it's much more rusty, with umber tones of earthy soil at its base.

‘Dead Salmon is a much cosier color,’ notes Olivia, ‘Great for bedrooms and living spaces where you want a more enveloping feeling.’ Yes, one of Farrow & Ball’s coziest colors, in a snug bedroom, Dead Salmon would feel reassuring, grounding, and wonderfully nurturing.

Dead Salmon has always been front-of-mind for interior designers wanting to achieve the illusion that a space hasn’t been overly curated; it has simply unintentionally looked perfectly chic, as if almost by accident. Alex notes that Dead Salmon would work particularly well in a formal candlelit dining room, where it imbues a space with a sense of conviviality.

‘Dead Salmon, a brown-tinged, drab pink is a wonderful color to play with,’ notes Patrick O'Donnell. ‘But’ he goes on, and it's a big but – ‘it does work best in a south or west facing room, not in a north facing room.’ It's worth bearing in mind that in sunny rooms, Dead Salmon will present at its very best. In rooms with cool light, it can suddenly feel as though a cloud has drifted across the room, plunging it into a feeling of underground darkness.

If used in the correct context, Dead Salmon has the potential to make any room an enviable space. ‘Let it come alive and mix it up with an accent of dark blue such as De Nimes,’ adds Patrick

Decor picks to pair with these iconic paint colors

Decorating a room in one of these two evocative colors? Here are our top picks for rooms painted in Setting Plater or Dead Salmon

When scouring the web and sifting through magazines trying to find tasteful pink room ideas, you will likely find many designers and homeowners rhapsodize endlessly about these two famous colors. It's worth swatching them both side by side to see how they react to light throughout the day.

It's also worth noting that if you aren't keen on the pinkish hues in these paints, you might be searching for something with an orange undertone, and a teracotta paint might be more appropriate. In which case, it's worth swatching Faded Teracotta by Farrow & Ball, and if you really want that barefoot, laid-back appeal of earth-exposed walls, Red Earth by Farrow & Ball might just be a clear winner.