I created a pink pantry without overdoing the pink – here’s how I used colour without overwhelming the space

Home decorator and content creator Leah Hodson is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on overhauling a home with clever DIY and decorating tricks. See the rest of her articles here.

My husband’s first reaction when I told him I wanted a pink pantry was delight (surprisingly)! “Finally some colour!”, he said. That’s because I chose a grey kitchen and a cream utility room, which to him is devoid of colour – rude, as he knows that I introduce colour through styling!

However, I didn’t want the pantry to be overly pink or to be completely different to the other rooms. Here’s how I ensured that I had the pink pantry I wanted, that still flows with the rest of the house!

A colour theme

In my utility room, I have a blue ticking stripe wallpaper from Dunelm covering one wall. This is to add depth and acts as a patterned contrast to the cream floor to ceiling cabinets. Moving onto the kitchen, I painted the window Laurel Green by Rustoleum to bring the outside in, to add warmth to my grey kitchen and make it feel less sterile.

So when it came to designing my pantry and deciding on colours to complement pink, I utilised blue coloured paints (‘Teacup’ & ‘Avery's Sky’ from Earthborn Paints) alongside green paints (‘Poppet’ & ‘Little Sprout’, also from Earthborn Paints), to create a hydrangea mural that covered the whole wall.

I love the mix of colours I used as they are tonal in shade and work well in adding depth and shading next to each other.

One statement piece

No pantry is complete without base units! I searched for a long time to find units that fit the depth and length that I needed – it wasn’t an easy task! I was about to purchase the kitchen base units when I did another search and found these wavy edged Drammen cabinets on vidaXL, and they’re perfect!

I normally prime the furniture I’m painting with Zinsser’s BIN so that the paint adheres to it easily after. This time, I tried a different primer, Earthborn’s multi purpose primer. It was my first time using it and I was pleasantly surprised at how hardwearing it was! It passed the scratch test and even when I used the cabinets as a temporary worktop, there were no scratches. I might have a new favourite primer for laminate furniture!

Onto the pink – I chose to paint the cabinets in Earthborn’s ‘Thimble Lane’, a gorgeous bright pink. I went a little bold with the cabinet knowing that I wanted to keep the rest of the room rather pared back. The cabinet is the star of the show!

You can never have too much storage

Base units alone are not enough storage for the amount of dried foods we have on constant rotation, so storage needs to be extended onto the walls. This left me with a little dilemma, to paint it Thimble Lane like the cabinets or stick with the same pinkish off white as the walls, Piglet. After a little swatch on the shelf brackets I felt that Thimble Lane on the shelves and the cabinets would be too much for me.

Painting the shelves ‘Piglet’ by Earthborn also allowed the hydrangea mural that I painted to pop against the pink rather than making it feel like an after thought. One thing I didn’t realise was how colourful and varied food packaging is before this project. I’m really glad that I went for a subtle shelf instead and it doesn’t look too overwhelming when the shelves are stacked full of different products.

One thing this experience has taught me is that colour doesn’t have to be overwhelming. I used to play it safe, sticking almost exclusively to beige and grey, worried that introducing bolder colours would make a space feel chaotic. But as my style has evolved, I’ve realised that colour often brings out the best in my favourite neutrals rather than competing with them. The trick is using it with intention.

If you love the idea of colour but don’t know where to start, try borrowing one or two statement shades from another room and using them as complementary accents around your main feature. It creates a sense of cohesion throughout the home, allowing colour to feel considered rather than overpowering. Sometimes, all it takes is one confident pop of colour to make a neutral space come to life.