Our Dark Pink Living Room Tour

Before Covid-19 hit I'd been talking for months about having a dark pink living room. The room needed decorating and we were in the process of getting quotes from decorators and flooring companies. I had even bought all the paint ready so when we were locked in, I thought I might as well get started with it myself. It also meant that I got a couple of days of peace decorating on my own while the children were in Daddy daycare!

(Bookcase Ikea, Nockeby Sofas Ikea, TV unit 2nd hand and painted white, small tables 2nd hand and painted white, rug Woven, Lamp - gift for review years ago from Lighting Majestic, Electric Fire B&Q)

I know that pink isn't the first choice for a colour for a living room but I really wanted a dark pink, like a dusky pink to add a bit of colour, without looking too girly. I fell in love with the colour Sulking Room Pink by Farrow and Ball after seeing lots of pictures of the colour on Instagram but when we sampled it in our living room it just didn't look quite right, maybe because of the lighting. It looked less pink and more brown and too pale. So I had some paint made up by Valspar in the colour pink that I wanted.

I only wanted a feature dark pink wall so the other walls I painted in Almond Milk by Valspar which is a lovely creamy white. I wanted to keep the room looking light and bright even with the dark pink feature wall.

Typically when I started painting I really didn't like the pink that I had chosen for the wall. It dried much too dark and basically looked red. It wasn't the look I was going for at all but because of lockdown I couldn't go out to buy more paint so I mixed some white paint that we had from decorating the nursery into the pink paint to lighten it. We ended up with a really lovely muted dark pink shade which looks lovely and made everyone happy - hubby wasn't too sold on the idea of a pink living room before!

We also had a silver feature mirror on the wall which was actually made up of small hexagonal mirrors placed together and stuck up with command strips. I loved the mirror and wanted to keep it so I decided to spray paint the silver mirrors gold. We already had gold spray paint so this was a really cheap budget DIY job. My eldest daughter taped up some newspaper to protect the mirror glass and I took them outside and quickly spray painted them. It was a really easy job and they look so good!

We are still waiting for the flooring to be done. I think we will go for something hardwearing like Karndean in a medium oak colour. If you have any flooring recommendations let me know. We just need to wait until Wales is out of lockdown to be able to get someone in to do it!

We usually have a large white coffee table in the middle of the room but during lockdown we have pushed it to underneath the window so we have floor space for at home fitness workouts and we have space for our Baby Sensory zoom classes. It's very much a lived in living room and set up for practical family use. In the corner we have stacked hampers which are leftover from Christmas and we use to store the baby's toys in. All the other toys are in the playroom next door so don't worry, we do have lots of space for the children to play!

In the corner here we have a plant which is amazingly thriving! I have a bit of a reputation as a plant killer! The plant pot and stand are from Ikea and the chair is a few years old and bought through the Achica app.

I didn't buy much to update the room. We already had the pink and grey sofa cushions and other decor. The only other thing I bought was a new rug. It took me ages to find the perfect rug and then one popped up on my sponsored Instagram stories. It is gorgeous and soft and fluffy and was really great value. I think it really adds a modern touch to the room.