Personal touch gives home a real star quality
INSTAGRAM interior design sensation and photographer Pati Robins probably has one of the most famous homes in Wales, from the inside at least.
The suburban Cardiff home which she rents has gone from boring and dull to brightly distinctive and has become a global favourite on Instagram, as well as being featured in glossy interior magazines such as House and Home and Real Homes.
Pati’s not-so-humble abode has also been the star of the Ikea Family Magazine.
When Pati and her husband first moved into the two-bedroom rented home, the walls were stained with nicotine and the predominant colour was magnolia.
It’s taken 12 years and countless hours of her practical and creative ideas on upcycling, recycling and reclaiming to produce one of the most visually stunning interior designed homes in Wales.
From rummaging in charity shops, to bidding on auction sites and making her own furniture and accessories, Pati has transformed her city pad into an incredible eclectic showpiece on a shoestring budget.
Pati describes her style as maximalist, based on dark backgrounds punctuated with bold accent colours including her favourite yellow.
A variety of strong, mixed sized patterns are then combined with a wealth of intriguing accessories.
Finally, an impressive array of textures such as leather, faux fur, sheepskin and glass mix perfectly to create warmth, light and luxury.
Pati says: “I’d love to say I’d planned each room but I was doing everything bit by bit, trying to find cool accessories cheaply, and that takes time, so for years none of the rooms were fully finished.”
One of the design challenges facing Pati when transforming her home was ways to hide or minimise the visual impact of specialist equipment required by a member of her family.
As a child Pati, originally from Poland, always had a love of upcycling items such as furniture by repainting, resizing or changing handles, plus using her creative skills to also make a variety of accessories.
Motivated by her mum’s belief that it’s important to have fun and not worry too much about what people think, Pati’s interiors inspiration has come from blogs and social media, and more surprisingly places such as restaurants and cafes.
Influenced by the predominantly darker shades used by celebrated interior designer Abigail Ahern, now Pati finds herself at the forefront of being an interiors Instagram star with more than 57,000 followers, championing her core idea that if you don’t try something you will never know and you will never learn.
Of course, Pati has learned as she has gone along having not been formally trained, trying out ideas that did not necessarily work out.
One of the key projects that resulted in a subsequent repaint job was the original salmon and terracotta colour scheme for the bathroom.
But as Pati says, what does it matter, it’s only a pot of paint.
The photographer’s favourite room is her lounge, surrounded by an eclectic mix of items that all of the four member family have contributed to the space.
The dark background walls ensure that each item is given maximum impact and also allows Pati to change any of the designs within the frames, so the interior design is constantly fluid and evolving. It is also the room where the family spend the most time together.
Pati is more than happy to share her design ideas and inspiration on Instagram, including some of her inventive upcycling and DIY projects, as well as giving advice to readers on her own blog called Style Squeeze.
She also regularly shares her delight in finding bargains that she then incorporates into her interior design scheme, usually after personalising them.
If you’re thinking about following Pati down the creative and colourful interior design path but don’t know where to begin, her advice is to start small and build up to a more dramatic design.
She says: “Introduce colour through soft furnishings (cushions, throws etc) as those can be reasonably priced and very easy to change.”
Pati also advises to decorate to please yourself and not just because something is ‘on trend.’