Don't ever make assumptions about a house from the outside, you never know what's hiding behind the front door to astonish you. And definitely don't make assumptions about this particular pretty yet unassuming end of terrace house - it's definitely not what you might think it is.
From the outside the period property is pleasantly charming, but inside it is spacious and absolutely stunning across four reception rooms, three bedrooms, two bathrooms that ooze absolute gorgeousness, and one very imaginative owner who clearly has a talent for creating distinctive interiors.
No boring beige or wave upon wave of 50 shades of grey inside this incredible abode - inside is a vibrant and mesmerising journey through one person's life of collected treasures and intriguing curios carefully curated in each room with maximum impact.
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There's nothing random about the interior design in this home though, each room has been lavished with thought and care to create distinctive spaces where each wall and corner are included in the scheme, every item is given a special place for it to shine, and every use of the space and the atmosphere created is meticulously planned out.
Where other people choose a 'feature wall' in a room to stand out and be the dominant aspect of the room to the detriment of the rest of the space, in this home owner's house every wall, floor, window and displayed items are features in their own right, just waiting for your attention.
This attention to detail that the owner describes as 'obsessive' means that each room is balanced, with no area overpowering everything else - your eye happily ambles around each space - not too quickly as you don't want to miss anything. Each area rewards your longing gaze with a delightful view and snippet of style and ideas that makes you stop and linger for longer to take it all in.
This shy homeowner wishes to remain anonymous but her interiors do all the talking for her. The amazing home is packed full of clever ideas too on how to make the most of what you have, or what you can afford, on a budget and make it personal to you.
Arriving at this Cardiff property, and the location is the first unique aspect of this house, that is if you can find it. Tucked away on a quiet and quaint cul-de-sac, that's off another cul-de-sac, the street is so hidden that even the most knowledgeable Cardiffians are probably unsure of where this address is actually located.
Even the current owner didn't know where Southey Street was - and she was already living only a few streets away.
The owner says: "I rented nearby and I wasn't aware of this little pocket here, surrounded by trees, I thought 'wow, how lovely!'".
How lovely indeed - a quiet, little street within walking distance to the bustling city centre that feels like a hidden oasis of calm, the period properties joined by vintage style street lamps within this conservation area of the capital.
The hall
This end of terrace home's front door greets you with a soft shade of grey that is about to open and reveal inside surely one of the most distinctive houses in the capital. The hall hints at the spaces within, the monochrome checkerboard floor tempting you to follow it and explore further.
The hall also illustrates the owner's clever use of space, turning a useless alcove into a cupboard that is both practical and the perfect place for displaying anything pretty. It is easily and cheaply lit by strips of LED lights plugged in by the side of this newly built construction.
The world room
The front living room is awash with rich colours and patterns and, of course, the whole wall of one huge mural that adds an extra layer of personality. But it's the fireplace in this space that was the starting point for the decor in this room.
The owner says: "This room and fireplace was one of the big selling points for me for buying the place, so with the period fireplace I thought it had to be more of a classical room and that's the room I use most for Christmas.
"I've had really good fortune to travel to many places around the world, so the wall cupboards are full of little momentos. It's a lovely winter and evening room, and with the fire going, I look at the cupboards and remember where I was and the different places around the world.
"And then there's the painting of the tiger that I've loved forever by Henri Rousseau - Tiger in a Tropical Storm - so in here I'm definitely going down the route of nature and colour, and flowers, plus hints of oriental.
"I call it the world room and have made the lampshades from world maps which ties it all together, there's lots of references to bees and insects, as well as the jungle and tropical islands."
The butterfly room
Into the second reception room and this space is a dining room that began life as a standard room but has been transformed into another distinctive space, with the butterflies on the chimney breast the starting place for the interiors in here.
The owner says: "I love butterflies, so I've definitely got a butterfly obsession going on in here! I think in dining rooms you can be quite dramatic because you're not in there too many hours, so you can go a bit OTT.
"I like to use murals too, it's so fantastic what's available now so you can go to one of the main companies to do them, you can have anything you want and they scale it up to suit what you require.
"In here I have continued the nod to nature - I love plants, I love flowers, but I can't grow them, I'm a hopeless gardener so none of them are real."
In this room the owner has dedicated a huge slice of one wall to displaying her collection of plates, she says: "Don't have one of something when you can have twenty! I rarely do just one thing displayed, I will have as many as I can fit on the wall!"
One aspect of the home's interior that is obvious throughout is that every wall has a purpose and its own carefully curated design.
The owner says: "If you're a blank wall be very scared of me because I'm going to put something on you! And also another thing I do is to have things higher up, above eye level, it's quite nice to have something placed higher up for you to notice.
And in fact in the front room it draws your eye up to all the lovely cornicing and the ceiling above you. So slap a picture above the door, or birds, or some ornamental thing - I love doing that!"
The sun room
There's no hesitation as to where the inspiration for this room's style came from - the starting point was clear. The owner says: "I love the wallpaper and I was determined to use the wallpaper in some way in this house, it's like a picture frame gallery, with birds and butterflies again.
"And try new colours, one pot of paint can cost as little as £15 and you can change the whole look of a room and if you don't like it, change it at some point."
The pink room
Reception room number four is the lounge where the owner spends most time and is definitely a spring and summer space, and also the best space for playing loud music as it's not attached to any neighbours' walls.
The owner says: "That room for me is all about flowers. I have lots of flowers but not real and nowadays the artificial ones are fantastic, although I love real flowers I can't afford to buy them too often."
In this room the huge bunch of vibrant flowers in a vase that sits on an Ikea chest of drawers and in front of a mirror reveals three of the owner's favourite things to do in a home - consider scale, consider height, consider personalising budget items.
She says: "Scale things up for impact! You can have a lovely vase of flowers but make it three times bigger and then it's 'wow!' - I enjoy doing that.
"And not everything in your home has to be practical or have a purpose, it can just look lovely. For example, why have I put a big flower arrangement in front of a big mirror, and nobody can use the mirror? But it frames the flower arrangement beautifully and there are other mirrors to use!"
The owner says that not everything in your home has to be expensive either, in fact most of her home's interior design is within a very reasonable budget.
She says: "A lot of what I've done in here is budget driven but that's what you can do, for example on a good old Ikea drawer unit, look at all the beautiful different glass handles you can add, and again for £15 you have completely changed something - you can always put the original ones back!"
One aspect of the home's interior that is obvious throughout is that every wall has a purpose and its own carefully curated design.
The owner says: "If you're a blank wall be very scared of me because I'm going to put something on you! And also another thing I do is to have things higher up, above eye level, it's quite nice to have something placed higher up for you to notice.
And in fact in the front room it draws your eye up to all the lovely cornicing and the ceiling above you. So slap a picture above the door, or birds, or some ornamental thing - I love doing that!"
The kitchen
The kitchen has the same units that were in place when the house was purchased but that's another piece of advice that this home reveals about her budget savvy home - you don't have to rip everything out because with a bit of personalisation a very usable space can become your own style and save you budget.
In the kitchen the blinds and the pelmets above them frame the garden and also carry on the flower and nature decor threads in the other rooms. The units are added to this decor party by using the same material behind the glass panels in some of the unit doors.
The Goddess bedroom
The decor of this generous slumber space at the front of the house is also informed by artwork that the owner has adored for many years.
She says: "There's a little picture by the bed that I love of a Greek goddess and that prompted the decor and mural in this room; I thought OK let's scale something like this up, so I have. And the colours I have used were prompted by the trio of pictures between the windows."
The curtains were not designer and expensive but made by the owner from reasonably priced material and the flowers that she added onto the material pelmet were actually cut out from two pillowcases and sown on.
The final crowning glory of the windows in this room is the genius idea of getting the carpenter to make and add wooden pelmets above both windows that truly gives them a sense of grandeur as well as perfectly framing the views of the trees in the gardens of the homes opposite.
It's not a surprise to find out that this is one of the owner's favourite rooms in the house, and was the first one to be completed, providing a completed haven to retire to and relax while she worked on the other rooms.
The bathrooms
The owner decided to change an original bedroom next to the master into a peaceful and calm second bathroom that she uses as her own and so when guests stay they use the original, spacious bathroom at the rear.
The style in the master bathroom was loosely based around a classic French chateaux feel; the serene atmosphere and elegant decor in here means this room is another one of the owner's favourite spaces.
The original bathroom at the rear of the house has hardly been touched, but given more of the owner's personal touches with the addition of a delicate lavender colour on the walls to soften the classic monochrome black and white main decor, plus lavender in pots on the window sills.
This choice to save and finesse the original bathroom to her style has saved the owner thousands of pounds.
The guest bedrooms
The continuing calm palette of blues, greys and fresh white additions is carried on into the two guest bedrooms and arguably the decor is slightly less owner focused here and more about creating a peaceful space for her guests. But of course, there are still pops of excitement, including faces on cushions, engaging artwork and mirrors, as well as patterns and textures.
As you continue your tour through each special space it is quite a challenge to think of how the homeowner has created an interiors scheme that is so distinctive and bursting with life and yet does not feel chaotic or unrelated - there is definite flow.
The owner has a few tips for creating a scheme that is all about your style - and that's to make it all about you. There's no Instagram influencer here, rather a 65 year-old woman who centres her interior design around the things that she truly loves and that bring her great joy - and ensuring they all have their own place to be admired.
These items are then wrapped in a lose combination of decor schemes that covers oriental, botanical, nature-based insects, and flowers. Each room offers you its own personality that is centred around one or two items - the starting point for each room's design that then builds layers upon later until the space is perfect for the owner - just as it should be.
The owner also loves colour but has opted for a strong colour palette downstairs, that have tones that are related to each other in each room, and then softer shades upstairs where she prefers a calmer atmosphere.
She says: "I love colour and I'm not afraid to use it but I only do it in living rooms, upstairs in the bedrooms and bathrooms it's all very calm and muted but in living rooms I say go for it!"
Even if your style is minimalistic design and crisp white decor, it's hard not to be enchanted by the brave, bold and beautiful interiors of this three-bed home, but it is hard to describe the style.
But to even try and pigeon hole it into one or two types of interior design style is doing the owner a disservice. So how would she actually describe the style of the home? She says: "Mmmmm that's hard... I guess it's just my style!".
The three bed house comes with two bathrooms, four reception rooms, a utility room, ground floor cloakroom and front and rear gardens.
It is on the market with a guide price of £450,000 with estate agents Jeffrey Ross, call their Roath branch on 029 2049 9680 to find out more. And don't miss the best dream homes in Wales, renovation stories and interiors, join the Amazing Welsh Homes newsletter which is sent to your inbox twice a week.
