As we sit down to our favorite ITV dating show, most of us can only dream of spending a summer at the Love Island mansion.
But for supermarket worker Paul Brooks, 30, the dream has come true after he transformed his simple, newly built four-bedroom home into his own take on the Mallorcan destination.
6
6
And while Paul von Derby (@paul.and.lees.home) is smitten with his homage to TV’s most famous holiday home, cruel trolls aren’t quite so convinced, labeling his hard work “sticky.”
But Paul and his 11-year-old longtime partner Lee Gainey, 34, a supermarket manager, don’t mind haters because their Love Island-style fire pits, hot tubs and dining area have actually added hundreds of thousands of pounds to the value of their home.
Here Paul tells Fabulous why he never lets cruel comments get the better of him…
“After a long day at work, I turn on the light switch behind the garden and watch our backyard transform from pitch black darkness into a replica of the multi-million dollar Love Island villa set.
Our house is not on the Balearic coast although it is newly built in Derby.
It may be thousands of miles from the TV show set, but it’s like stepping straight into the Love Island villa, and our renovation is utterly classy and stylish.
We put our hearts and souls into creating our forever home from a simple new build and shared the stunning results on Instagram and TikTok.
Just like the Mediterranean villa, my garden is a riot of color and I created different zones including a kitchen with a super shiny floor that trolls moan about, a pink guest room and a luxurious gray and white master suite.
But unlike the villa, mine didn’t cost a million as I’ve used B&M products, items from The Range, eBay, Amazon and even Poundland and it looks just as convincing.
The people claiming it’s cheesy clearly have no taste and are just mean bullies hiding behind fake profiles and jealous.
In the past my videos have had around ten thousand views but the moment I shared our Love Island garden and kitchen makeover it went viral with over half a million views.
People are shocked to discover our house is new build while others are convinced it is a million pound mansion.
But for every positive comment we got, there were a dozen trolls eager to bite their teeth.
One lady calls our £20,000 makeover ‘sticky’, another troll chimes in: ‘Imagine walking up to someone’s house and it looks like I’m about to leave.’
Even more shockingly, another declared: “Yeah, you can’t polish a turd. Lighting and plants cannot hide the cut corners.”
Another faceless troll even claimed that our home’s location made them “seasick.”
But I don’t care about the trolls because fans have been full of praise for our Love Island dream home, especially given the hard work we’ve put into it.
It took almost three years to decorate and refurbish to transform the faceless new build into a sparkling TV-style home.
We didn’t have an ITV budget so we saved the £20,000 we needed to create the garden of our dreams.
There’s a glass roof in one section, topped with an all-weather hot tub, which costs £4,000.
FABULOUS BINGO: Get a £20 Bonus and 30 Free Spins when you spend £10 today
I even snagged my own ex-exhibition fire pit from a local garden center for £2,000, saving over 50 per cent.
It has created a glamorous place where you can imagine the stars of Love Island kissing by or dishing out dirt to each other.
Like the colorful Love Island set, we also laid our own artificial grass.
We spent £2,000 on the low maintenance artificial grass and it will last for over a decade. This is an area where we have not skimped. It means no weeds and you can enjoy year-round perfection without having to mow it.
We wanted the garden to always look new, so we took a cue from Love Island and used wood grain paneled composite decking instead of rotting wooden steps and decking.
I placed artificial palm trees near the hot tub as in the show, concerned that chlorine and steam would affect real plants.
I don’t care that trolls call the makeover cheesy
Paul Bache
The outdoor dining area is lit with warm electric lights creating the perfect romantic atmosphere for me and my very own Love Island hunk.
I don’t care if trolls call the makeover cheesy or say it looks like a B&M car wreck.
Obviously they have no taste and are jealous.
We are big Love Island fans and our home is heaven. Thousands of followers agree, saying “It’s the house of their dreams” and a “garden paradise”.
They tell the trolls to back off and actively defend me. They also love my clap and the way I call out the haters in Tik Tok videos.
The £20,000 garden transformation was an investment, as a top property appraiser said, just that alone added £100,000 to the value of our home.
We bought our house in 2018 for just over £300,000 and now it’s worth well over half a million thanks to our so-called ‘sticky B&M’ makeover and I keep getting messages from people asking if I can go to them would sell .
It’s our forever home and we’ve spent £50,000 on the complete refurbishment. We saved and worked hard to spend every penny we have on our dream home.
The trolls may whine, but we’re winning!
6
6
6
6