STYLING THE PINK HOUSE

 To make the best of the house, we cleared everything out and brought in a stylist.

Yes, I know, I can you hear say "really?" And the answer is "I'm so glad we did". 

We'd kept the outside of the house in good nick, replacing and painting the weathboards on a regular basis. But inside? From the moment I walked in to the room that was to be my bedroom I was determined to paint over the apricot walls but did I? No. Susan was worse. She had painted various colours on her wall to decide which one she prefered. But never made a choice. When we'd bought the Pink House in 2000, it had been on the market for quite a while because people didn't like the mix of colours - lemon, fushia, powder blue, apricot, green, aqua, etc etc etc. So removing that impediment seemed like a good idea.

Similarly, the were various carpet colours through the house and most had some reminders that a cat lived on them. New carpets therefore made sense as a good investment and I wanted to take my plastic colourful chandelier with me so we needed some new lights as well. 

But then the stylist went a step too far. She wanted everything painted white, including in the newer part of the house - the doors, the window frames, the skirting boards, the beadboard - and I said 'no'. The wood in the extension worked as a connector to the original house and I love the look of wood anyway. It was a fierce argument and I had to enlist our real estate agent to get my way. And I was right. With the neutral tones of the fresh paint and carpet, the wood glowed both front and back.

Having won that battle, I didn't interfere with the furniture brought in to fill the house. And the answer was white and grey with just the occasional touch of quiet green or brown. 

As it turns out, the styling had an unexpected impact apart from making the house look fresh and clean. It no longer looked like our house which made it much easier to leave.