A drab new house has been transformed into a multicolored home, thanks to its creative owner.
Adele Thomas, 50, used brave strikes of bright paint and her upcycling skills over the course of four years in a bid to transform her home in Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales.
The family’s home, where Adele lives with her husband, Rob, 54, and her children, Ruby, 17, and Roman, 13, is now a striking hub of eclectic touches and features.
Adele, a full-time mom, said: “The house was much more neutral before I started transforming it as that just wasn’t me at all.
“So I changed it up and became a bit braver. I think going on Instagram made me think like ‘if other people can do this then I can’ and experiment.
“At the end of the day, I just thought, it’s just paint and you can paint over it can’t you?”
One of Adele’s very first projects saw her trying her hand at adapting something battered and worn, a simple bench that had been purchased at Dunelm, which she touched up with Vintro paint.
“I painted it purple to go with my kitchen—that was one of my first projects,” she said.
“I’ve worked my way through all of the rooms, trying to do a bit in each of them and thinking what I can do next.”
She would even then try her hand at putting a brightly colored orange feature wall in their bathroom.
Adele said: “I decided I would try to paint and be a bit daring, doing feature walls in a couple of rooms. I started in the bathroom, an orange one that was a bit of a shock for the family.
“When my son came home from school, he called up his dad and said ‘look at what mum’s done now.’”
However, the family have come to love and appreciate Adele’s hard work, with her daughter Ruby even helping her set up an Instagram account, @lifes_colourful_path, to share her remarkable creations.
Rob even splits work on the exterior and garden with Adele, along with crafting custom furniture, including beautifully designed beds.
Part of what makes Adele’s home so special is the fact she’s been able to tailor it to her own tastes by upcycling items.
“I would say it’s adapting things to your own style and taste, using chalk paint, spray paint or adding things, different materials or even stickers,” she said.
“This gets it to fit into the look of what you’re going for.”
Whether it is repainting an old drinks cart she received as a wedding present, dyeing some of her grandmother’s old dining cloths, applying faux Moroccan tile stickers to her fireplace, or tracking down vintage and secondhand items that could fit with a careful touch of paint, Adele has created a remarkable range of stylish rooms.
Having come across a Sussex-based artist who used the unusual combination of orange and teal, Adele transformed her living based on this simple spark of inspiration.
“I think colors that are pleasing to the eye are important to have, particularly the lounge with teal and orange, as we have a lot of bad weather here, I wanted something warm and cosy,” she said.
“It just makes it more homely... The colors I feel drawn to are what I go for. My mum was also a color consultant for many years as well, I learnt a lot from her.”
Adele’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, with visitors to her home even mistaking it for a shop.
She said: “One person I sold a rug to on Facebook, when she came over she said she thought she was in the wrong place because it’s such a modern estate but in the pictures, it looks so old. Inside though she said it was like stepping into another world.
“She came in and asked to have a look at the room it was in, as it looked so lovely but I ended up nearly giving her a house tour and she tried to buy more things. I said to her, ‘It’s actually not a shop, so many people do ask but I tell them it’s my home.’”
While making brave additions of color, even to the exterior of the house—with black window frames, doors, and garden fencing to extenuate the bright colors of accessories—the house is still a home, with Adele often missing her unique designs when on holiday.
“When we get back, I just feel like I’ve missed our colorful home. It’s so lovely to come back to a home like this, you instantly feel welcome when you step inside.”
