Renovating her home has been a labour of love for Rowan Atkins - and brought her to the attention of a prestigious magazine. Now she’s looking to help others bring out the personality in their property.
An Altrincham woman whose stunning house renovation caught the eye of Ideal Home magazine is to launch her own interior design business.
Rowan Atkins has built a sizable Instagram following for her @homeisheathside page, which has documented the complete transformation of her Victorian semi-detached house near Navigation Road station.
Rowan and husband Tim bought the house in 2012 and have steadily restored, extended and upgraded it as their children have grown up - a process which Rowan said had “sparked her passion” in interior design.
“I just adored the process,” she said. “I loved thinking about how to configure the house around the way our family would live in the house, but I’ve also loved giving it a sense of character with colours and patterns.”
Rowan has made a successful living as a freelance writer, but last year decided to make the leap and signed up for a diploma at the Interior Design Institute.
She is now nearing completion of the course and has been helping out on friends’ house projects as a means of building up experience.
“My ambition is to do less of the writing and to do this full time. I’m really passionate about it, and I think I offer something a little bit different in terms of style.”
Rowan’s distinctive style saw her house given a seven-page spread in the October issue of Ideal Home magazine, one of the best-known property titles. Other magazines have also been in touch.
Describing her style as “vintage mixed with modern”, Rowan said she loved items with a story.
“I'm really passionate about old stuff, whether from your local charity shop or an antique centre, because it has a story.
“I like to look around and see all the stories attached to things and think of the places that these lovely objects came from.”
Rowan, who studied History of Art at university, added: “The other thing I'm really passionate about is colour. I love to bring out an accent through great art, really lovely fabric, and different textures and patterns.”
A more minimalistic, monochrome style has become popular among some Instagram influencers in recent years - but Rowan said she took the opposite approach.
Rowan's renovation featured in Ideal Home magazine:
“It's not that I just want to completely cover my house in colour, because I do have neutral walls, for instance. But I want a house to have character, warmth, soul and personality.
“I want to have talking points in my house - people saying, wow, what’s that Japanese fabric you have framed on the wall, or why do we have a bowling pin by the fireplace?”
She said that beautiful interior design did not need to cost the earth - and indeed the pace of her own house renovation had been dictated by a need for it to be done as cost-effectively as possible.
“We had to do the renovation slowly because we had babies, we were both working a lot and we had to watch the budget,” she added.
“But I also think if you take your time, you really think about what you want and you don't make quick decisions that perhaps don't actually work out well.”
Upholstering had been a good way to transform older items without breaking the bank, she said.
“If you get some beautiful fabric, a great upholsterer and an old piece of furniture, you can completely breathe new life into it.”
Rowan said she was looking forward to passing on some of her ideas and experience to others through her new business.
“Maybe it's the whole house or maybe it's a room, but I’m good at listening to what makes people tick, what ideas they have, and then translating that into a vision and then a reality.”
To see more of Rowan’s style or to contact her directly, visit @homeisheathside on Instagram
