Some homeowners tend to follow the latest trends when it comes to renovating their home whereas for others, their décor is a reflection of their personality. For those who choose to inject their own identity into their home, every little detail is well thought out from the colour schemes right down to the furniture and accessory choices.
Lois Connors, 39, is a proud lover of leopard print and isn't afraid to showcase her obsession across her home. The mum-of-one has designed and styled every aspect of her Victorian terraced property to her suit her and her husband Nick's individual taste - and their unique interior has become a huge hit on Instagram.
Lois spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series, where each week we chat to a different homeowner to hear about their home-buying journey, the costs involved and take a look inside to see how they've made it their own.
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Originally from Oldham, Lois moved to Macclesfield in Cheshire just over 10 years ago, which is where her husband Nick is from.
The couple bought their first house together in 2012 and ever since then, they've lived in and rented a variety of properties around Macclesfield in order to move up the property ladder.
Describing the pair as 'serial movers' Lois told the Manchester Evening News: "We've moved a lot of times, we've owned six houses since we bought our first one and in between those we've rented as well.
"We renovated each house and we were moving up the property ladder which was amazing. Just before the pandemic we moved into what we thought was our forever home which was a big detached new build. We were adamant that was it and we wouldn’t be moving again."
Despite thinking they'd found their forever home, the coronavirus pandemic caused the couple to rethink their living situation, as they found their dream property to be no longer affordable.
"My husband has his own business and when Covid happened, finances were just so uncertain as they were for so many people," Lois explained.
"A friend of ours just so happened to mention that they wanted to get their house valued with the view to sell it. So our of curiosity I just asked them if I could have a look around, and here we are now."
The couple ending up falling in love with their friend's three-bed Victorian mid terrace, which they ended up buying for £310,000.
"We were so lucky because obviously it got us out of a really difficult situation," Lois, who now works as a content creator, said.
"I had admired my friend's house for a long time. It’s just a really attractive Victorian period house. Even though its only small it's really pretty and the row of houses is quite iconic in this area.
"I hadn’t seen the entirety of the house until we viewed it property but it had a lot of curb appeal, and we fell in love with it even more once we had looked around properly.
"It was a downsize and people did say it was a shame but I just don't see it like that. We’re really happy now and we don’t have those same financial worries, so it turned out for the best."
Lois said that although the house wasn't decorated to her style, she saw it as a blank canvas that she could transform into her own.
"Our friends had done quite a lot to it, they’d put an extension on it so in terms of its shell it was good," she said.
"It wasn't really decorated to my taste necessarily, but obviously we have all got different tastes. They had kept the period features so it was a perfect blank canvas and we could see straight away what we wanted to do to it."
The couple moved into their new home in April 2021 and began putting their own stamp on it.
Explaining her bold décor choices, Lois said: "With every house we've lived in in the past, we've never properly gone for it in terms of designing it exactly how we like. Whereas with this house I just thought ‘I’m going to do what I want’ because life’s too short.
"I know people think that some parts of our home are really crazy, but we want to express our personalities like that when why not.
"If I had a pound for every time someone asks ‘what about selling it on?’, but it's only a bit of wallpaper and I could easily change that. A lot of it is accessories and when you take all of that away, my colour schemes are actually quite neutral.
“In terms of my style, I would call myself a vintage maximalist. I love to show off the original, traditional aspects of this house but then mix those with really fun, modern schemes. It might look like it’s all thrown together but it’s been quite thought out for it to work."
Speaking about her love for leopard print in particular, Lois explained: "One of the things people always say about my home is ‘this is so you’, and I take that as a compliment.
"I like wearing leopard print myself. I’ve always loved it, I don’t know what it is. When I see someone wearing leopard print I can't help but just stare at them because it just catches my eye. It's just a vibe.
"I always try to wear a little bit whether it’s just finishing off an outfit or an entire outfit. I feel like it never goes out of fashion either."
Lois and Nick did the majority of the work on the house themselves through DIY, which cost them around £18,000 in total.
“Nick is really good with the practical design aspects. He can look at a space and plan exactly how it's going to work, whereas I'm just a bit more 'this is how I want it to look’. We’re quite a good partnership in that respect, we always run ideas past each other and do it collaboratively," Lois said.
"We did our house room by room. It hasn’t been a full back to brick renovation, but the biggest job that we did was the kitchen which cost around £9,000.
"There wasn’t anything wrong with it on paper, it was just white gloss, but it was more just reconfiguring the whole space and changing it to suit how we wanted to live."
Lois added: "I knew I wanted a green kitchen as it was very on trend at the time, but the quotes we got from a few retailers were very expensive. So we used DIY kitchens which was a massive saving, it cost one third of what the others were quoting us."
"We've done all the rest of the hard graft and painting, tiling and wallpaper ourselves. The hardest jobs were putting the new floors down, my husband tiled the entire hallway himself which was a big job.
"The house is now completely done but there are some rooms that are still not to my taste. Our bathroom is completely grey and some people would love it but I can't live with it anymore so that's going to be the next job."
Lois' home account @colourfulleopard has now amassed more than 41,000 followers on Instagram.
"We originally started the page as I had a small side business designing wall prints which I started during lockdown," Lois explained.
"I did styled shoots with the prints around my house and then the more I did it, the more I was enjoying it. People were then asking for more pictures of my house so eventually that took over my Instagram page and as the prints side of it dwindled down, I just decided to go for it with the interiors."
The success of her home account has now led Lois to start a new job as a content creator for a vintage luxury fashion brand, having worked as a preschool practitioners for many years.
Speaking of her success and feedback on Instagram, Lois said: "Two years ago I would have never thought I'd be doing this for my full-time job, if someone told me that I would have probably laughed.
"I absolutely love doing all of the video content and my followers are so loyal, I get really good engagement.
"For the most part Instagram isn't really a negative space for me. People tend to be a little bit more polite on Instagram but now and again I get trolled on some of the other apps like TikTok.
"People say ‘you should have left it white’, but I think when your style is a little bit different, you just have to accept it's not going to be for everyone and that’s fine.
"Most people are so nice even if it's not to their taste they can still appreciate the practical aspects of the designs."
Giving us a tour around her home, Lois described: "I have a pink front door which is the very first thing that you see. As you come through the front door we've got a long hallway where you can see right to the back of the house which gives us some really nice light.
"We've got a front living room which is only small but it's got high ceilings and a lovely fireplace, that’s where my leopard print sofa is.
"From there if you walk straight down the hallway we have a door that leads down to a double cellar which is useful for storage.
"If you come past that there's the middle room which is a dining room and then the kitchen is at the back with bifold doors that lead out to a small yard."
Lois continued: "Upstairs the bathroom is at the top of the stairs. We’ve got two landings so the bathroom and my office is on the landing towards the back of the house and then if you come down the little set of stairs there’s another landing and that’s where the master bedroom is and then my son’s bedroom.
"My son's bedroom was renovated for a TV show in the summer called Changing Rooms. That room looks even more bonkers than the rest. Then finally we have a little staircase that leads up to an attic bedroom.
"The master bedroom is probably my favourite because everything in there is exactly how I wanted it. It's so light and we’ve got a big exposed brick wall in there and we’ve put a little fireplace in."
Speaking of her plans for the future, Lois said: "We don't have any immediate plans to move, we’ve just mortgaged actually and the housing market and energy prices are all over the place.
"For now I just feel really, really lucky that we moved when we did because of the cost of living. Every day I am so grateful that we moved when we did.
"I'm just currently planning my dream bathroom. I definitely don't want to move any time soon.”
You can view more of Lois’ home on her Instagram account @colourfulleopard.
Want to get involved in Where I Live? If you are interested in featuring your home in our weekly series, please email your details to phoebe.jobling@reachplc.com.
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