'I'M STILL DEALING WITH IMPOSTER SYNDROME'

The Repair Shop expert Dominic Chinea opens up about his struggles with TV success, and what's prompted his life-changing relocation to Cornwall

- WORDS: JEN PHARO PHOTOS: TOBY ADAMSON

Working on The Repair Shop and listening to people’s moving tales from the past has given the show’s metalwork expert Dominic Chinea an epiphany: life is too short for regrets.

Which is why he’s decided to up sticks from Kent to Cornwall with his wife, Maria, and their dog, Wendy, to inhabit a dilapidated stone farmhouse with a ramshackle dairy building he can turn into the workshop of his dreams.

“It's a huge, life-changing decision,” says Dominic, 39. “I love it. It is like my holiday, and we're so lucky to be there. The landscape down there is just beautiful.”

Dominic has always loved the Cornish way of life, and his trips to the county have always given him plenty of ideas for new creations.

“Working on The Repair Shop you get reminded sometimes that life’s too short,” says Dominic, reflecting on what's driven his move. “So why not just do it now? I'd rather try and regret having done it, than be old and regret not trying it.”

Dominic will tell the tale of his move in a new TV show called Dom Chinea’s Cornish Workshop for U&Yesterday. On the show, he'll enlist local tradespeople to help him and, in return, he'll help them with projects, such as creating a bespoke ice cream van for one neighbour.

“It's basically a very real series where they're following me getting down there, settling in, building my workshop and meeting the locals,” explains Dominic.

And it’s not just the workshop that needs some TLC; the house could do with a makeover — but Dominic’s a lot less interested in that.

“The house, unfortunately, is absolutely bottom of the list,” he confesses. “I’m up to my eyeballs in trying to do the workshop. The floor’s uneven, there are no walls, the roof’s leaking, there’s no power... It’s a nightmare.