When I saw The Pink House for the first time, it was white.
I was down from London on a house-hunting mission with my six-month-old son for a few days, staying with my parents. I was devastated to be leaving London, but the lure of having both sets of grandparents nearby to share the childcare was too appealing. So we were moving lock, stock and pink velvet armchair to Scotland’s capital.
When my parents discovered I was going to see a house on this particular Edinburgh road, they cancelled all plans to accompany me. Turned out, this was their ‘special secret street’ they’d discovered years previously on an evening stroll, and they’d always wondered what the pretty, rainbow-hued Arts and Crafts houses looked like inside.
BEFORE: How The Pink House looked when we bought it: white!
This was my first day of house hunting, and only the third house I’d seen, but I was barely through the front door when I knew it was The One. If Phil and Kirstie had shown me this house on Location, they’d have struggled to fill the next 45 minutes of the programme; the house had me at ‘hallway’. No matter it was a dirty white outside, cream and beige inside, and the original roof was disintegrating. Even the fact that it lacked the open-plan kitchen/living space that was on my ‘essentials’ list didn’t faze me – we’d just knock down a wall or two. I knew instantly I’d do anything for this house. I’m no fatalist or spiritualist, but its soul spoke to me in a way that meant all practicalities went out the badly-fitted sash window.
BEFORE: How the living room looked when we bought it
AFTER: The Pink House living room now/Photo: Susie Lowe
And so reader we bought it, and began its transformation into a colourful, fabulous family home. (I say ‘we’, but although it was a joint purchase, the creative decisions have been all mine; the long-suffering Pink House Husband has learned to leave well alone, although he does reserve the right to veto.)
Check out our renovations so far with room-by-room tours from Inside The Pink House, below...
