hello…
We are not interior designers. This website is not about us predicting trends or telling you how to design your home or which accessories are this season’s “must-haves”. It is about us sharing a very personal journey – one which has made us really think more about design and how it affects the way we now live our lives.
Our current journey started in 2017, when we sold our home in West Didsbury, Manchester. We’d lived in the mid-terraced, three bedroomed house since 2000, but had recently renovated it, creating a very unusual, completely open plan space. This gave us a craving for more space. To be somewhere which didn’t have houses to each side of us and to the back and to the front. To be able to see the sunset, not other roof tops. We took a complete leap of faith and sold the Manchester house, buying a stone house, high up in the hills in northern Istria, Croatia and set off on a very new journey.
We really hit the ground running and from day one, had to get our heads around not only sourcing tradespeople and materials but also considering what we wanted our new home to be like. Underpinning our thought processes, was the constant idea that we wanted to create something which was unique and bespoke – and as far from the traditional interior of an Istrian house as possible. We wanted to get to know our new environment and feel the house and understand the space. We wanted space, light and clean lines. We wanted our style, but we knew it would evolve. It would take time. It would become Slow Design…
And now, some seven years later, it’s all happening again. We’ve sold our home in Istria and have brought our Slow Design philosophy to southern Andalucia, where we have bought a traditional Spanish townhouse. The slow renovation begins again.
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Renovation
Interiors
Lifestyle
Travel
Latest Blogs…
Renovation
andalucian reno journey #3 : main bathroom
It's been a while since I've done a post about our renovation journey, because we've so busy since actually moving into the house - at long last! - on 26th August. The builders finally departed a week later (but will be returning to finish the kitchen), so we've been...
andalucian reno journey #3 : stairs
The stairs up to the roof terrace, from the first floor, were awful. Just awful. Steep, enclosed and dark. They were so awful in fact, that we gave our builders a bit of a head-scratcher and said we wanted to investigate accessing the roof terrace from the internal...
spanish tiles
Our lovely Andalucian townhouse, when we bought it, was full of tiles. But unfortunately, most weren't those beautiful Spanish tiles that we all swoon over. They were mostly patterned, but arranged in the most migraine inducing way - a really terrible mix of colours...
andalucian reno journey #2 : main bathroom
Unlike previous renovations, when we've actually lived in the properties as they were being renovated, this time, we have lived in an apartment, by the sea, a good couple of hours drive away. Each trip over to the house, is over a four hour round trip, and so we...
Interiors
fabricoat fabric paint
Yep. Another one of those things, like the butter bell, I had not heard of until recently. Fabric paint. Paint for your fabrics and furnishings. How this has passed me by, is beyond me, but here we are. Until I saw a post on Instagram, and started to investigate what...
hostal aljibe : archidona : andalucia
Sometimes, you find somewhere to stay, that is just so exceptionally beautiful, you spend your whole stay, drinking in the interiors, the exterior, the accessories and accessorisation, and just well, the whole thing. On our roadtrip across Spain, we've been so lucky...
la posada del mar : denia : costa blanca
Denia holds some lovely memories for us. Over twenty five years ago, we rented a big villa with a pool and holidayed there with friends. None of us had very much money and a two week holiday was a big outlay, but we had such a great time. We have briefly re-visited...
rattan
Our thoughts are beginning to really turn to what could be a whole new life for us. Although we are not over the line yet, we are as close as we have been to selling our home in Istria and relocating to Andalucia. It's close, but at the same time, until the ink has...
Lifestyle
sunday roast cravings : satisfied
We love our new lives in Andalucia and are immersing ourselves as much as we possibly can, mid-renovation. Sometimes though, especially in the cooler months - and this is why my thoughts are turning to this now, as we enter October - we crave certain things that were...
pizza express : alcaidesa
*This is NOT a sponsored blog post. We paid in full for all food and drink.* Living in Andalucia, we are certainly not short of excellent food options. Obviously tapas restaurants abound, and we've yet to find one that isn't really good quality, most being pretty...
the best bug zapper we’ve found so far…
Since moving to warmer climes in Europe, we've become quite adept at dealing with bugs and mosquitoes. One of the first things we had installed in our house in northern Istria, were insect blinds at every window. These were much needed, as mosquitoes in particular,...
the butter bell
Have to admit, until fairly recently, we'd never heard of the butter bell. We just did what I suppose most people do - keep the butter in fridge, where it's always too hard and cold. Or, leave it out in a butter dish and return to a swimming pool of buttery oil in...
Travel
la fonda heritage hotel : marbella old town
Located in the heart of the beautiful old town of Marbella, where purple bougainvillea adorn the traditional whitewashed houses, La Fonda is an oasis where you can relax in the utmost comfort. Behind the walls of La Fonda is a historical jewel that hides the...
one night in estepona
Recently, we were lucky to be able to escape the chaos of our renovation and have a night in Estepona, where we met an old Manchester friend, who was out visiting family. We'd only drive around Estepona before, and had only really seen any of it, on programmes like "A...
medina sidonia : andalucia
Before we started researching areas, as possible places to buy a property and relocate to, I don't think we'd heard of Medina Sidonia before. However, the name resonated with us, creating visions of Moroccan medinas. Deep in the south west of Andalucia, the town is...
hotel la almoraima : castellar de la frontera : andalusia
We're now increasingly finding that we need to be a bit more hands on with the house renovation, and need to factor in time to get across to Jimena de la Frontera to meet with Jose, the project manager, more often. Or be in San Roque where all of the house...
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