Personalities
Profile: Anna Ryder Richardson
She’s the sweetie at the heart of some of UKTV Style’s best loved property programmes, the star of House Invaders and Changing Rooms, interior designer Anna Ryder Richardson…
Ryder on time
Thanks to her regular appearances on Changing Rooms, her flamboyant personality and love of a colourful design – not to mention her good looks - Anna Ryder Richardson has rapidly become not only one of the country’s most recognised interior designers. As well as working on the famous makeover show, she’s worked on House Invaders, All The Right Moves and Under Offer for UKTV Style, Staying Put on BBC1 and Babies Rooms on Discovery.
Design of the times
Born on 29th January 1964, was adopted as a baby and her birth father was actually Malaysian. She had a happy childhood with her adopted parents and she is apparently not at all interested in tracing her birth family. After early careers as a model and a fitness instructor, she decided to stop up a design business in the early 1990s, despite no formal training, and began by designing rooms for children.
On the job
Anna had actually been gearing up for her work on Changing Rooms from an early age. When she was about seven years old, she painted blue footprints about a metre high up her bedroom wall and across the ceiling. Her real training came from working alongside an interior designer since she has reported that she was a bit of a tearaway at school and college. Although it often involved making the tea, she did, however, learn an awful lot about interior design hands-on – which is always the best way.
Wedding belle
After a long courtship, Anna finally married her partner, Glasgow restaurateur Colin MacDougall, in May this year. They tied the knot in secret in the snowy Canadian Rockies with their two daughters, Dixie Dot, two, and Bibi Belle, three, in attendance. The only witnesses were Colin’s aunt and her partner, who live in Canada. Anna told Sky News: “It was a magical wedding, the girls looked like snow fairies. We had a fabulous time and we still haven’t come down to earth!” As you might expect, the couple spent their honeymoon snowboarding.
Ryder on the storm
Anna now spends most of her time in Glasgow, renovating property with husband Colin (who incidentally owns trendy establishments Air Organic and Rab Ha’s Bar). As well as writing regularly for national newspapers, Celebrity Homes Magazine and BBC Parenting Magazine, she’s also found time to co-present BBC1’s daytime show Girls On Top with Charlie Dimmock, AND be a captain on Five’s at times cringe-worthy karaoke show, Night Fever. She’s a big Andy Warhol fan but sadly, she never got to sing any Velvet Underground songs on the show.
A bit of fluff
Being such a busy lady, her own interior design at home can sometimes take a backward step – so much so that she and Colin were unable to move into their current house until three year after they’d bought it! Having babies and making telly tend to hold things up a bit. But don’t think that her Changing Rooms designs are what necessarily work in her own home, as many people might think. “Some people come in and say 'oh, you haven't got pink on your walls' or 'you haven't got fluff all over the place and sequins'” she recently told the BBC. “I can't remember the last time I did that on a show anyway but I do have a terrible name for that. However, I do live with a big Glaswegian so he wouldn't let me do everything pink and fluffy!"
Thanks to her regular appearances on Changing Rooms, her flamboyant personality and love of a colourful design – not to mention her good looks - Anna Ryder Richardson has rapidly become not only one of the country’s most recognised interior designers. As well as working on the famous makeover show, she’s worked on House Invaders, All The Right Moves and Under Offer for UKTV Style, Staying Put on BBC1 and Babies Rooms on Discovery.
Design of the times
Born on 29th January 1964, was adopted as a baby and her birth father was actually Malaysian. She had a happy childhood with her adopted parents and she is apparently not at all interested in tracing her birth family. After early careers as a model and a fitness instructor, she decided to stop up a design business in the early 1990s, despite no formal training, and began by designing rooms for children.
On the job
Anna had actually been gearing up for her work on Changing Rooms from an early age. When she was about seven years old, she painted blue footprints about a metre high up her bedroom wall and across the ceiling. Her real training came from working alongside an interior designer since she has reported that she was a bit of a tearaway at school and college. Although it often involved making the tea, she did, however, learn an awful lot about interior design hands-on – which is always the best way.
Wedding belle
After a long courtship, Anna finally married her partner, Glasgow restaurateur Colin MacDougall, in May this year. They tied the knot in secret in the snowy Canadian Rockies with their two daughters, Dixie Dot, two, and Bibi Belle, three, in attendance. The only witnesses were Colin’s aunt and her partner, who live in Canada. Anna told Sky News: “It was a magical wedding, the girls looked like snow fairies. We had a fabulous time and we still haven’t come down to earth!” As you might expect, the couple spent their honeymoon snowboarding.
Ryder on the storm
Anna now spends most of her time in Glasgow, renovating property with husband Colin (who incidentally owns trendy establishments Air Organic and Rab Ha’s Bar). As well as writing regularly for national newspapers, Celebrity Homes Magazine and BBC Parenting Magazine, she’s also found time to co-present BBC1’s daytime show Girls On Top with Charlie Dimmock, AND be a captain on Five’s at times cringe-worthy karaoke show, Night Fever. She’s a big Andy Warhol fan but sadly, she never got to sing any Velvet Underground songs on the show.
A bit of fluff
Being such a busy lady, her own interior design at home can sometimes take a backward step – so much so that she and Colin were unable to move into their current house until three year after they’d bought it! Having babies and making telly tend to hold things up a bit. But don’t think that her Changing Rooms designs are what necessarily work in her own home, as many people might think. “Some people come in and say 'oh, you haven't got pink on your walls' or 'you haven't got fluff all over the place and sequins'” she recently told the BBC. “I can't remember the last time I did that on a show anyway but I do have a terrible name for that. However, I do live with a big Glaswegian so he wouldn't let me do everything pink and fluffy!"
