WHEN MARTINA CREEVEY isn’t collecting items for her beautiful home in Lucan, she’s busy saving lives as a nurse in an addiction centre, as is her husband Paul, who works as a firefighter. The couple share their home with a cockapoo called Paddy, who often features in her posts.

Her home is filled with beautiful graphic prints that feature everything from bright film and TV prints inspired by the likes of Pulp Fiction, Pretty Woman and Better Call Saul to lighthearted definitions of Irish sayings (such as ‘Ah Jaysus’).

For Martina (@martinacreevey), her living room seemed like a natural fit for showcasing her impressive collection of graphic prints and she set about creating one of two gallery walls in her home (the other is leading up her eye-catching, green stairs). 

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Behind these, she had opted for a light grey on the walls, but recently she had started to feel like the paint in the living room could be working harder to highlight her art collection and to make the most of her big, bright bay window at the front of the house.

With such a collection of colours however, choosing the right colour can be challenging. To get some help doing so, we introduced Martina to colour consultant Darran Heaney (oldvictoriannew), to whom she explained:

I think what’s important for me colourwise is that we don’t go for something too pale or pastel because we’ve got so much colour in this room, I think I’d like to go for something like a darker grey.  

For Darran, the colour choice was key for making the most of her accessories: “This is a lovely space and Martina has some beautiful accessories. [...] What I’d like to do [...] is to go a few shades darker on the walls to make some of her accessories really pop.”

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In fact, it’s a common mistake that a lot of us make with our living rooms and it can impact on how we feel when we’re in the room, shares Darran:

People tend to go for a light shade in their living area but actually if you go a couple of shades darker on the walls, it can make the room feel a lot cosier and warm.

Settling on Easycare Modernism, a darker version of the grey that was currently on the walls, Darran also advised Nearly White in Satinwood for her woodwork to freshen the room. The ceiling was painted in Brilliant White to enhance the other two shades. 

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When the room was revealed, Martin’s reaction was immediately positive: “Oh wow, it is beautiful, I love it, it is really beautiful!” She added that her mustard yellow curtains looked new and that even though the shade was now darker, it made the room feel warmer and cosier.

She added: “Everything just stands out much better. My art even looks different, it’s lovely, I’m really thrilled with it.” Martina was particularly thrilled with how the blue tones of the new colour even made the gold pieces in the room stand out more.

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As Darran explains: “Modernism is a lovely grey with a blue undertone, it works really well with colours like yellow and green. [...] Grey is a really good neutral colour that most people can live with.”

If you’re struggling to pick a colour for your living room, Darran reminds that it doesn’t have to be an extreme change to make a big impact: “Go a couple of shades darker than your existing colour, you don’t have to do anything too drastic to make a change.”

Got a room you’d love to transform? Dulux Easycare takes the stress out of spills with stain-repellant technology. The range is 50 times tougher than Dulux Vinyl Matt and allows you to just wash away common stains. Easycare Satinwood even comes with scrub resist technology, meaning you can always keep every room looking fresh.

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