It might be his name but Daniel Bland has proved his design talents in Norfolk homes are anything but.
After dabbling in room make-overs in his own home, the 26-year-old has now got more than 24,700 people following his zany but inspiring work on Instagram.
Mr Bland, who lives in Wisbech, is making a name for himself applying gold and silver leaf to items of furniture, and adding a resin or varnish, transforming them from dull to dynamic.
And he has built a following of his work around his own semi-detached Victorian townhouse where he is transforming every room.
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But it’s his videos on social media which are proving a real hit – Mr Bland uses various techniques often putting himself into cartoon format and setting up time lapses of his work and then shows it speeded up from start to finish.
What started out as a bit of a hobby has now become a part-time job for Mr Bland, who had to take a step back from managing the local Pets at Home store as a result. He’s fast wracking up jobs with renowned interior designers in Norfolk such as Leanne Lim-Walker and Berry’s & Grey boss Nicole Pugh.
He studied fine art at A-level and then deferred his place at university after buying his house. Then as he decorated his own home and posted it on Instagram – it started to get noticed.
“It was a completely blank canvas,” he said. “I’ve created this great bar in the sitting room and a mini bar under the stairs. I’ve covered my shower with gold leaf. People just seem to really enjoy the pictures and videos I put on and it’s taken off from there.”
Mr Bland, who lives alone with his two cats Tallulah and Lord Mittens, was commissioned by Ms Lim-Walker, with 131,000 followers on Intagram, to create a huge mural of a crane in her bedroom.
He also created a massive mural based on the famous Gustav Klimt painting Freya’s Tears for the new Factory Noir creative space for Berry’s & Grey. And most recently he got to cover an entire beauty salon ceiling with gold leaf in Newcastle.
“I use fake gold leaf because the real one is so expensive then cover it with a resin to stop it from ageing,” he added. “When I did the ceiling, I actually varnished it because it would have been too difficult to put the resin on.
It changes the space because it’s reflective and the light bounces off it.”
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