A businesswoman spent an eye watering £50,000 transforming the decor of her new build home to have a blush pink and rose gold theme in every room.
Mum Gemma Markland, 30, spent months trawling shops for matching furnishings before she had even bought her first house – a £330,000 four bedroom detached property in Wigan, Greater Manchester – in September 2019.
Within two hours of of getting the keys, Gemma got to work painting over the white walls in the pink palace she shares with her husband, Kyle, 28, who works in sales and her daughter, Grace, 10, from a previous relationship.
Gemma Markland, 30, estimates she has spend around £50,000 decorating her home in blush pink and rose gold tones. In her dining room (pictured) she has blush pink chairs and a sofa to complement her rose gold accessories
The businesswoman has an impressive dressing room which has her pink clothes on display to match her decor
When she reached 50,000 followers on her page Gemma posed for a picture with her family and she is now close to doubling that number
Delighted with her rose coloured theme throughout – seen everywhere from the wallpaper to the chairs and lampshades – her Instagram page, following her progress, has almost 100,000 fans, and attracts around 600 new followers a day.
Gemma said: ‘I must have spent about £50,000 on accessories and furnishings to make my house 100 per cent pink.
‘I do try to save where I can though, so everything has been DIY. For the past 11 months, we have dedicated spare moments, like evenings and weekends, to redecorating.
‘Kyle laughs at me, as I will happily spend £1,000 on a table to make sure it’s the perfect shade of pink, but I won’t pay for someone to do our wallpapering.’
Gemma shares her home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, with her husband Kyle (both pictured) and her daughter Grace
The mother-of-one quickly got to work on her decor, painting over the white walls within hours of getting her hands on the keys
After buying the £330,000 home she was finally able to put her own stamp on a property after years of renting
The 30-year-old owns her own company making bespoke bridal gowns and has an office in her home
Gemma, who owns her own company making bespoke bridal gowns, has given a whole new meaning to ‘putting your own stamp on a place’.
After years of having her creative flair stifled by tenancy agreements restricting redecoration when she lived in rented accommodation she was free to do as she pleased with her new home.
She continued: ‘Everything when I rented was grey – it wasn’t me at all.’
So when, in early 2019, she and Kyle had their offer of £330,000 accepted on their current home, months before moving in, her mind turned to decorating and she only had one hue in mind.
When renting previously she said everything was always grey and it ‘wasn’t her’ so she was eager to get to work of her blush pink and rose gold vision
Months before moving into their home (pictured before they moved in) Gemma began collecting items to match her dream decor
When they bought the house in Wigan it was a blank canvas white walls, fixtures and fittings
Before the big move Gemma had collected an enormous array of accessories for her new home
‘I’ve always loved pink – but the blush and rose gold tones, rather than the Barbie bubblegum pink,’ she explained.
‘Kyle and I even had a blush and rose gold colour scheme at our wedding so, of course, there was only one colour I wanted to decorate our first home.
‘At first, he wasn’t on board with living in a pink house, so I told him it’d just be Grace’s bedroom and my office.
‘As soon as I started buying accessories, though, he changed his mind. Everybody always asks me how I got my husband to agree to live in this pink paradise, but he likes it and thinks it looks great.’
Even the outside of her detached home is in keeping with her theme, with a blush pink front door and garage and a rose gold letter box
She says people always asks her how she got her husband to agree to live in the pink paradise but she says he likes it
Even her daughter Grace’s room is decked out with blush pink hues and rose gold accessories
After meticulously scouring furniture and home accessory stores, Gemma accumulated an impressive array of pink treasures.
She continued: ‘It took me months. I built things up bit by bit, buying things I liked whenever I saw them.
‘Because I was working to such a strict theme, I was quite limited with where we could shop.
‘I usually searched by colour first, then looked within those results for things I liked.
‘On a couple of occasions I fell in love with a piece of furniture that didn’t come in pink so I bought it anyway then spray painted it.
‘I found some paint from B&Q that was the perfect rose gold shade.’
If she found pieces of furniture she liked she would often buy them and then spray paint them pink to match the theme
She says at times her chosen theme was quite restrictive and meant she could only shop at certain places
Given that she did everything herself, with some help from her family, Gemma’s renovation progressed remarkably quickly.
Just before moving in, she set up an Instagram page called The Markland Home – mostly so she could have a place to keep her photos and look back on how far she had come.
To her surprise, her picture diary went down a storm, gathering followers in their thousands, who flocked to her page to see what she would post next.
‘I still can’t quite believe I’m at nearly 100,000 followers,’ she said. ‘I never thought I’d even get 1,000.
‘I wanted to show people what the reality of buying and decorating a new build was like but I think the fact my house is completely pink is really unique and catches people’s eyes when they’re scrolling.
‘People tell me my pictures are very aesthetically pleasing, which makes me happy, as the showroom look is exactly what I was going for.
The decor-obsessed businessowner has done most of the interior work herself and says her husband Kyle laughs at her because she will happily spend £1,000 on a table to make sure it’s the perfect shade of pink but won’t pay for someone to do their wallpapering
Her impressive Instagram page has nearly hit 100k followers and gains around 600 new fans a day
most of her furniture is from Ikea and her soft furnishings are from a variety of different stores
‘Grace absolutely loves it, too and is always telling people to follow me.’
Gemma is delighted with her furniture, which mostly comes from Ikea and her soft furnishings, which are from a wide range of stores, but her favourite spot in the house is her dressing room.
As well as a pink carpet, rug, plush chair and several stylish decorations, it also houses a huge wardrobe, with all her perfectly presented blush-toned clothes on display.
She also loves the pink marble-effect wallpaper in her bedroom, bought online from Wallpaper Sales, and her blush-toned sofa.
‘Because I display my pink clothes and pack everything else away in drawers, it looks like I have a 100 per cent pink wardrobe,’ she said.
‘Actually, I don’t wear as much pink as you’d think. I’m not quite at that level yet – I’ve got blue jeans and dark t shirts like everybody else.
‘Similarly, I posted a picture of my car not long ago, which is blue and I got so many comments saying how surprised people were that I didn’t have a pink car.’
Now Gemma is looking forward to the remaining jobs she has to do to make her home perfect, which include replacing her silver range cooker and knocking through a wall to make the dining area more open plan.
‘That’s my next project. I’ve got the bug for it now,’ she said, adding that she estimates she will be finished next month.
‘There is a certain sense of pride that comes with looking back and knowing we did all this ourselves.’