HOME TWEET HOME
How one stylist gave the humble bird box a designer makeover or two... and had visitors flocking
STYLISH, sophisticated and stunning, they are surely worthy of a tweet in praise of the interior designer. There’s a neo-classical bathroom with a freestanding tub, a Scandirustic lounge with woodburner, a cosy boho snug with a Buddha, and an on-trend ‘cottagecore’ living room with a vintage vibe.
Only the mealworms on the floors might deter a celebrity from proudly sharing photos of them on Twitter if they were new additions to their homes.
But for the feathered visitors enjoying these luxury bird boxes, the wiggly additions are most welcome — and the height of good taste.
The boxes were created ‘for fun’ by Theresa Gromski, a stylist, freelance illustrator and influencer who has nearly 95,000 followers on Instagram.
A carpenter made the 28cm wide, 20cm deep boxes for her, then she set about designing the interiors, using 1:12 scale doll’s house furniture and items she made specially.
‘Some of the pieces, such as the Chinese-style cabinet and the chinoiserie screen in the boho room and the freestanding bath, are from the doll’s house my husband and I made for our daughter. She is keen to have them back!’ said Theresa.
‘Others I made for this project, including the table in the bathroom which is an old coin and a cotton reel stuck together and painted, or the rugs in the ‘cottagecore’ room which are cut down doilies.’
tHe boho room also has wallpaper and a rug made from samples of acclaimed Art Decoinspired designer Anna Hayman materials. The ‘G’ on the shelf in the Scandi room is for Theresa’s surname.
‘They relate to my style of interiors,’ said Theresa, 50, who lives in Bournville, Birmingham, with husband Tom, daughter Anais, six, and nine-year-old son Arlo.
She has two cats — Pickle and Ninja — who regularly feature in her Instagram posts relaxing peacefully in her home, rather than chasing birds in the garden, thankfully.
Theresa added: ‘It’s one of the most fun projects I’ve ever done — and I had this freedom to be really creative.’
Once completed, photographer Drew Gardner placed the bird boxes in friends’ gardens in Somerset, where he lives, and captured these images of a great tit, a
starling, a blackbird and a robin popping in.
Theresa plans to keep the ‘boho’ one for her own garden now the project is complete. But she says: ‘I would make other people one if they asked.
‘I do love making all the pieces, but they take so much time.’ But she wouldn’t do it just for birdseed. ‘If a millionaire comes along and wants to give me £40,000 to spend a year making one, I’d do it,’ she added, laughing.
‘It’s quite a niche market . . . so it’s not going to be my day job.’