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."
