Gnome sweet home! Man who keeps 240 figurines in the back garden reveals it takes five hours to maintain them and admits his partner is ‘not a fan’
- Dave Robinson has collected hundreds of garden gnomes in the last five years
- Cornwall-based Dave admitted it takes five hours to paint them in one sitting
- But despite his passion for the gnomes, some viewers were left unimpressed
A man has revealed he has 240 gnomes in his back garden on This Morning – but admitted his partner isn’t a fan.
Dave Robinson, from Cornwall, has hundreds of the figurines which he has collected in the last five years – and admitted it takes five hours to paint and maintain them in one sitting.
But despite Dave’s passion for the garden gnomes, some viewers were left uninspired by his hobby and suggested the items would be giving them ‘nightmares’.
It comes as research showed sales of garden gnomes have increased by 20 per cent in lockdown.
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Dave Robinson (pictured), from Cornwall, has hundreds of garden gnomes which he has collected in the last five years – and admitted it takes five hours to paint and maintain them in one sitting
But despite Dave’s passion for the garden gnomes (pictured), some viewers were left uninspired by his hobby and suggested the items would be giving them ‘nightmares’
Speaking to presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, Dave explained how his collection started five years ago.
He said: ‘It started about five years ago, when the Queen had her jubilee and my dad went into Asda and he noticed they had this giant gnome queen and he came home and told me and I saw it and thought that’s cute.
‘But our garden was so overgrown [so I thought it would] look terrible in it, but after a couple of days I thought “do you know, one gnome will look nice, maybe two or three”.
‘And I went up to get her but she’d sold out so I ended up driving half way around Cornwall and I ended up finding her and a knight and a mother gnome and some children, and then they got a dog and a cat and a granny and grandad and it just sort of built from there.
Reaction: Viewers weren’t impressed with Dave’s gnomes, with one person writing: ‘Cheers for the nightmares’
However it wasn’t all negative reviews for Dave’s collection, with one person writing: ‘I love the passion he has for his gnomes’
Discussing the maintenance of his collection, Dave added: ‘It’s a nightmare, I used to spray them all with this lacquer and it would protect them but because Cornwall’s quite sunny at times I started repainting and it can take me around five hours.’
Dave joked he’d soon need a bigger house, and admitted he’d travelled as far as Doncaster to add to his gnomes, filling his car with 20 of the figurines.
‘I mean it’s an acquired taste so if you can put up with my gnomes then me, well you’re onto a winner,’ Dave quipped, after confessing his partner wasn’t keen on the collection.
But viewers weren’t impressed with Dave’s gnomes, with one person writing: ‘Cheers for the nightmares.’
Another said: ‘Gosh this man is cringe’, but a third insisted: ‘I love the passion he has for his gnomes.’
Speaking to presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, Dave explained how his collection (pictured) started five years ago