THE TV CARPENTER : Home Makeovers with Wayne Perrey

Wayne chats with Emily Murray designer and author of 'Pink House Living'

January 24, 2020 Wayne / Emily Murray Season 2 Episode 22
THE TV CARPENTER : Home Makeovers with Wayne Perrey
Wayne chats with Emily Murray designer and author of 'Pink House Living'
Show Notes Transcript

This week I chat with Emily Murray on what it takes to create a successful lifestyle blog and where her inspiration came from for her interior design 'Pink House Living' book.
Guest: www.pinkhouse.co.uk

Sponsor: To take advantage of the generous 15% discount from my sponsor Thorndown, please visit http://bit.ly/TVCarpenter. Discount code: TVCarpenter

Contact me: Wayne Perrey on Twitter and Instagram.

Music: "What's the Angle" by Shane Ivers


To learn how to achieve a Safe, practical and beautiful home,
 join THE DIY DOERS Facebook group

Speaker 1:

On today's show, I'll be talking with Emily Marie. She's an award winning blogger, interior stylist and author and creator of pink house living.

Speaker 2:

And so when I started the pink house, it wasn't about me saying, here I am, materials expert, Emily Marie. I was saying, here I am, I'm entity. I have a, I'm a journalist so I can find out more about this. And I'm really into doing it at my house and I've done all these things and isn't it fun? And I love color and I love playfulness. Um, when I'm cheating on fashion with furniture, which I used to talk about it and I said, that's my tagline for my book. Um, and it sort of developed from there because at some point there was less me saying, Oh, experts interiors, tell me what you think so I can write it on my blog. And it became people starting to ask me more and more and magazines themselves saying, what do you think

Speaker 1:

to the TV carpenter? My name is Wayne Perry. This is a podcast where I interview the best interior designers and garden designers all from the world of the makeover TV world and really with the aim of encouraging you to pick up the tool so that you can have a go and create your dream home. I'm super excited this week because if you listen to last week's podcast, I talked about being booked to do shows at the adult home show. This year I'm over the Easter two, three weeks I'll be presenting on their main stage doing talks about DIY, about picture hanging, doing some upcycling talks, but more importantly I pitched an idea about being the ideal home shows and podcaster. So I chatted with the team there and pitched the idea that I would be on one of their stages and I would interview some amazing guests and they loved the idea. This year they've got some amazing rooms sets every year they have these room sets where you can walk through them and be inspired. They do garden ones that I'm actually co-designing and building the garden one again this year. But then they have the room sets and this year they have these special room sets that are almost stages as well. So there'll be areas where, um, there'll be an audience in front of them. And I've been given, um, slots to, to record this podcast live at the ideal home show. So it means I can get some really interesting guests and I can get people as well who the ideal home show would love to have on, um, to present and do talks. But actually they might be a bit nervous about presenting in front of people at the ankle home show. So by having me interview them and pick their brains and find out, um, about their talents and how they, how they create rooms or how they create gardens, um, they'll feel safe in the knowledge. You know, they're having a chat with me and they'll be like all the other podcasts, but it will be live. So yes, I can finally confirm that. My exciting news is that I will be, well the TV carpenter, me, Wayne Perry will be the, um, the podcast app for the ideal home show, which I'm super chuffed about. Uh, if you can think of anyone you'd like me to interview, uh, yeah, let me know. Send me a message on Twitter or Instagram, Wayne Perry on both of those. And uh, let me see if I can get them on or you know, or if you're an amazing interior designer yourself or you, you've got some inside knowledge of things and I haven't met you yet. Um, let me know. Send me a message and maybe I could interview you on the ideal home show. There'll be lots of free tickets coming in as well. There'd be some competitions, giveaways, so keep listening and uh, I'll be giving you some information about that and how you can get some free tickets to come and watch me do those live podcasts. And uh, what other exciting things I've been doing this week is I finally finished my downstairs hall. If you remember last week I was talking about how I was going to put paneling down there and I'd been using, um, phone downs, new heritage range. Caroline and Ben have created, um, so new colors for their color charts. And they sent me over an email with all the new potential colors. And then me and my wife picked out five and we had some test AppOps and I did a few Instagram stories about which ones. And we chose this beautiful color called Avalon blue, which is a really rich, um, dark inky blue. So all the wood work and the paneling is all that color. But then above to soften that because it's quite a cool color actually. And we've warmed it up with, um, a Valspar paint cause, uh, the using their emulsion. And we've, uh, we've created a, I think it's called Nana's pearls. What a name. Um, but yeah, so we've, we've gone with that. Um, but what interesting to talk about names is when I was chatting, we thorn down and they're, they're explaining, you know, how they name their paints. And it's so true. That and name can really inspire you to pick a color cause even the colors that they're, um, Carolyn sent me through the Avalon blue. Um, originally it was just a number. It was around them both. And then as soon as all the names came on board, you suddenly go, Ooh, I like that. So naming of paints is a really important thing. And Karen explains to me in this short one minute interview how the names come about for thorn down paint

Speaker 3:

thorn down peelable glass panes has some really interesting names. I want to know where did they come from. So with the opaque solid coatings with those colors, they come from the wood paint range. So I'm with the wood paint range. I've named everything sort of after either sort of nature or, or places of around Somerset. Um, so you have the Chantry cream, which is after the Chantry chapels in Wells cathedral and delicate stone and adult in stone. They're local quarries. And then, um, and so they've got taken into the peelable glass paint opaque range. But then with the translucence because it was going to be so, such a fun kind of quite a kitty arts and crafts range that I wanted them to have really sort of just playful names. Hence gobbling green and ogre, orange dragon, red, white witch and um, black. And yes, it was just the fun really. My daughter absolutely loved those.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You fancy trying out. They've goblin green or they're Olga orange. Then if you just had to thrown down dot code at UK and put in the code, the TV carpenter, you get 15% off all of their online purchases. So not just the Peter Buck last paint, but all their other paint ranges as well. Now, time for the main event, this is my interview with Emily Murray from pink house living. Emily is an influencer. She's a blogger. She a Instagrammer. She's won awards for her, her blogs. Um, and she created this, this brilliant company called, uh, the pink house.co. Dot. UK where she utilizes all the social media platforms that are available to her and she talks about and writes about as in a journalistic kind of way. Um, and sells, um, brands and products and, and made, you know, she's made to monetize her passions for, you know, interior design. And as Christ did this amazing company, she so infectious when you listen to her, you can't help but laugh. And I went round to her house and she showed me, she just had this major renovation done and she's got this huge pink side extension, which is beautiful. Uh, but she has a trapeze in there, in the kitchen and her these boxes in the hallway, which are vaulted so she can spring and jump off them. Everything about the house is fun and everything about her is fun. So I hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Speaker 3:

So Emily, hello. Thank you for being on the TV carpenter podcast. Firstly, I just want to say your house is absolutely stunning, but secondly, you've got this amazing pink extension outside. How did you mostly get that pass Louis[inaudible] know that can be a bit tricky. So how did you manage that?

Speaker 2:

Well, yes, there's a lot of people who are very surprised that that's happened. Um, well it's really deigned to my architect. Um, Kate from load architects. Um, she has a skill. She told me when I hired her, um, for getting things through planning permission, um, and together we kind of came up with a plan. I don't know if this influenced at all, but I basically wrote a business reason why we should have a pink, something along the lines of that sounding like too much of a deck. All the lights I bringing business into the area and the pink house has become a bit of a, I was going to say landmark. It's not, it's not like, you know, it is now like, because I put a brass plaque outside and no more than that. But I think we just tried to make the case that in a way, you know, I'm a small business, my, I have a small business and um, and having something that signified that was going to be a good thing and it was going to be, um, it's going to add creatively to the area and yeah, we, yeah, we came up with pages and pages on it back and forth with it or did they accept there was a bit of back and forth, but not much. I mean, you know, it was like we specify the exact RAL color of the pink and they didn't seem to have a problem. I didn't, I see. I've never done this before. I've never tried to get anything like, well, anything really through planning permission. The only building work I've done prior to this house was knocking down a wall and I are listed house in Edinburgh when we lived there. And that didn't require much more effort, but this was new territory. But Kate was like, right, come on, let's do this. And she was really keen to push the boundaries as was I, I mean when, when we moved in here, I said to my husband who's called the pink house husband, which he kind of loves and hates in equal measure because he doesn't really like pink. I tried for my sister upstairs. Actually I don't speak to it lately. Um, but I th I was like, well maybe we can render the house cause it's a red brick. Edwardian hates me. We can render it and paint it pink. And that was not met with much love from, from well from the husband, but also in the area. People were like, that's not going to go down because the houses all are uniformly there. I think how many there's sex or four houses that look the same as my house. Send me, detach. Um, but because my extension is setback, I think maybe that helps drive a little bit. Yeah. If you're looking for it then, then you'll see it Instagram, pink house living. Occasionally they got pink house on the exception. Yeah. So there's steel, which is powder coated in a Raul three Oh one five light pink if anyone's interested. And then there's brass, which is used for the shadow gaps and sort of the sides of the big floor to ceiling window, which actually wraps over onto the roof as well if you go and we haven't been in, I'll show you inside. Um, so there's a lot of glass steel, um, to so resin trout. So from[inaudible] which is a local company to here. Yeah. Um, and that was really exciting because I went in and they basically say you could make a bespoke whatever you like. So I was like, Oh I want the background be this pink. And then I want to Chuck in some chips of marble and some little black chips and then actually some bits of brass and they were like, not quite sure if that's going to work but we'll try it. And they tried it. And it's just amazing cause it sparkles cause this little brass champs

Speaker 5:

cause it's all, it's really speckle we've created this app, I've worked top and then you got all these different flex and stuff in it. But no it looks, it looks absolutely amazing and I just thought how brilliant is it to have that with Lucian castle. So what for my listeners, what is your background?

Speaker 2:

I guess from a career perspective? I um, well I started out working in advertising for a couple of the big ad agencies. Um, so I studied English literature at uni. Um, so I'm lucky because I was a vape so it's a bit funny one cause I went to Cambridge university and my friends take the piss out of me because I always find a way of mentioning it

Speaker 5:

[inaudible]

Speaker 2:

to get there. But I didn't work so hard when I actually arrived there, but I don't, yeah, I did. I punted, lied till I had my thumb chopped off between two pucks and sitting back on again. Cause it was my job. I was a punch chauffer for a holiday job anyway. I'm not here to talk and my friends will take the mussels pest you have yet again. And I don't know why it's a, you know what it is, if I'm honest, it's a big part of the foundation of who I am I guess. Cause the first place that I lived that I felt like I really belonged, cause I grew up in Scotland and with English parents and I just didn't feel like I fitted in and I was a real geek at school and I also did a lot of sports and then I arrived at Cambridge and suddenly my life began and I loved it. I loved everything and I said exactly. I mean it was a whole university thing anyway. It might've been like that wherever I went. But because it was there, it becomes a special thing. So I started working in advertising agencies cause it was one of those things that you could do at grad trading scheme and I just wanted it to be in the media. I just loved the bright lights, big city. I wanted to live in London, I wanted to do fun things. I just didn't want to work. I wanted to have fun, I wanted, I didn't know. I've always been, if I could have done anything straight out of uni, I would have been a TV presenter. That's what I would've done. But nobody seemed to know how to do that. And my parents are teacher and engineer. I had no contacts and I just thought I need to make money. So, um, yeah, advertising. And it was, it was great fun until it wasn't, and I was in this big sort of hierarchical Unilever account. Um, and so I moved to a smaller startup ad agency and that was really fun and creative until again, we grew and it got less interesting. But also the problem with the in ad industry was that I was on the account management side because that's how they sort of do things. Oh, you're a nice Cambridge graduate. We're going to make you an account manager and you are going to be all business like, except you don't get very creative. And I'm not very business like I tend to say the wrong thing and talk about shagging. So that was relatively short, lived a few years in advertising. And that was the point of which I was, I was like, right, I can either become an a creative, and I looked, I did a sort of a course to become an advertising creative, a copywriter, which I think would have suited me. I think had I done that, I think it would have worked out and I do think I'd still be doing it because I really enjoy that aspect of what I do now. Um, but I wanted to be a journalist and that was the other big thing. And working with words was the thing that I wanted to do. I wanted to be a women's magazine writer slash column method. That was my dream. So I went and did this, our postgraduate journalism course and um, and I still, I want to be a columnist and I know they were like, no one gives a shit about what you think it's about learning how to write copy and a newsy way and all this stuff. And they basically just went, no, no, no. Keep your ego in check. You can't do that. No one wants to know. And I kind of was like, okay. And after a while I was like, okay, fine. And then I started working at a business magazine called marketing because as a, with my background in advertising, it was like a subject I knew, but crucially for marketing magazine who employed me as a reporter with no prior experience, um, I knew the ad agencies and could infiltrate them to get the dirty basically. And I, and I knew how to drink. I was quite good at that. So I would sit down and go out for drinks and then they would spill their secrets and then, you know, I would bring that in and that was fine. And it was very sort of glitzy in a way, but it still was far, far away from the kind of journalism lifestyle stuff, opinions, stuff I wanted to do. So from that, um, I just started to answer adverts for editorial assistant jobs and women's magazines. But that's when I realized that basically what happened was at a women's magazine publishing house somewhere like Conde Nast, which is where I actually started, um, there's basically a load of girls who work for free who are on trust funds or Batman or just had family support or parents lived in London and who could work for free until basically summer finally just went, okay, you're next up, you get the editorial assistant job. And I realized I wasn't in that queue effectively and it was all very well working my way out, but business magazines and knowing how to write stories and having Bonilla CAD, what they cared was, I was literally there and I'd done my time as well as having vague intelligence. So that's when I became a PA at Conde Nast I Conde Nast traveler for the publisher, not even the editor because they said, okay, you have to go in the publishing side. And then they tried to convince me that I really did want to work in sales and I repeatedly said, no, absolutely do not want to do that until finally they relented. But literally because I'd been, because I had a job as a PA, I was being paid to basically sit in that queue. So that worked quite well. And then I got a job, my first job was, um, the editorial assistant at brides magazine, just as I was getting married to that helped with the old drafts. And the honeymoon was sorted when I was at Conde Nast traveler. So that was quite good. I've always been quite good. I've ever blag which also comes with it, make it work. And so, yeah. So I did that and then I worked up and then I became a features writer and wrote about celebrity weddings and it was all getting a bit more fun. And occasionally they would let me write the word I in a, in a piece, but generally no one cared about me. Yeah. But then as part of that, I started to freelance a bit because I started to, and here from a left field perspective, um, I started out with stunt women. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I used to be a gymnastic quite seriously. And as a result of my gymnastics background, when I learned about par core free running, which was really starting to take off, um, when I was in my kind of early, mid twenties, I thought, Oh, I can do that. I'd like to go along and try it out, but I never quite dead. And then my husband, when he was, um, we still my boyfriend, but he decided to have a career change and go to Africa and save the world. He was working in the city and making plenty of money and I was quite happy with that setup. But no, no, no. You have to go and like say for well before, well, I mean, and I was just like, okay, fine. You do what you have to do. But I was left for five months by myself in London and I needed to stay out of trouble. So a job. So I felt, well go down to the safe bank and um, and start training with these basically teenage boys. And yeah. So I learned the basics quite quickly because with the gymnastics background, but I was like the only 27 year old woman with a proper publishing house job. And there were all these like 17 year old boys. But they were really cool. They were really nice to me and I got invited to be in a crew, the K and I got sponsor Saatchi's advertising agency sponsored me. I became, I think I was the first female sponsored freerunner or trusts her on these podcasts. That's insane. I don't know. I know it was really cool. Um, but yeah, and then I got to make film like short films. It was a canned nominated short film that I made called space chase. And I started to do adverts and paid like proper money. One of the best paid jobs I've ever had still was B. It was an advert for a mobile phone company, Canadian mobile phone company called Rogers communications. Um, and they w they wanted to film this advert in Milton Keens. It was January, it was freezing snowing and there were 10 of us mix of like martial artists and Parker of people. And I had to in the end stub double for this teenage girl cause they didn't think she was capable of the roof job safely. So I had to put on a black wick and jump from a roof to a roof. So what extra money for the daring roof jump and it was the stunk coordinate. Oh my God, I loved it. It was so, so fun. But yeah as a result of doing that, there was a lot to say and not to write about. So then I started to patch it. So then I started to write a bike park or, and I got a really amazing piece in the independent magazine. It was like pages and pages and it featured me cause I talked to the cane then I was like, yes, I got to write first person and make something. I was doing um, in uh, you know, in the national press and I was like, yes, this is what feels right. I get to do interesting things and I get to write about them and then share my and help other people, you know, learn more about it or even get into it. If they enjoy it. And actually if I think back about it, really that's what I kind of do now is I use this, yeah,

Speaker 5:

it feels like all the stuff you've done in the past and this is what that imbue of life is. You do all these jobs and on the way and at the time you're doing them, you think they were right and then some it just sticks and then you realize the reason why I did that is because it helps this and the career that we've got now is portfolio creative. We all have freelance. Just means you've got a unique perspective. So you know, I've looked through all your Instagram and you know in your social media stuff and you know you promote brands, but you do it in such a crazy way. Do you know what I mean? I've seen some of your videos and I've seen, you know, you're in hotels and you do back flips and stuff. This is not what sets you apart when you do those kind of things.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I don't actively think why I must do this because I need to be different. I do it because I guess, I guess I'm very playful at heart, but I think a lot of creative people are. Um, but I like to be playful, partly physically painful because I really enjoy the fact that my body fabric very grateful to it. But in my forties I can still Chuck it around and turn upside down and I, it feels good and I want to do that as long as I possibly can.

Speaker 5:

Literally, we just arrived in your downstairs and your extension in the hallway. There's this, that seated area. There's one at six, four about four foot and you went, Oh, it's vaulted. It takes, Springs found bounced up on it, you know. And then if you've got, you know, trapeze and Golan, I have that you've created a home. That's right. Not just with the kids, because we tend to do that a lot, you know, but you create something worth trying for years.

Speaker 2:

Well, hopefully, but that's what people say. Oh look, you made this fun trapeze. But the kids, I mean, it's not that the kids, I mean that's nice if they enjoy it, but really I did that for me. This is my dream home. Um, and my husband gets to live in it. I'm a poor man. I mean, he's very, you know, I honestly sometimes you say, you said, Hey, did I get the extension pass? Lewisham cancel. That wasn't the big hurdle. There was, Hey, did I get it past my husband? Yeah. I mean really that is the thing that we should be seeing as miraculous. But yeah, I just, I feel like, I guess if my take on interiors and my take on the world is from a playful perspective.

Speaker 5:

I said this earlier before we started recording, I was like, do you meant you class yourself as an influencer then you should it. So how would you describe yourself, your job now then? What would you say?

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's so difficult. I mean digital creator, but not just digital, because I've made a book and I write and you know, I tried to do things that are offline as well, like I do some styling projects, but then you go, okay, what, I'm a creator, what am I God? I mean, what on earth do I call myself? So then I sort of have a conversation that goes like this where I go, Oh, I don't know. And then, well, I'm a writer, I'm an author now. Oh, I'm, you know, Oh, I like to do a bit of, I didn't know. I guess when you're doing Instagram stories, you're presenting, I mean, who knows? I think the capillary is, hasn't kept up with the way that people's lives are now. And people particularly do jobs like mine and like yours, I don't know. I don't really know. What would you call me?

Speaker 5:

Well, I'd say you are an influencer, you know, you know, within your Instagram. But that was my is, and I don't read blogs, so I've never been into which came first? The blogger, the Instagramming or,

Speaker 2:

yeah, the blog. Very much so. Although actually, um, I started the Instagram account first. It was actually called, um, pink house interiors. Um, and I started it just before I launched the blog, which I had planned for a few months. It wasn't like a whim thing. It was a whole planned concept and company. And I registered the trademark before and you know, create a limited company before I'd published a single word. Instagram was a testing ground at first. But then, um, I very quickly started up the blog and then, but the idea was always just Instagram. It's just one of the social media that you use. Cause I'd read my how to blog but that you use to drive traffic to your blog. And it was all about the blog. And for me it was all about I wanted a goal cause I like a goal winning the Amara interior blog awards, best newcomer in October. I started the blog at the end of February and I was like, that's what I need to do. I need to cram amazing content, show for petite that I need business and I'm professional and brands can trust me. And, um, you know, because I needed to monetize it. And so I did win that and that was all very exciting. And so then I was like, Oh yeah, I am a blogger. I, this is happening. And it very quickly led to me being able to make a living from it. But then at some point, Instagram just suddenly just, I don't know, it's hard to sort of say when I started to think, Oh my gosh, Instagram is a bigger thing than the blog. And people were looking at my Instagram as a proxy for the blog. And then after a while I spent more and more time on Instagram and less and less in the blog. But then I've, I've spent time thinking, I, I tried hiring people to help me write the blog so I could concentrate on writing the book and things. But I think I've come to the point now this year where I'm like, I want to do more blogging. But at the same time, I can't deny that Instagram is such a successful platform. And although I feel nervous with the fact that it's not mine, I don't own it. It's an app that in a way you kind of go, I just chill, just go with it. For now. That's how it is. But also like

Speaker 5:

for other things, each other, I was trying to leave the Nikki Lambda Boz, Marty's a mutual friend and lives around the corner and you know, her Instagram has gone crazy before she was even on the show because she has amazing pictures, but also her posts are really long. They're like blog posts in themselves and we chatted about that on her podcast. So it's about feeding, you know that you're on Pinterest as well. Do you know what I mean? So all of all of them collectively create you as their,

Speaker 2:

yeah, they all feed in different ways and I think you can't override it when you can't not run, lose it. But I don't think it necessarily helps. Um, I mean, Pinterest, you mentioned it. I don't talk about Pinterest nearly as much as I talk about Instagram, but Pinterest has probably driven more traffic to my blog than Instagram ever has. And I have spent a lot less time on it. I have a really good relationship with Pinterest actually. And I sh I spoke at their annual conference called NIC con last year. It was so much fun. Such an incredible company, really vibrant, really creative, just, and it just doesn't have the same sense of comparison. I think Instagram can be quite bad for the,

Speaker 5:

so it's just kind of on your Instagram, you're fed Pinterest, you search, if you want a pink kitchen, you're talking pink kitchen. So everyone's pink kitchen concept, you know what I mean? It's not, I don't even, I don't know if this is true. It's not necessarily how many clicks of light, it's just what your search criteria is. So maybe it's that I don't use Pinterest half of half as much as I should. My carpentry with your interiors and looking around, you know, I'm going to have a nosy and a bit of that. I mean, you're lounging on your kitchen area and stuff is even the things like the handles and things, I know that he was handles and you know, seeing them before. Um, what's your background with interiors then? Where do you, where did you learn to do this or is it something you've always done?

Speaker 2:

I had a really nice gang heart when I was a kid. It had a guest bathroom and, um, display shelves. Um, I have no real background in interiors is the honest answer in the sense that in all the time I was a journalist right up until I stopped doing that and started doing the pink house. Um, I never wrote about interiors. I never, I'd never been considered by anybody to have any professional connection to interiors. I guess people might have been in my house and gone, Oh, I like that. But actually up until the point where I moved back to Edinburgh, um, and S uh, doing it in my house, I, I'd never sort of connected the dots that I'd always been interested in it. But looking back in hindsight when I was sitting there going, I'm going to start a blog, but what should, what should it be about? And I went back through my life, like I'd always been like, all sports, my thing, that's my background. But then I realized, wait a minute, there's a, there's a thread that goes all, wait, I mean, you know the, the gang part. Yes. But everything like the way that I would make my room as a kid that made that my university halls room was made the way that I cared about what went into my flat and crucially the sort of restaurants and bars. And I realized that I'd been in London going to restaurants and bars based on what they look like rather than what the food was like. You know, food is nice but much more interested in the ambience and the deck core. And I've kind of thought that was almost a guilty secret. Like you're not supposed to choose the restaurant because it looks nice. You're supposed to choose it because the food's nice. And ditto with the Bart's supposed to be all about the artist and cocktails, but you know, it's fine. I like a nice cocktail. But, um, and I guess when I connected them all together, I realized it all came under the umbrella of interiors. And then I also sort of thought, actually I used to[inaudible] art and that was one of my very early path options was did I go to art school or did I go to Cambridge? See I got it. And again, and or did I go to dance school, which was the other thing. And I've always been a bit of a, I don't know, love doing lots of different things. It's just I like, I get bored easily. Um, but yeah, like I kind of have an, I felt like I had an eye for, Hey, things looked good to me and I had quite a lot of confidence in what I liked. And the more I did up homes and moved house and did things, the more I learnt and I just thought, I'm not going to get bored of this. And so when I started the pink house, it wasn't about me saying, here I am, materials experts. Emily Marie, I was saying, here I am, I'm Emily, I have a, I'm a journalist so I can find out more about this. And I'm really into doing it at my house and I've done all these things and isn't it fun? And I love color and I love playfulness. Um, and I'm cheating on fashion with furniture, which I used to talk about and that's my tagline for my book. Um, and it sort of developed from there because at some point there was less me saying, Oh, experts an interiors. Tell me what you think so I can write it on my blog. And it became people starting to ask me more and more and magazines themselves saying, what do you think? What do you like? How, what's your secret to this? How did you come up with that room scheme? That was a bit of a weird crossover between feeling like I had to, I couldn't possibly tell you because that's not my place to being like, well hell I can, why shouldn't I?

Speaker 5:

The proof is in the pudding. Like you talked about the confidence, you've always had confidence in doing it and you know the confidence to write a book called pink has anything about living in a, in a painting house. And you know, you know, when you, when you're an author you're an authority on something. So, you know, you've got to have confidence in it. But how do you have confidence in pink? Like how, how confidently, yeah, where did the love to start? Where did they love a pink? You've got pink hair.

Speaker 2:

I think it's partly because, um, it was good Brando because I love branding as much as anything else. I find it fascinating. I really enjoy the concept of how you create a brand. And I've, I've, I've always enjoyed them and hence me working in advertising. Um, but I think if I really try to unpack it, it probably a little bit to do with feeling like I was, um, what's the word? Being a bit of a rebel as a, as a girl. Cause I grew up in a household where my mum is very girly. She's not feminine, but she's just not, she's very, I guess she's slightly eccentric. She does things her way. She used to wear mad Mexican hats and ponchos um, and she like pink would not have been her thing. And even though then, like in the 80s, pink wasn't necessarily a full girl's thing, but it was starting to become like that. And so she wasn't really into that. She wasn't, you know, makeup shouldn't, she owed one lipstick. And so I think maybe a little bit of me, it was pink was my way of saying this is my girliness, but equally it could just have been that it looked at that color and it made me feel good. And I honestly have no idea. Pink and gold was a particular thing. He loved the con. And I used to write like stories at school and like becoming a fairy princess and living in that everything was decorated and pink and gold. Um, but then on the flip side, I would have books. There was one, it was all the paint, different houses that different animals lived in. It was all very creative. Um, and, and from, um, from a more feisty[inaudible] assisted with humans, you know, and there was one that had like a swinging chair and you know, our lip there or whatever. And then spider had this amazing cocoon swing or, and I was always just really drawn to these sort of playful elements. And of course my gymnastics meant that I just was, I just claimed everything. So then he put together pink and trapeze. I mean it's, you know, it's quite straightforward. Yeah. You just Chuck it all in and then you get, I think color is something that you get to know the more you work with it. It's just, you know, you go down the coast psychology route. No, no. Yeah. I mean I sort of, I think quite a lot about light. I've always known where at every house, how it's orientated. Like there were a lot of people who don't know. I say, which way is West? I come to the house which way? And they're like, Oh, I don't know, but what, how can you not know that? Yeah. But everything about houses and also about, like for me, this is high facing house and I wouldn't have bought it if it was North facing. It had to be, it doesn't have to be safe. It could have been West eastward of maybe not being so good. But this is perfect, although it gets very hot. Um, so I think about how the light is. And so for this, this is a new space, which I haven't really shown yet. Um, the redecorated repeat room, but I wanted to use blue. That was just the rain, not too dark, not too light. So it felt cozy. So I blew that. Didn't feel cold but not too dark and bright but not too bright. So I spent ages trying to wear that. This is called God. No. Suddenly it's a Myland color. Uh, God eaten blue. It's cold. It's a square. Sorry. Each and sway E a T. O N Eaton squares blue is like the color of the year kind of. Yeah. It's kind of, I mean it's quite bright in a way that cause then it doesn't get, yeah. Yeah. It's the whole wrapped around, apart from the fireplace. That's actually going to be gilded in gold this weekend. The whole inside of the fireplace. And then Barry there, he's been moved from the other room, from the sitting room, which is Hey blue berries going to go to, I think there is going to really love it up that you know the mirrors at the top. You've got some friends from Shelton at the top of windows so that actually what's going on. The reason those are up there partly is because I'm going to get, I'm consulting with another local actually. Um, she's called hello flora. Do you know, have you heard of yet? She spent, I think she knows Nikki as well. Tracy. Jesse. Yes. Fantastic. Excellent. Everybody knows everyone. So Tracy I've asked, I think she's coming round next week cause I want her advice on the best photo plants. So I'm going to fill that whole section and that whole section. So we'll just, yeah, we'll all trailer down and so, and then all around here as well. I'll probably in the bespoke shelving so it'll feel like there's a whole sort of trim of GRA greenery sort of coming in through the top. So think we'll just really add to this fun jungle Jane feel. And then I might get some like photo bits of um, vine and wrap it around the trapeze. That'd be good for photo shoots.

Speaker 5:

Good thing it's like the fire flowers have moved on, you know, speaking to Tracy quite a lot, you know, they used to be really naff but as long as you can dust it occasionally. So your book pink, pink house live in. Tell me a little bit about your book. So do you go through each room and how it works on how to use pink?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, partly, I mean to be honest, the whole pink thing, although there's a lot of pink in my life, this book isn't really about pink. No. And neither is my account in the sense on my blog. It's about the concept of what pink means to you. And as in pink is my joy, is my way of having fun. But you know, it's not like I'm trying to push it down anyone's throat. Although of course it attracts people who love it too.

Speaker 5:

But also it doesn't put people off because people, a lot of people, you know, back then they would hate me. But actually things got a resurgence now, you know, and it's kind of subtle PV pink is like the new gray. They're using it as their base color for when they, if they said white they'll do a pink eye

Speaker 2:

neutral and many wrecks. And actually, yeah. So that's where it can come in in many ways. But you can almost substitute any color. But in a way like for me, Pink's fine. But I mean I'm going to get bored about talking about pink, you know, after about five, 10 minutes. But it's nice to have something. It's sort of underpinning it all. But I guess what this is, is just my way of telling my story of decorating the projects that I've done and the little stories behind them. Cause I think in a way, because this is kind of the book of the Instagram, because the blog, look at the Instagram, the stories, the accounts, the, the feeds that I most enjoy on Instagram are those where there's a real human story behind what's been going on. Because interiors by themselves, you can get a bit like the, you know, just pictures. You just looking at pictures of pictures of room you've got, yeah, there's a human life there. And so this is the story of how I got my sofa bed stuck, you know, halfway out the window and how, you know, my mom had to sell it all back up again and how I had to repeat the process because once we moved here, so we had to like be saw it, you know, and then I buggered off to my Bay because I didn't want to watch this experience, but this is the stuff that anybody who's ever tried to decorate our home at any way will know that there's so much that goes into it. And it's to do with the logistics. It's to do with the human relationships. It's to do with, I don't know, finding what you like. I know looking inside yourself and saying, what is it that I really am? Because if you're surrounded by a home that doesn't make you happy, then it's just not great. But if you do manage to tap into those things that kind of make you go, wow, then then you're onto something really special. So it's really about about that. It's about yourself. It's about your relationships. But I think it's a good, it's a good book for either, I mean when I was, I had a few different targets in mind when I wrote it. One was a book for somebody who has just bought their first home or moved home and is looking for some ideas and inspiration and a kind of a bit of a laugh as well in a, in a slightly the way you've had a baby, someone might buy you a book that's kind of supposed to make you feel like, have a laugh but give you some ideas and make you feel like, Oh yeah, someone else going through that too. But the, the bonus of this because hopefully people will think we're just looks lovely lying around anyway, even if you don't open it or people to buy for themselves. If they just love color and they want to think about new ways of using color. Um, or in a way it's for somebody who enjoys reading kind of fun magazines cause I feel like with my magazine writing and editing background, this, I feel like I've created a bumper magazine which is supposed to be entertaining, um, with lots of sort of helpful tech bets. But with the, um, the kind of, I don't know, the sort of entertaining aspect as well. So this book should make you laugh and it should make you think, Oh, that's a good idea and it should make you think, Oh, I'm going to leave it laying around cause it looks really nice. And my coffee tables, yeah,

Speaker 5:

beautiful. But I couldn't get hold of the book before coming to see you. So I've just been looking at it now, but I'm looking on the, on Amazon, all the reviews were like, just, it's fun, we're going to, you have fun reading it are fun. You know, the way you, you know, the little anecdotes in there, but I like the human element of that. I think people buy into people and buy into stories with people. And so rather than just show pretty's brand picture and talk about the realness of, of creating something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but it's, I think when I started the pink house, the concept was really that I could see that they were, interiors felt quite stuffy and serious for the most part. And it was almost like the more luxurious they were, the more serious you have to become. And it was as if it was only the preserve of a certain type of person who was being spoken to by house and garden magazine. And having worked at Conde Nast, I knew, I knew what that was all about. And I, and there is a certain air of snobbery about certain aspects of interior design and I kind of wanted to demystify that, but also say to someone, you know, if you don't have to get dressed in the morning, you know how to decorate your home. You don't need anyone to tell you what to do. This isn't me saying you should do this and this, this, these are the rules. It's kind of opening up the joy of it and hopefully being humorous because I just thought, why shouldn't you combine someone who loves human, who loves lovely interiors? And it was hardly being done at all when there's one of the reasons I saw the business opportunity and I thought, why? Why shouldn't you? Why shouldn't you have a, I always saw the pink has to be relatively kind of high end because I like nice things. Can't always put them, but I like to talk about them and look at them and dream about them. And why couldn't you combine that with a bit of swearing and a bit of a story about how it all went horribly wrong in the bathtub or whatever. You know, why not? Why not combine those things?

Speaker 5:

Because it is that like again, sometimes the Instagram side of things, things have to look so perfect, but actually the ones accounts I really like is where they go the real, you know, turn the camera. I work in interior design shows, so we will make over a room. The room will look gorgeous, they'll shoot it. You open the door into the hallway, it's carnage lifts anywhere. There's all the photos. It's not in there. And I, I like that realness. I like the outtake. I like the things that are connect cause it makes people go, God is not just me. Has it a nightmare.

Speaker 2:

Funny one though because it's a hot topic with sort of those of us who do interiors and it's grounded moment. Do you go down the route of people showing people lovely images that you've put lots of work into because you've created kind of, I guess an art work off your room or do you just do it and shoot it beautifully, professionally, whatever. Or do people just want to see a snap just so they can see how your room looked like that day? And it's a difficult one because yes, as much as I like, I like a bit of both. But

Speaker 5:

so have you, have you tried out, have you, have you literally, cause you knew what your click rate is, you know what the posts, which ones succeed, what succeeds most with you?

Speaker 2:

You know what, it's almost, I don't even try to analyze it because for me, if I don't enjoy putting it on my Instagram, I won't do it. So it's kind of irrelevant. So I quite like like that where you put something lovely as the front picture. Cause I like very protective of my grid. I like it to look nice. It's just, I just do, it's just what I'm like. Um, but when you can swipe and you can see actually this is what it looked like an hour before or if you turned around, I mean I wrote a blog post, I've got it, one of my fairly early blog posts, which was the kind of the reality of a behind the photo shoot. And it was like four things you didn't know or something and people loved it. And that was before anyone was really doing Insta shams or anything like that. Um, and maybe you could have said, Oh well I could have realized that people loved that and sort of followed it. But you've just got to follow your nose. There's no point in chasing an algorithm. There's no point chasing an app because I don't think it's going to get you anywhere. That makes you feel good. You've got to do with integrity and yeah, and with passion and that's partly why I'm like, well if I want to post pictures of me dangling from a trapeze, people don't necessarily want to see it or I did a lot of things with it with sweats or better, you could just kind of love the brand so much.

Speaker 5:

Oh she got given a load of free stuff as well. But the whole everything

Speaker 2:

I know well they were the ones that provided the first cap when I was doing stunt work, when I was doing my puck core, I don't provide it. I bought it, it was pink and then I got the logo. So I have a source of really strong affection for that brand. And like I said, I have a lot of brands generally and when it's done well, I kind of want to be friends with that brand. Like I would want to be friends with a person. So I did this little thing with them at Christmas where I went in and we did a fun video where I'm being dressed by the Christmas elf and you know, I wouldn't be paid for it. They did give me some leggings and the top, which was, it's true. It's not cheap but they are so worth it. Yeah. But stuff like that, like I, I shouldn't do that because I thought it was going to do particularly well. I did it because I thought it'd be really, really fun and ultimately if people aren't following me cause they don't like it then that's cool because what I'm going to be, what I'll end up with this, the people who are following me being onboard with me and my multifaceted way, I could be much more strategic. I could be exactly like work. How does that get better than that? Okay. I won't do this or post only full room pictures. Cause generally that's what people like post full room photographs. Usually with something changed from last time, you know, all of that stuff. But I don't, I don't know. It makes me feel if I look at my grid and it's just pictures of rooms, I want to shake it up. I want some fun in there. I want some silliness, playfulness. And that makes me feel excited about creating what I see as my sort of magazine. And I always bring it back to if this was a magazine would I be proud to have added today? And it makes me feel like I can see it that way and everyone has their own sorts of references. But that's mine I suppose.

Speaker 1:

Um, at the end of the podcast I always ask like, I'm class as an interior design cause you know, you've obviously designed this place. If you were to describe your, your dream space, so it could be what you currently now it can be really broad you down or what you aspire to. And also so describe that for me, but also just kind of what you're drinking while you're in this.

Speaker 2:

Wow. I did not expect to be good to say that I'm drinking. Okay. I love it. Okay. I think in fact I was just looking at Vicky, Vicky, Nicky's, um, Instagram. It came up on my feed and she'd posted her most successful picture of 2019 I think it wasn't, I think it's a picture of her bedroom and you can just see the, the en suite. Yeah. Bathroom, two bedroom. Um, I don't have an en suite bathroom. I have only got, well I've got the tiniest shit's bathroom upstairs, which I'm not going to show you. And it's really tiny. And then there's the little amazing pink Sharon and says, but it's also very small. I've never had a big bathroom. I've never had an on suite. And that would be a dream. I don't think I can realize that in this house because there isn't that option. But even within this house, cause I love this place so much for so many different reasons. I would create knock through two rooms to create my study and the bathroom to create a big bathroom. It's next to my, my bedroom. So that's fine. Cool and sweet. And it would be, yeah, we'll have a roll top bath. Maybe I'm one of those copper ones. Um, I don't know what kind of wood the wall, I haven't allowed myself to go this far. There will obviously be pink either on the floor or on the S on the walls. Um, it will be like probably a marble, like double sink, but both sinks for me. Lots of brass rugs on the floor. A proper, like I again, we're going to fancy, no, there'd be a, an original fireplace and I love an ornate fireplace in a bathroom with a roaring fire and like gorgeous sentence candle, just like they can meet my sinuses hurt sometimes, but I just think there's something about it. So sexy about really amazing sense of candle and like pulp books on the floor. Okay. So then I'm in the bath, I've got champagne, but there you go. I was going to say, what am I drinking champagne in the bath and I would probably be, um, Laurel Perrier. Rosie. That was my, that's the champagne I had at my 40th. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Some, because we are used to working in champagne and wine, but I need to take us to champagne region and we'd go round all the champagne. I said my theme and my wedding, we had each table was a different Magnum of Shannon's where the curve table, a long Perrier. And they opened in a Magnum in the table and they opened that magazine. That was the toast drink. So each table was a different champagne, but I've got some, I'll dig them out for you. Cause they didn't come often to use them. They're the original long Perrier hand-painted champagne flutes with their long Perrier flower in it.

Speaker 2:

Oh my goodness. No, you're kidding. I've got them double check. Oh, that's amazing. We actually, you can see the rings. This is all from my 40th. These are the rings of their[inaudible]. Yeah. Sorry, my marble marble Island.

Speaker 5:

Um, but Oh, say it's been an absolute pleasure. Speaking to Emory. So if people were to contact you, what's the best ways? What's your social media handles and what's your website?

Speaker 2:

So my Instagram is at pink house living. Um, my blog is pink house.co. Dot. UK. Um, you can find me on Pinterest, pink house pins. Um, or you can just come around. I've got a very pink front and I left my house and I live in Southeast London. So she just trail through the streets. You'll get there in the end. Um, yeah, I think that's it. Thank you for being on the TV. Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

I told you she was so much fun. If you get chance to go onto her Instagram account, pink house living, you will get to see her house. It really is a house of dreams. The such a, you know, I'm not a huge big fan of pink, but by the time I came out about, I was like, yeah, I would have that kitchen. Um, definitely paint, paint my bathroom, those colors, saying that I've just got to painted my hallway Nana's pearls, which is pink. So I think after having the interview with her last week, it's got into my head and even I've painted my communal hallway, bright, powdery pink. She has that effect on you. Um, but yeah, I hope you enjoyed that interview. I had such fun doing that. And a huge thank you to my sponsors thorn down for supporting and sponsoring podcast. Remember, you can get 15% discount on any online purchases. Just go to thorn down dot code at UK and type in the code TV carpenter to receive that discount. And if you liked this podcast, please tell people about it, share, let them know about it. And if you want to leave a review and please do it all helps the viewing figures for this have absolutely gone crazy. Um, beginning of this year, I suppose we've had some lovely guests on and the guests are going to continue to grow. We've got some great people lined up and especially now getting into interviews and people live at the idle home show. As soon as I hear some more about that and gets more information, I will let you know. And all I've got to say is thank you for listening to the TV carpenter

Speaker 6:

[inaudible].