Sicilian school worker uses life's savings to transform gloomy London home into 'Mediterranean paradise'

A Sicilian school worker used her life's savings to transform her gloomy London terraced house into a 'Mediterranean oasis' - to 'remind her of home'.

Anatolia and Frank Elamradi went without takeaways and expensive holidays to save money for their dream project as they began transforming their 1930s terraced home into a colourful paradise. Anatolia - a 52-year-old exam invigilator - was determined to incorporate her Sicilian heritage and her husband's Moroccan culture into their home. The mum-of-two's dream was to create a bright and airy kitchen - which began with demolishing their previous extension and constructing a bigger one in its place.

The couple, who have lived in the home in Newham, London for 28 years, began the downstairs makeover in October 2020 - completely refurbishing the living room, kitchen and bathroom areas. Anatolia, who has thousands of followers on her Instagram page @my_dolce_casa, said the family used their life savings of £80,000 to fund the project - making 'economic choices' to help pay for the makeover. And now guests can't believe the family live in a three-bedroomed terrace home in London due to the vast amount of space the extension has helped create.

Anatolia said: "We never really did anything big in terms of renovation until three years ago when we decided to do a complete makeover starting with demolishing the extension we had and build a bigger one.

"It was a dream of mine in particular. Obviously something like this costs a lot of money and we wanted to make sure we had enough savings before we started on anything. We're not the type to put anything on credit cards.

"The previous extension was just a rectangular box, there wasn't enough light. I had this dream from back home. Light is so important, the view to the garden is important. We wanted lots of colour.

"Being Italian and my husband is Moroccan, we had particular tastes on things and wanted to bring light to the place. We wanted the space to remind us of our countries. In one of the sitting rooms, there's a mural with lemons and of course that's for the lemons of Sicily.

"The kitchen was very cramped before. I wanted to bring our culture and an injection of colour into the house to remind us of our background. That was important to us."

Anatolia said turning down takeaways and spending carefully on travel helped fund the mammoth project. Anatolia said: "We invested our life savings into this. It had to be done for the dream.

"We never splurge when we travel - we always make economic choices. We don't get takeaways and try not to go to restaurants and were always putting money on the side.

"We were saving for years. We're extremely happy with how it looks. Waking up and coming down to this space is just incredible. "The bedroom is just for sleeping - we spent a lot of time downstairs.

"I always tell people don't be afraid to use a pop of colour. It was quite cold-looking before, carpeted floors. It wasn't our taste. Because terraced houses are really narrow and long, you have to make it work for you. I love to stay at home now.

"Many people have come through the house and they can't believe it. You can't believe it's a terrace house. I'm very flattered that people think this is a beautiful space."