Pink and Gold Living Room Reveal

We’ve been busy getting our pink and gold living room finished off so we can share the final room with you. The plasterer came back in January to get the new dividing wall plastered, including the Artex on the ceiling and coving all plastered over. So whilst it was all cleared out I thought we might as well get it re-decorated!

*Collaborative post 

So I put a little plan together and the colours we fancied. The room is a north-facing room, and now with the extension sticking out the front, it blocks out any morning sunshine due to the location of the sunshine. So I knew we had to work with this, and decided it was best to go with a cosy room, rather than trying to make it as light as possible and then failing. We really fancied a dark green and got lots of tester pots of green, but as soon as we put the paint on the wall we couldn’t find one we both liked. So I suggested a dusty pink to Kev, to my surprise he liked the idea of it!

Little Mood Board

Living Room Before

Our living room was an open plan living room and dining room, which we blocked off to create just one room at the front of the house.

We had this corner sofa which fits perfectly in this space and allows us all to sit on the sofa together. For a more complete seating setup, consider adding a few stylish Ottomans to give yourself extra seating and more flexibility in your living room layout.

But this was shared with the large dining table, my desk and even a massive tank for a Bearded Dragon lizard!

Pink and Gold Living Room Reveal

So here is our new living room space and we’re over the moon with it. It’s such a cosy warm room to be in and I find it very relaxing.

Video Tour

Paint Colour

The paint we used is Valspar Paint which I have used all over the house, I love the coverage it gives and being able to match it to any colour you want. However I fell in love with Farrow and Ball Sulking Room Pink, it’s such a dusty warm pink that isn’t too pastel pink but also ties in nicely with my Blue and Gold Kitchen which has pink accessories in.

I needed something that complimented the grey corner sofa we have as this wasn’t being replaced, but I also wanted to go for something a bit different as we’ve had neutral colours in this room since we’ve moved in.

I wanted to also paint the full room in this colour too, rather than just the fireplace like I’ve done in the past. It was quite bold for me, but I’ve enjoyed doing things differently with our colour schemes during our build. Hopefully, you love it as much as we do too.

Sophia Sofa from DFS

We purchased this sofa about 4 or 5 years ago from DFS, after looking around at lots and lots of sofas we were struggling to find one that fits well in this space. We wanted to be able to all snuggle up on the sofa together, all see the telly and would work with the space we had. The Sophia corner sofa worked so well for this room, fitting along the window and the spare wall. It’s worn really well, but we did have a fabric protector sprayed on it. I tried to clean it after the build-up of building work grim by using the Rug Doctor machine but it didn’t come up great, I think this was because of the fabric protection we have on it. It’s not allowing me to get to the fabric properly and lift off the dirt. But it smells a lot fresher!

Carpet Magnificus Invictus Carpet – Sandcastle

I’m not sure if I’m alone here but I really struggle to pick carpets! I went around and around in circles trying to pick one that would work in this room. I found a really good website that sold carpets online and would deliver them to you free on orders over £99. I decided to look into the same brand as my bedroom carpet as I love it and it’s so cosy underfoot.

We went for the Magnificus Invictus carpet in Sandcastle, but you can order some samples from this website for you to look at the colours first. I recommend it as the colours don’t look like anything they do online.

It’s so soft and squishy under your toes, and as we have hard floors throughout the rest of the downstairs it’s so nice to step into this room and instantly feel relaxed.

Skirting and Architrave

*Gifted from Skirting World 

Like the kitchen, the skirting and architrave came from Skirting World in Ogee 1 at 120mm high which gives it enough detail and height but not too much for our age house. But there are so many lovely designs to pick from on their website.

Brick Slips

*Brick Slips Gifted from Kuci Design 

I wanted to create something a little different with the fireplace in this re-design. When we moved in back in 2012 it had the original 1960’s fireplace which we removed and built a lovely surround and oak beam top. I love this but wanted to create some interest inside the fireplace.

As you can see it looks very different from when we bought it!  I think the brick slips add some real interest and texture to the room. The brick slips are from Kuci Design and in Autumn Blend, we needed 1sqm ordered to do this area.

The box arrives in a mixed colour selection. You can request if you want more of a certain colour than another though. By purchasing a sample pack it gives you a good idea on what the colours are like. They were very easy to install, and done in a couple of hours. We did make sure we had our colour scheme and order laid out before attaching to the wall. We also decided to use Lime Mortar to give the grout a light look more natural look to the bricks.

The fire is just a little electric fire heater, with a fake flue. It often surprises people when I tell them it’s not real! However, it works great for us when we just need a little bit of extra heat in here.

Philips Hue Lightstrip Fireplace Lighting

This brings me onto our lighting choices as I knew it was important for me to bring in softer lighting into this room to keep the room warm and cosy feeling. The fireplace insert needed some lights. We are big fans of Philips Hue smart lighting in this house and have quite a few lights using this brand.

So we added a Philips Hue lightstrip underneath the oak beam to allow the lights to shine down over the brick slips. I think it works so well and we have this coming on every night.

Alcove Battery Powered Lights

I really wanted to have lighting in the alcove too but didn’t get the electricians to install it when they we’re doing the build and probably would have cost quite a bit due to the position. So I found the battery puck hack on Instagram!

They are advertised as warm white but I do find them too much of bright white light. So I think I will try and pop a filter over them.

These lights are powered by little pucks* that are powered by batteries and controlled using a remote control.

The wall lights* were from Amazon and came in a set of two, there is different colour options for the shades, these are cream shades. I think I will spray the rose and light arm at some point and make the gold more brass like the photos rather than antique brass.

The Light That Started It All Off!

See this brass tall floor lamp by the door? Yes, this is the light that started off the gold theme. This was my Grandparents light and I always remember going over to their house where it was placed in between their two armchairs that they always sat in. It also had a little foot button that I was fascinated with and would turn it on and off all the time, how annoying! So I have fond memories of it and now I have it in my house. I would like to find a new shade for it, maybe one that matches the little lamp in the corner that I got from B&Q.

I gave the stand a wash-up and it came up quite nicely, considering how old it is too.

So this gives out the most light in this room, but as you can see I’m keeping it really cosy low lighting.

Made To Measure Curtains

These windows in the living room area really big and I always struggled to find curtains I loved that were big enough for this window, without having to buy two and sew them together. So I decided to look into made to measure curtains and found Blinds 2 Go. You can measure the windows and price up the curtains straight away. Also, you can order lots of different samples of fabrics to your home to see how they work with your current designs. I picked lots of different colours, ranging from light to dark, plain and patterned but as soon as I put this Mulberry fabric sample up to my designs it was a yes. It worked straight away and as it’s velvet fabric it’s such a warm feeling fabric.

I can’t get the colour to come up correct in pictures, but it’s dark velvet and super scrummy. But they’re very heavy and my curtain rail does struggle to pull it along as it’s on a string pull rail.

Gold Frame Gallery Wall

I love taking photos and have many of the family photos over the years, but I never get them printed off. So I decided that the living room was a place for them and I went around trying to collect traditional-looking gold frames to tie the gold floor lamp in. I did think this would be easier than it was, I was expecting family members to have some stored away from when they were in fashion, but I only picked up a couple like this.

The other ones I found on Facebook Marketplace and collected these locally. I think I will add some more to the wall when I can, but for now, it’s so nice to have these memories up on the wall.

Silhouette Photos

I needed something in the alcove and had the idea of creating silhouette photos of Kev and me! So I looked into how to do these and Photoshop was the easiest way to do it. Once I got my head around how it was done, it was pretty easy and printed them out on A4 paper and created a card mount around them.

The battery-powered lights look pretty cool lighting them up at night time!

Plants

I knew I also wanted to bring more houseplants into the house, I think it creates some interest, purifies the air in the house, creates interest and colour. But I really needed to find the ones that will grow in this room due to the lack of natural light. I thought about where I wanted them and then researched the type of plant that would do well in this area.

I picked a Parlor Palm from Hortology which doesn’t mind low light and low humidity areas so pretty good low maintenance houseplant! I popped it on a plant stand* so that it was risen up from the floor and made more of a feature in the room.

Also a Ceropegia woodii – String of Hearts, on the website, it says they can handle a bit of neglect and easy to look after. I’ve also seen they’re very easy to propagate and make new plants from them too.

Pink and Gold Living Room

I’m looking forward to adding a few extra bits to the room as and when I find things I love to give it a bit more interest. I’m not sure what to do with the TV wall, it needs something but not sure what yet!

So what do you think about the colour scheme? Does it have a cosy and warm feeling to it? Did I manage to pull a bit more of bold colour scheme off OK?