She had spent her whole life in a fast-paced metropolitan lifestyle pursuing a fast-paced career as a media personality, author, radio host, DJ and entrepreneur, under the guise of her alter-ego Flex Mami.

But when she was invited to Tasmania by a friend a couple of years ago, to attend Mona Foma music and arts festival, it changed everything.

“(I was) so naive to how beautifully culture and art can be woven into the fabric of a place,” Ahenkan says of visiting Tasmania and immersing herself in the summer festival scene.

She felt like she had to wait to be invited to visit Hobart.

“People want permission to be like, ‘I was invited to Melbourne’ or ‘my friend’s having a wedding’ or like, ‘there’s a cool event in Hobart – that’s why I’m going’,’’ she says.

Like most tourists who visit Tasmania, once Ahenkan had landed at Hobart Airport, she never wanted to go back to the mainland.

The 29-year-old influencer and TV star – who has been nominated in the Most Popular New Talent category in the upcoming TV Week Logie Awards for her hosting role on Love Island’s recap show I’ve Got A Text With Josh and Flex – was in love with the connection she felt to community and nature, something she had never really felt while living in the confines of Australia’s largest city.

“Sydney can feel quite cold and segregated and it lacks a certain depth sometimes, and that’s fine,” Ahenkan says.

“It’s just a by-product of being in such a large place. People don’t feel as though they have to really invest in their community.”

The social media sensation, who shares her life with 169,000 followers on Instagram (@Flex.Mami) and almost 139,000 followers on TikTok, was craving more than just a scenery change.

She wanted to trade Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches and dinner at hip Italian bar and restaurant Totti’s for the calming windswept shores of Southern Tasmania. And she did. Sort of.

Ahenkan purchased a beachside, two-bedroom home at Dodges Ferry with the hopes she would permanently move here.

“I was going to move straight away,” she recalls.

“I’ve got my team, some of them live in Melbourne, some live in Sydney and then I was going to live in Hobart. And then I got my job in radio, and you have to actually be where the radio station is.

“I was like, ‘I didn’t think it through’,” she adds with a laugh.

Ahenkan, who describes herself as a “professional opinion-haver” and “conversation starter”, wasn’t sure how long she would be able to spend at her new home in between her busy schedule.

Originally a self-taught DJ, the savvy businesswoman has been active in the Australian music industry and night-life scene for the past decade, working nationally and internationally with artists like Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, SZA, Tinashe, GoldLink and Masego. She has performed at festivals including Splendour in the Grass and Groovin’ the Moo, and provided music at events for global brands like Fenty Beauty, Nike, Adidas and JD Sports.

After working at beauty-industry events, Ahenkan moved into beauty influencing, collaborating with brands like Rimmel London, Maybelline, MAC, Fenty, and Crayola.

She consulted with Fluff Casual Cosmetics on making their first bronzers for dark skin and her edit with Nasty Gal prioritised fashion for plus-size bodies.

Ahenkan has also worked with Swarovski, L’Oreal, Balmain, MiuMiu, Prada, AMEX, Afterpay, Tourism Tasmania, and many other brands, and has been featured on the pages of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Vogue Australia.

Named as Instagram Australia’s Young Entrepreneur for 2020, Ahenkan is the founder and chief executive of the conversation card game, ReFlex, which has since grown from one card game to 10, and is sold in her online store (flexmami.com), as well as being stocked by major retailers like Sportsgirl and General Pants.

She has written a best-selling book, The Success Experiment, has presented on MTV and has earnt a reputation as an authority in news, entertainment, and music hosting.

Ahenkan, who was born in Australia to parents who emigrated from Ghana, has also become a public spokesperson in conversations about race, identity and womanhood – all topics discussed in her Bobo & Flex podcast with fellow influencer Bobo Matjila. Ahenkan says her name has become “synonymous with paving the way for Black Australians”.

Despite her heavy and varied workload, Ahenkan knew one thing for certain. The interior design of her Tasmanian home would be her ultimate brainchild. She wanted the major renovation to be both “relaxing” and “colourful” while also being “extravagant” and “functional” and having a “fun” and “cool” vibe.

From the outside, the home – known as Casa De Flex – looks like any other beach house. But step inside and you’re transported to a wild, whimsical place of make-believe, reminiscent of something you might expect to see in the new Barbie movie, or in live-action children’s film The Cat in The Hat.

The design includes an explosion of pastel colours, unusual shapes, and mood lighting – the pastel blue walls of the master bedroom, combined with a cloud-shaped bedhead, bed base and side tables, could make guests feel like they’re sleeping in the sky.

There are pinks, purples, yellows, blues, greens and apricot hues on the walls and doors, complemented by equally-colourful bed coverings, wall art and other décor.

It might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s exactly what Ahenkan had hoped for.

“It’s so strange making a house that’s like a physical manifestation of the things you find cool in your head,” she says.

Ahenkan didn’t realise she would have to limit her ideas in order to perfectly execute the design.

“I was embarking on a task so much bigger than me that I was very naive as to, number one, what it would cost and number two, just the limitations with somebody else trying to execute your vision,” she says.

She worked closely with Tasmanian builders Roberts and Rogers to help create the “dreamscape” of her wildest imagination, but her original vision had to be refined.

Throughout the process Ahenkan had to rein in her bold ideas of mandarin-coloured walls, blue shelving and terrazzo floors.

She was faced with a reality check when the builders asked, ‘is this a house, or a showroom?’

It changed Ahenkan’s whole perspective. She switched and endeavoured to build a home based on how she wanted to feel. That feeling was one of the reasons she wanted to move to Hobart in the first place.

“When I came (to Tasmania) for the first time, it was equal parts serene and exciting,” she says.

“My place is like a fairy house. The backyard is bigger than the house itself, there’s all this beautiful fresh produce, and native flowers, like let’s keep that element inside.

“If I could have two things, the house needs to feel relaxing and colourful.”

Ahenkan refined the aesthetic of the house, which is a two-minute walk from the beach, by putting her best ideas forward. It still had to bring joy, but it also had to be functional.

“The first bed that I wanted to get was an obnoxious 3D cake-shaped bed, all fabric and bouclé and they were like, ‘this is not functional’,” she says.

“They were like, ‘what element do you really like?’ and I said ‘I think I like the squiggles, and how it has an element of interest but it’s soft and exciting’.”

The new brief was simple.

Pastel. Not cloudy. Not childish.

A colourful sanctuary that is surprisingly minimal isn’t what you would typically expect from Ahenkan, who is iconically fierce with her bold and bright style.

The rooms each have a specific mood and theme in mind.

“I think that they did a really good job balancing my need for extravagance, with the functionality of how a power house needs to function,” Ahenkan says.

“There’s this huge, wall-to-wall glass sliding door that looks out to the backyard so you can see all the natives and the beautiful sky.

“That’s why I’m here. I’m not here for the cute bed. I’m here to immerse myself.”

After years of renting in Sydney’s housing market, Ahenkan had been preparing for the moment she could instinctively change her living space in her own home.

Instead, she found herself getting caught up making sure the house was timeless. An interior design that she wanted to live in forever.

“Every house up until this point has prepared me for this moment – like, bring out all the best ideas,” she says.

“But I think at the time, I was so scared to get it wrong.

“And then I’m like, you know what? These are the best ideas for 2022 and 2023. But I’m allowed to change it. And I will.”

A bold archway which resembles a cross with painted pastel purple and green walls and connects the bedroom with a seating area is the highlight of the home’s interior.

Ahenkan was inspired after seeing fashion designer Peter Pilotto’s reimagined historical townhouse in London – a bold assortment of unconventional colour and curves – as part of the London Design Festival.

“He had a similar archway and I was like, THAT! This is what I’m talking about,” she says.

“I thought my favourite room would be the room with the archway because it’s a lot. But I think my favourite room is actually like a silent hero, which is the living room.”

Ahenkan had been producing interior design content for over five years which had built a cult following in awe of her distinctive aesthetic.

“It was unusual in the way that I was, you know, sourcing secondary materials and DIY things from scratch and had a very particular aesthetic,” she says.

“I remember every time that I would switch out my apartment, and therefore switch out my aesthetic, and do all these DIY videos, people would be like, ‘oh my goodness, I really wish I could go to your home’, ‘I really wish I could stay in your home’.”

After buying her Tasmanian home, Ahenkan had started producing renovation content for her followers.

Fans soon began reaching out to her asking to see a tour of the house and the possibility of booking a stay.

“Piecemeal here and there, people asking, and I was like, I don’t even know how that works,” she says.

It felt like honouring a natural request for Ahenkan who decided to accommodate the wishes of her followers. She listed the home on Airbnb where people can stay for a minimum of two nights.

“I think it’s hard for people to conceptualise that when you live your life that is for consumption, there is the presumption that everything you do has a consumption element,” she says.

Ahenkan’s first booking request was from a couple who were visiting Hobart for the first time over the Christmas period.

“They were like, ‘I just want to stay in something really beautiful and memorable with my fiance because we can’t really afford to do the whole shebang’ and I was like, ‘that’s really nice. I’m gonna figure it out’,” she says.

More and more requests flooded Ahenkan’s inbox.

Couples wanting to share their anniversary there. Others wanting to stay for ceremonial events.

Ahenkan is humbled and flattered with the amount of interest she has received from sharing her interior design, which was originally created just for herself.

She doesn’t believe the average person would want to walk into a green room with a purple archway.

“The people who are interested, or have expressed interest in staying, have a real appreciation, not only for my design and aesthetics … but it feels like an extension of me and ‘You like what I made? You like what I created’. Like, yeah, you should get to experience it,” she says.

Underneath the excitement of sharing her hard work, Ahenkan will always feel possessive over her brainchild.

And one day, in the not-too-distant future she will finally move into her Dodges Ferry home permanently.

“Like all of my consumption-based things I do on the internet, there is a point where I’m like no but it’s mine. I want it for me,” she says.