A decorator is completing the fine art makeover of his terraced council house after 11 years of painstaking work.

Dedicated Robert Burns does not take his home makeover tips from Changing Rooms or Grand Designs – he turns to Renaissance painters and the Vatican for inspiration.

Over the years, the retired painter and decorator has been transforming his house one room at a time and he hopes to complete his last bedroom early in the new year.

The incredible transformation of the home in Twyford Close in Brighton includes a recreation of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel and depictions of modern-day celebrities as they have never been seen before.

Having previously “Renaissanced” portraits of Wayne Rooney and Russell Brand, Mr Burns has now added Nigella Lawson and Simon Cowell to his walls – re-imagined as if they had been painted by Italian painters Giovanni Bellini and Pietro Perugino.

After previously being featured in The Argus, Mr Burns was contacted by a Brighton millionaire in 2007 to redecorate the ballroom ceiling of his luxury mansion outside Horsham – which took three months to complete.

Mr Burns said his last undecorated bedroom had been plain magnolia for the past five years and the 67-year-old had been hoping to finish it before Christmas for the arrival of three of his children and three grandchildren.

He said: “People have asked me what I will do when it is finished but Renaissance decoration was so over the top, I could just keep adding to them forever.

“I have done this all from books. I have never seen any of these paintings in situ.

“I never went to art classes, I just saw a guidebook to the Vatican and thought this is amazing, I will have a go at making this.

“The first few attempts were a bit iffy but I just painted over them.

“I am pretty quick now. I can paint a ceiling in a couple of weeks.”