A artist who spent over three decades turning her rundown cottage into a kaleidoscopic playhouse says her vibrant home - which should be worth a quarter of a million pounds - is now unsellable.
Mary Rose Young, 61, bought her countryside cottage in the leafy Lydney, Gloucester, back in 1987 for just £30,000.
Ever since, the eccentric potter has been hand painting her home in colourful shades and patterns and decking it out in one-of-a-kind trinkets to match her eclectic style.
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Mary Rose - who has a dream of opening a boutique hotel - put her home on the market in 2014, and estate agents encouragingly told her she should be able to fetch upwards of £250,000 for it.
However, ever since, property agents have only been able to lure one potential buyer to view the house, with no luck.
Despite her struggles selling, Mary refuses to paint over her colourful home-cum-pottery studio, which she lives in with her husband Phil Butcher, 62, a musician.
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"I made this house around my own life and I wasn't thinking about it being sellable," said Mary Rose.
"We're living like two children in a doll's house and in retrospect why would anybody else want to buy it?
"It's like a playhouse for adults.
"I just thought it might go to a mad collector of my work who might want to buy it, but no one was interested."
She went on: "Only one person came and looked at it in the year it was on the market and they weren't here long.
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"I think they had just come out of curiosity to see the decoration and were never interested.
"The estate agents despaired. I could have painted over all my work, but I didn't want to.
"I love my house and the house really works for me. I'm a colourful person and I even have pink hair.
"I like it more and more as I get older."
Despite her hopes of opening a boutique hotel have been dashed, Mary Rose is staying true to her aesthetic and instead of painting her home more neutral shades, has doubled down on her efforts to put her stamp on every last corner.
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The potter bought the home, composed of two knocked-through cottages, in 1987.
Mary Rose originally painted the entire house white in the hope of lightening it up, but after realising it made the house look gloomier, she began drawing patterns inspired by her colourful pottery designs on the walls.
"I did one wall orange with red dots and it really stood out and took people's minds off the fact there's hardly any natural light," she says.
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"It became a really fun project for me on the side of my pottery business and I was so galvanised by it I ended up neglecting my pottery at times.
"I painted it all myself and I would get help for some bits if I was in a hurry and was trying to work on the pottery."
"When you do it by yourself, you do it with all your heart," she continued.
"I'm very inspired by Venice and I did the garden room and patio area inspired by the city.
"I go to Venice a couple of times a year and everything there is just breath-taking.
"The floor to my gallery is inspired by Venetian floors and it took about a month to do. It has that trompe l'oeil 3D effect."
Mary Rose adds: "I've stopped noticing how colourful it is because I've lived here for so long.
"Lots of people are self-conscious and don't say much when they see the decoration, but the right reaction is to laugh and go 'oh wow.'
"It should make you feel like a child walking into a sweet shop. I want people to feel like adults can have lots of fun too."
Mary Rose, if it helps, we adore your home. That loo!
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