A home can reveal a lot about the owner's personality - from the colours on the walls to the accessories dotted around the place. Even more telling is the choice of furniture, with some homeowners opting for brighter and bolder colours than others.
Couple Lucy and Jake, both 24, purchased their first property in south Liverpool last April for £115,000. Lucy, a PHD researcher, has transformed the blank space with her 'maximalist' interior design style, and isn't afraid of using daring prints.
She admits that some people find her 'zebra terrace', which includes a zebra print sofa, like marmite - they either love it or hate it. Speaking to the ECHO for their Where I Live series, where they explore houses across the region every week, Lucy explains how she came to decorate the house with loud colours and prints.
She loves the area, which she said is 'underrated', adding: "It's got great character and really suits our lifestyle. It's close to pubs, bars and restaurants, local businesses, top takeaways and not far from the city centre. We really couldn't ask for much more."
Lucy, who moved into the house with her boyfriend Jake after renting a tiny studio flat, describes her interior style as "modern, maximalist, and not afraid of daring colours or animal print".
"We were really lucky with the house that it didn't need much renovation work doing, it came as a blank canvas with light-coloured walls," she begins.
"We have really made it into our own by painting feature walls and using a contrast of colours and prints. We love a gallery wall and have hung pictures on most of them, they tell a story of our style."
Lucy revealed that she was initially inspired by a zebra print sofa they "fell in love with".
She says: "We bought it on a whim and found that people either love it or hate it – we love it. Jake was actually a minimalist, but I've managed to convert him."
The couple's interior styling has gained some attention on social media, with Lucy setting up her @zebraterrace Instagram page and gaining hundreds of followers.
The account also has a special guest star; a local cat who "came with the house".
Lucy explains: "He has his own Facebook page and is such a character. He comes and goes as he pleases into most houses on the street and the road wouldn’t be the same without him."
As well as standing out in the style stakes, Lucy and Jake's house even has some interesting links to Liverpool's history, both in real life and on TV.
The couple regularly use the Herculaneum Steps, or 'Dockers Steps' as they're known locally, to access the waterfront.
The stone steps were built in 1866 to give workers access to the Herculaneum Dock before closing in the 1970s.
They also live on the street that put Liverpool on the map in the 1980s, albeit perhaps not for the right reasons.
Lucy says: "Although Jake and I were a bit too young to remember, we were told that the street was in the place where 'Bread' was filmed – where the Boswell family resided. We thought that was cool and is our claim to fame."
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