A woman has gone viral on TikTok after buying her first house – and transforming it from a grey “2016 Mrs Hinch” style to a “gothic Kat Slater fantasy.”
Ashleigh Anderson, 32, from Barrhead in Scotland, got the keys to her first house in winter 2022, and has spent the past year turning her living space into her dream home.
The salon owner is a tattoo enthusiast, helping to inspire the alternative and maximalist aesthetic in her space – with several TikTok commenters spotting the similarities between her living room and a tattoo studio.
Videos posted on her account, @ashbandicoot_, show rooms painted black, with walls packed with neon signs and gothic artwork – and plenty of animal print.
Ashleigh says that friends and family warned her against such extreme interior changes – but she loves her unique home.
“I’m really into tattoos, art, and wee oddities – and I want to be able to express myself in my house,” said Ashleigh.
“This is my first house, and I want people to know it’s mine!
“I say the inspiration behind my house is a gothic, Kat Slater fantasy – anything that’s slightly alternative and has animal print, I’ll be into!
“It’s been an ongoing process – but when I moved in, I knew I wanted to paint it black.
“I had loads of people telling me that I couldn’t do that because it would make the place look small, but as soon as I did it, I loved it.
“I decided that the rest of my house has to be black.
“My house is a bit of a jigsaw – I pick up random bits and fit them in somewhere.
“I do a lot of thrift shopping and I like going on Facebook Marketplace or going to charity shops and antique places.”
Ashleigh’s TikToks also give viewers an insight into one of her key tricks to achieving her unique aesthetics – upcycling.
One of her most popular videos shows Ashleigh turning a plain white lamp shaped like a French bulldog into Pennywise the Clown – reaching nearly 750k views on TikTok.
“I love to upcycle,” said Ashleigh.
“I like to have things that no one else has and I know that if I’ve customized it myself, then there’s no other one in the world like it.
“One of my favourite projects has to be my Pennywise Frenchie lamp – I’d seen it in TK Maxx, and I love Frenchies, but it wasn’t vibing with me.
“When I was looking at it, I was just seeing a plain white canvas – so I turned it into Pennywise!
“I also saw these cherub tables on Facebook Marketplace and paid £40 for them.
"They were cool and kind of ugly, but I knew there was something I could do to put a twist on them.
“I painted the eyes black and did red paint dripping from them, so it looked like blood coming from the eyes – and honestly, it sounds a bit psycho, but it looks really cool!
“I know nobody else has that – someone else can recreate it, but I did that one myself, so it’s still the only one in the world.
“I’ve also started doing gallery walls upstairs – I go to charity shops and try to find weird or old-fashioned paintings, and then I’ll do graffiti over it, and it makes it look really cool.
“It modernises it – it might be a bit trashy, but it fits in my house pretty well.
“I’d say nine out of ten people online love it, but there’s the odd hate comment.
“I think one of my favourite comments was “that’s so f****** tacky, it looks like a brothel.’ I saw that and thought, ‘yes, that’s exactly the vibe I was going for!”
Ashleigh believes that it’s important to enjoy your own space, and says that negative comments online don’t bother her, as she loves her home.
“At the end of the day, it’s your house – it doesn’t matter about other people’s opinions if you like it,” she said.
“My bedroom right now – and it pains me to say this – is currently giving 2016 Mrs Hinch vibes.
“It’s grey with silver carpet, and having my bedroom not done the way I want it to right now is frying my brain – going downstairs is my wee safe area!
“But I’m doing this myself, so it does just take time.
“For the majority of people, you’ve only got one house, so make it a space that you feel comfortable in.
“A lot of people ask me what I’m going to do when I eventually sell my house – but everything in my house is just décor.
“You can change the colour of paint; you can hang up pictures – it’s easy enough to change. If you don’t like something, you can change it."
Ashleigh Anderson, 32, from Barrhead in Scotland, got the keys to her first house in winter 2022, and has spent the past year turning her living space into her dream home.
The salon owner is a tattoo enthusiast, helping to inspire the alternative and maximalist aesthetic in her space – with several TikTok commenters spotting the similarities between her living room and a tattoo studio.
Videos posted on her account, @ashbandicoot_, show rooms painted black, with walls packed with neon signs and gothic artwork – and plenty of animal print.
Ashleigh says that friends and family warned her against such extreme interior changes – but she loves her unique home.
“I’m really into tattoos, art, and wee oddities – and I want to be able to express myself in my house,” said Ashleigh.
“This is my first house, and I want people to know it’s mine!
“I say the inspiration behind my house is a gothic, Kat Slater fantasy – anything that’s slightly alternative and has animal print, I’ll be into!
“It’s been an ongoing process – but when I moved in, I knew I wanted to paint it black.
“I had loads of people telling me that I couldn’t do that because it would make the place look small, but as soon as I did it, I loved it.
“I decided that the rest of my house has to be black.
“My house is a bit of a jigsaw – I pick up random bits and fit them in somewhere.
“I do a lot of thrift shopping and I like going on Facebook Marketplace or going to charity shops and antique places.”
Ashleigh’s TikToks also give viewers an insight into one of her key tricks to achieving her unique aesthetics – upcycling.
One of her most popular videos shows Ashleigh turning a plain white lamp shaped like a French bulldog into Pennywise the Clown – reaching nearly 750k views on TikTok.
“I love to upcycle,” said Ashleigh.
“I like to have things that no one else has and I know that if I’ve customized it myself, then there’s no other one in the world like it.
“One of my favourite projects has to be my Pennywise Frenchie lamp – I’d seen it in TK Maxx, and I love Frenchies, but it wasn’t vibing with me.
“When I was looking at it, I was just seeing a plain white canvas – so I turned it into Pennywise!
“I also saw these cherub tables on Facebook Marketplace and paid £40 for them.
"They were cool and kind of ugly, but I knew there was something I could do to put a twist on them.
“I painted the eyes black and did red paint dripping from them, so it looked like blood coming from the eyes – and honestly, it sounds a bit psycho, but it looks really cool!
“I know nobody else has that – someone else can recreate it, but I did that one myself, so it’s still the only one in the world.
“I’ve also started doing gallery walls upstairs – I go to charity shops and try to find weird or old-fashioned paintings, and then I’ll do graffiti over it, and it makes it look really cool.
“It modernises it – it might be a bit trashy, but it fits in my house pretty well.
“I’d say nine out of ten people online love it, but there’s the odd hate comment.
“I think one of my favourite comments was “that’s so f****** tacky, it looks like a brothel.’ I saw that and thought, ‘yes, that’s exactly the vibe I was going for!”
Ashleigh believes that it’s important to enjoy your own space, and says that negative comments online don’t bother her, as she loves her home.
“At the end of the day, it’s your house – it doesn’t matter about other people’s opinions if you like it,” she said.
“My bedroom right now – and it pains me to say this – is currently giving 2016 Mrs Hinch vibes.
“It’s grey with silver carpet, and having my bedroom not done the way I want it to right now is frying my brain – going downstairs is my wee safe area!
“But I’m doing this myself, so it does just take time.
“For the majority of people, you’ve only got one house, so make it a space that you feel comfortable in.
“A lot of people ask me what I’m going to do when I eventually sell my house – but everything in my house is just décor.
“You can change the colour of paint; you can hang up pictures – it’s easy enough to change. If you don’t like something, you can change it."
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Ashley and welcome to my house
00:04 I moved in about a year ago and it was just plain grey and that to be honest isn't really me
00:22 so I put my own spin on things and as you can see it's a bit different
00:26 A couple of things that people ask about the most, my dog here
00:31 originally it was just a white lamp from TK Maxx and then I customised it to kind of look like Pennywise
00:39 Don't ask me why because I don't like horror films
00:42 As you can probably tell I am obsessed with Frenchies but this is Jojo, my actual dog made into a queen
00:48 because that's what she is
00:50 This sign here I got from criminal damage online
00:56 My couches I actually got from Facebook marketplace
01:00 I seen them and I was like I need them, they were a bit me so that was that
01:06 This frame I kind of customised, I just wrapped the middle of it with vinyl
01:11 and then the actual butterflies are just butterflies from B&M's from the garden section
01:16 and this painting up here I actually painted myself back in lockdown so that's that
01:23 and weirdly this is Mr. Zoopaw here
01:27 I always just, I don't know, I just thought he was really cool
01:32 and actually a weird fact is the top hat there is my great grandpa's
01:37 and I just thought it would be a cool place to put it, I thought it would just look really cool
01:42 Moving on, I'm obsessed with those horses so I got these bobble heads, they're just from Lombardians
01:48 and this clock I got from an antiques place but it's actually just plastic but I thought it was cool
01:56 This turned out to kind of be a Scottish wall and I didn't actually mean it to be
02:00 but I'm clearly just a bit patriotic but still gave obviously love
02:06 I've had it referred to as it looks like a pub because it's art but I'm here for it
02:11 This is my Christmas tree, I do have my little elf here, he's dressed in black
02:16 I've got my tattooed Santa, I've got my Marlin, Mrs. Claus, a kind of wee skeleton gingerbread man
02:25 Obviously there's going to be a skull and a Frenchie
02:28 That is a kind of tour of my living room
02:37 Basically I just uploaded my before and after video I guess on TikTok of my living room
02:45 and it just sort of blew up, I think because it was just so normal before
02:52 and then I don't think people were expecting this because it was just like grey with silver carpets
02:59 very plain and then I just kind of clicked my fingers and then boom this
03:04 I got this table from Facebook Marketplace and originally it was just plain sherrubs
03:11 and I just thought I would give them some dead eyes with blood coming out
03:16 Not because I'm some sort of absolute psychopath but I just thought it gave it an extra something something
03:25 and yeah I just think it looks really cool now
03:28 I've always been really creative, I love art, I love decorating, I love painting, upcycling, arts and crafts
03:38 anything like that, I'm a really arty farty type person
03:41 I am a makeup artist and a setting parent of makeup artists so I do in a sense paint people's faces all day
03:48 tattoo eyebrows on so I guess I am just sort of an arty farty person
03:53 that's just, it's always been my thing
03:57 *sounds of a cat*
03:59 This is Sid, I actually had a vote online to see what I should name him
04:13 and well I decided Sid after quite a couple of people suggested the name
04:18 so basically he was just plain pink and I got him out the garden section at TK Maxx
04:25 spray painted him regular French colours, tried to make him fawn with a black face because that's what my dog's got
04:34 and then basically I painted his eyes, I added tattoos on him, obviously gave him a few piercings
04:43 This hair actually came off a earmuffs, they were Halloween earmuffs
04:48 and I just kind of ripped the earmuffs and stuck them on
04:50 and of course I had to give him a leather jacket and I could not customise that as well
04:55 so yeah I painted his jacket because why not? It needed to be extra I guess so yeah