The resounding comment I heard upon hanging our hot pink patterned wallpaper was, “Wow, I love that; I wish I were brave enough to do something that bold in my house.”
Living with color is not as crazy as some may think. It started when I fell in love with the “Diva” pattern in hot pink by York Wallcoverings (www.yorkwall.com). I knew it would make a striking entrance wall to our new living room, and I had always wanted an accent papered wall. It’s now the first thing you see when you walk through our bright yellow front door.
To bridge the color gap between the yellow front door and the pink wallpaper, I decided I would paint the stairs in hot pink, yellow, and the shade in between, coral. Some people did think I was crazy when I said I was doing that. They looked at me in a similar way when I said we were staining our floors black. And yes, they’re hard to keep clean, and yes, the paint on the stairs will chip eventually, but that will give them character, or they’ll simply get painted again or with another color.
I guess that’s the point. There’s nothing to be afraid of because it’s just color. It’s just paint or paper. It can be removed or redone. And while I’m living in this house, I want to be surrounded by the colors I love, which are vibrant and a little bit loud, but make me happy.
"My husband knew when he married me he'd be living in a Malibu Barbie house."
To get the look, I did enlist the help of a professional when it came to hanging the wallpaper. John Greer of Q. Decorative Finishes (www.Qfinishes. com), who actually specializes in painting faux finishes and designs like that of our paper, was able to cut the round corners of the two archways and match up the pattern seamlessly.
The stairs were my pet project, an idea I’d ripped from the pages of a magazine years ago and filed away; I was finally ready to take the plunge. But what I thought would be a weekend project did end up taking about a week. After my husband removed the carpeting, I removed all of the staples, filled the holes and hand sanded each stair. I painted the trim and rail white and then started at the top, alternating colors (hot pink, yellow and coral) all the way down, doing the detail work with a small brush and the rises and treads with a larger brush. We had to accommodate by living downstairs while the steps dried, each coat taking a day in between, and four coats later, it was life back to normal (or as normal as it gets living with “Starburst” stairs as my husband calls them). Some friends asked him how he likes the pink living room, and he just joked that he knew when he married me he’d be living in a Malibu Barbie house.
As for the ebony stained floors, that was the first thing we did a week after moving into our new house, before moving all of the furniture into the room–another “weekend project” that turned into a whole week. Note of caution: Check the weather report before planning to stain floors. It was 100 degrees and humid that Memorial Day weekend, which made each coat of stain and polyurethane take twice the time to dry. After my husband ripped up the carpet, and I pulled out every staple, he sanded with a rented drum sander and we got started staining. We used Minwax Ebony stain (three coats) followed by high gloss polyurethane (also three coats). We sealed off the room with drop cloths and tape in each doorway to keep the fumes at minimum (and to keep cat paw prints out of our new floor finish). After all of our hard work, the results are sleek and chic, and we love it.
The furnishings that complete our 1950’s inspired “Palm Beach glam” living room range from a gray tufted velvet sofa from Macy’s to matching vintage club chairs (found at Phelan’s in Lancaster) with a diamond pattern and scallop design. Acrylic nesting side tables (from CB2) flank the sofa and an antique Lancaster Beds advertising sign became our coffee table when my husband constructed a frame and legs for it. The diamond pattern in the wallpaper, the sofa tufting, the club chairs, and even a vintage seltzer bottle from Tiger’s Eye in Lititz with a metal diamond weave, tie the whole look together. An antique flamingo craft from Mommalicious in Lancaster and a 60’s floral Liberty of London lamp from Target add whimsy. Striped curtains, a serendipitous yard sale find, match the wallpaper exactly with their thin pink stripes. Other antique accents include an old black-and-white bowling pin (the only accessory that survived from my husband’s former bachelor pad) and my collection of milk glass, adding more character without color. We’ve clearly got that part covered.
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York Wallcoverings’ “Diva” paper in hot pink sets a glam tone for the whole space.
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Antique collections like milk glass and hanging plates, as well as an old advertising sign turned table, add character.
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Collecting milk glass, first inspired by an heirloom piece or two, is now a hobby I share with my mother.
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Diamond shapes, from the crystal lamp and tufting on the sofa to the patterned vintage chairs and Art Deco style lighting, echo the wallpaper and tie the whole vintage glam look together.
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Pink, yellow and coral painted stairs bridge the gap between the yellow front door and pink accent wall.
