'A modern interpretation of heaven': Inside Flex Mami's dreamy Hobart home, Casa de Flex

She’s an author, DJ, podcaster, social media star, TV host and, now, Lillian Ahenkan can add homeowner and bona fide renovator to her sweeping resume.

The Sydney-based media personality, better known as Flex Mami, recently wrapped up renovations on her “Palm Springs Californian” in the Tasmanian seaside suburb of Dodges Ferry, 30 minutes from Hobart, and says she couldn’t be happier with the vibrant home away from home.

“When I walked in for the first time, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is good, this is really good,’ ” she says of the finished product, with a chortle.

Inside her “pastel dreamscape”, a kaleidoscope of colours coexists in maximalist harmony – candy pinks, mint greens, orange, blues and purples clash delightfully alongside bright accessories and curvy custom shelving.

Ahenkan purchased the two-bedroom house in February after falling for Hobart’s culturally rich-yet-humble air while visiting friends.

The fact the Tasmanian property market was far more affordable than her home city’s was also a deciding factor, but the purchase itself was somewhat spontaneous.

“The house has this huge rock out the front, and when I saw that I was like, ‘This is the house!’ It just drew me in,” she explains.

“I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ It felt like some kind of mirage on this random, unassuming street in Hobart.

“[The rock] would have taken a truck to get it in. I don’t know who put it there; I don’t know why.

“I heard that the previous owners wanted to take the rock with them, but they couldn’t because it was too heavy and I was like, ‘Good! It can’t go anywhere; it’s meant to stay!’ ”

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The rock now stands amid native gardens in bright contrast to the house’s baby-blue exterior. On a clear day, Ahenkan says, the house – surrounded by blue sky and wide-open space – conjures scenes from The Truman Show, and there is something other-worldly about the home she’s dubbed ‘Casa De Flex’.

“I wanted my space to feel like a waiting room to a modern interpretation of heaven,” she says.

A natural creator and maker, Ahenkan, brimming with ideas, enlisted Hobart-based construction duo Jace Roberts and Ben Rogers who market themselves as, “Not your normal builders.” And just as well.

“I knew when I was going to hire any builder or company that the brief was going to be quite difficult to interpret,” Ahenkan explains. “There’s not a lot of reference for what I’m asking for; it’s a vibe personified.”

Ahenkan says the process was a crash course in fantasy versus function as the collaborators worked their way through her many sketches, mood boards and digital mock-ups, with Roberts and Rogers explaining the realities of working within a budget, to a timeline and with available materials.

“Oh, the wake-up call you have when your ideas have to meet practical reality,” Ahenkan says with a laugh. “Like, yes anything is possible when you mock it up on Photoshop, but the reality is some things require way more consideration in real life.”

The “immersive cave experience” Ahenkan was hoping to achieve in the second bedroom had to be shelved (but may be revisited at a later date, she says, determined), but the arched doorway Roberts and Rogers delivered instead has turned out to be her favourite feature.

With the assistance of another local company, laser cutters Xanderware, Ahenkan’s sketch of her dream bed – “a beautiful marshmallow-cloud wavy-shaped thing” – was brought to life by Roberts and Rogers.

It has a nook for books and mobile phones and lights up with the flick of a switch. On a dark night, Ahenkan jokes, the bed illuminates the whole street: “It’s obnoxious!”

Other treasures she has collected over time. Her bright green two-metre Fearon aluminium table was bought long before Ahenkan owned the house, in preparation for what she says is her “dinner party era”.

So, too, the vintage yellow-and-pink dining chairs sourced from Melbourne store Luke’s Furniture of Character. They remind Ahenkan of geometric sandals designed by Jacquemus.

“One sandal had this leather circle on the left foot and the other had a leather square where the toes would go, and it was incredible, and something about that has been haunting me forever,” she says with feeling.

It takes a certain blend of chaos and intuition to pin down Ahenkan’s specific aesthetic, she says. “You’re not meant to know that a random archway in the second bedroom is going to work until you do it.”

Still, she admits she sometimes needs reeling in. “We’re not going for a knick-knack clown home, we’re going for dreamscape.

“Before the renovation, I would have said I was an extremely assertive and decisive person. But I quickly discovered that’s not the case when you have to make all these micro decisions without really being able to understand how they impact the bigger picture.”

Roberts and Rogers have helped her strike the balance and while the finished product is perhaps not as colourful (if you can believe it) as the original vision, Ahenkan is “stoked” with it all and is learning to enjoy some down time here amid a busy schedule.

“From my living area, I can look out to the backyard … the previous owners really put their heart and soul into cultivating vegetable gardens,” she says. “It’s like where fairies go to hang out, and the whole thing just feels like an escape.”

Casa de Flex is available to rent on Airbnb, when its owner is unable to fly south to unwind, promising a staycation of your dreams. The house also has its own Instagram account, a spin-off from Flex Mami’s own 165,000-strong follower base.

Ahenkan sets the scene: rolling hills, a playful home of art and colour, and a schedule to suit a chilled weekend.

“You might wake up and walk to the beach, see the local seal – his name is Neill – then hear some chicken or goat sounds and then light yourself a fire and make some scones and maybe later you’ll go into Hobart city for a live gig. That is the vibe.”

Hobart is undervalued, Ahenkan says, and she doesn’t have much time for people who misinterpret what the island city is trying to put down.

“When I tell people it’s Hobart, they’re like, ‘Hobart? That’s not cool and metropolitan and sexy,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s not meant to be!’”