Altrincham homeowner decorates with 142 framed pictures

After becoming bored with magnolia walls while renting, Verity Jones, 47, took inspiration from Instagram and created a ''vibrant maximalist wonderland''.

She was given free rein to transform her £95k two-bedroom house and has impressed family and friends with her stunning, quirky decor - despite having no interior design training.

She started by painting the walls of her living room dark blue in the shade Breton blue, before creating her own picture gallery with 12 prints and pictures.

This idea then grew, and the DIY-fan now has an impressive 142 picture frames hanging in her end-terrace abode.

Self-taught Verity has described her style as "eclectic maximalism" but claims she's not a perfectionist.

Verity, who works in police support, from Greater Manchester, said: "Interiors have always been my passion, but when I was renting, I didn't feel like I could express myself.

"When my husband and I were finally able to buy, he let me do whatever I wanted, and it was so fun to let my imagination run wild.

"It's just a passion project - I've had no training and I'm completely self-taught.

"I don't like to follow trends - I love bright colours and bold prints."

Verity and her husband, Mike Jones, 48, bought their first home together in Greater Manchester in January 2016.

The couple were over the moon to own their own 1891 property after spending four years renting a house in Altrincham, Manchester.

But their new home wasn't to Verity's bold taste, and thankfully supportive Mike was happy to let his wife make all the creative decisions.

Verity said: "I was so excited to experiment with different coloured paints and started by painting my living room dark blue.

"It made such a lovely change from the boring magnolia walls we had when we rented.

"I finally felt like I could express myself and just went wild with it."

Despite not having an interior design background, Verity took inspiration from other home accounts on Instagram and taught herself how to transform her home by watching YouTube videos.

After teaching herself the basics, Verity developed her own unique style - using lots of texture, colour and pattern.

She also taught herself to upcycle old pieces of furniture and likes to mix vintage with new pieces.

But her favourite feature in her home is her impressive picture galleries which display more than 100 framed pictures.

"I've always loved prints and posters," Verity explained.

"I had posters of popstars as a child, and then as I grew up my passion developed into pictures of famous women like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Kate Moss.

"I love scrolling through Instagram to find small business who make really cool pictures that I can add to my collection.

"My favourite sites are 'Ink and Drop' and 'Unique' - I always find amazing art there.

"My lounge is probably my favourite room in the house because of the picture gallery in there.

''I've got about 65 frames on display."

Verity's vibrant style has caught the attention of over 20,000 people on Instagram, but despite her online success, she insists she'd only ever work on her own home.

"I'm not a perfectionist at all and I'm always making mistakes," Verity said.

"But sometimes my best work has come from improvising after botching something up.

"My friends and family are really supportive and love my decor, but I wouldn't want to work on someone else's home.

"It's just something that I love doing and it brings me so much joy to experiment and let my imagination run wild."

Verity's proudest achievement was adding gold leaf to her fridge.

Verity explained: "Our fridge is in the dining room, and it was black and boring.

"So I added gold leaf so that it would look like a piece of furniture.

"It's beautiful and it's not something I've seen done before."

Verity's top tips for transforming your home are -
- Don't be afraid to use colour and pattern - if you like it, go for it.
- Don't decorate your home to please others, decorate with your heart and go with what you love. You're the one that has to live there.
- Buy pre-loved furniture and up-cycle. It's better for the environment and can be lots of fun.
- Look around charity shops for mirrors and picture frames - don't forget you can change the picture and paint the frames.
- You don't have to spend thousands to create a beautiful home.
- Have fun.