'I turned our garage into a circus space with trapeze – my husband fears what I will do next'
Not everyone can instantly visualise how a space can be renovated, redecorated, and themed to give it a truly unique personality but it is a skill that Diane Davies has brought to her home with stunning effect by converting an unused garage into a memorable circus-themed flat. Diane, aged 58 and from Holywell, said: "I wanted to do a circus theme because of the design aspect of it – it has so much potential.
"I realised I could make it look like you’re sleeping under a circus tent big top by using red and white material on the ceiling. I then thought if I put red and white stripes on the walls and added chandeliers and a trapeze swing it would be fun – walking in and feeling like you’re in a big top – and that’s where it started." For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here.
She added: "There’s so much merchandise out there for circuses – it was a bottomless pit of stuff I could buy to continue the theme. I wanted people who visit to be surprised because outside the flat it’s just a very plain building – it was the old garage to our shop that we have here, like a big massive storeroom, so it was really starting from scratch."
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For some people the idea to convert a garage into a studio space that includes a bedroom and lounge area, fully-equipped kitchen, and shower room into a circus would result in raised eyebrows from family and friends but for Diane it is a very usual experience for her to be creating the very unusual at her family home. It's a team effort because when Diane has the idea her husband Jonny and a team of builders make it a reality and the circus is not their first rodeo.
Diane has also created a hobbit house in the garden and a funky flat that is a riot of colour and patterns as well as being creative in the main house. She said: "Everyone is quite used to me now – friends, family, and builders. To start with when I’d explain what I want they’d say: 'Mmm – are you sure?'. But now they’re used to me. For the circus I wanted a swing trapeze in there and they were like: 'Sure – of course you do!'
"My husband and children are completely used to it. My house is quite wacky too so they just go along with it but sometimes my husband has nightmares about what I’m going to do next. He recently dreamt I bought a rundown cinema to do up."
Creating such a distinctive space that is chaotic but cohesive is not down to mood boards or rummaging around on Pinterest for Diane. She said: "I've got dyslexia so I see things as a whole so when I walk into a place, from one end to another, I know exactly what everything is going to look like and where everything is going to go. All I need to do is look."
Once the themed interior design idea has come to Diane she starts the process of sourcing everything needed to create the special space. She said: "Every morning I wake up quite early and I trawl the internet. I have quite a few connections now across the country – people who buy and sell strange and unusual things and if something comes in and they think I might like it they send me a link to it."
Diane also finds a range of items on Etsy, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace and nothing is potentially off-limits. She said: "I think the inspiration comes from my family. We’re quite an arty family and my mother was a very strong-willed woman – she ran her own business and nothing held her back.
"I don’t have any inhibitions – if I think of something and it’s not totally ridiculous I just go for it. I like to put a big statement piece in each of the zones and I don't scrimp because if it's cheap you can tell so my philosophy is we’re only doing it once so let’s do it right. We’re a partnership my husband and I, 50/50, because I couldn’t do it without him. I'm the artistic director and he is the talent that puts it all together."
After Diane has had the vision she said Jonny springs into action with the renovation team with the electrics and lighting designed and installed first. Diane's advice to anyone doing a renovation is to take time to get this first phase totally right.
She said: "Lighting is so important in a place. I need to tell the electrician exactly what kind of lighting I’m having – is it spots or chandeliers and where are they going? Are we having wall lights and where are they going? After that it’s the painting, then the ceilings, then the flooring, and then after that it’s a case of putting in everything that I’ve bought."
It's not a surprise to discover that Diane's favourite item in the circus is the trapeze swing which hangs in the doorway between the kitchen and the bedroom lounge area and she said not many people can resist the temptation to have a go. "The swing is so much fun – when we put it up even our builder who is like a man mountain, he’s like The Rock, went on it. We have it on metal chains around the beams and then big metal mountaineering pitons.
"I like to sit on the swing too but I do like the kitchen as well. I painted it myself – I just love painting and collecting all the stuff that it needs. Searching and sourcing it – that’s the bit I love the most."
Now Diane has opened up the flat, christened Circus Circus, to people who want to stay somewhere different and the holiday let can also offer a sauna cabin on the garden decking, TV facilities, and a voucher for free fish and chips from the chippy that the couple own on the site in Holywell, Flintshire.
Diane is always delighted when people arrive and enter Circus Circus and are left speechless, and the reaction since it opened has been so positive that the property won the silver award at the Sykes Gem Awards competing against 22,000 properties across the UK. She said: "As you pull up outside all you can see are big glass doors and it’s just a flat-roofed brick building, very unassuming, which I like really because when you enter it’s like ‘wow’. The less on the outside gives you more of a wow factor on the inside because you’re not expecting it.
"People are amazed when they walk in and we’ve even got Alexa in there so as they walk in I always make sure I’ve got the soundtrack from The Greatest Showman playing and the fairy lights that are all around the big top are flashing. It’s an assault on your senses and everyone loves it."
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