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…
Renovation
Interiors
Lifestyle
Travel
Latest Blogs…
Kitchen Makeover Time
The kitchen was the first room in our Istrian stone house to receive the full renovation treatment. The units we had inherited were ripped out, the flooring taken out, the ceiling taken down, a new window installed, brand new units and appliances fitted and under...
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Les Jardins de Villa Maroc, Essaouira
It’s always great having friends in-the-know when you travel abroad, as they often give you top tips that you don’t find in guide-books or through internet searches. Because usually you don’t know about these places and so don’t search on them. One of these gems...
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Please Do Your Homework…
If there's one thing we do in this whole process of attempting to sell our renovated home in Istria, it's provide information - LOTS OF IT - so that anyone who is potentially interested in it, can make an informed decision about whether it's right for them, very early...
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The Dolphin Suites, Veli Lošinj
After a long hiatus from travel, and after getting our second vaccinations, we decided to do a bit of exploring this summer. Croatia has managed the pandemic well, so far and so we felt comfortable about beginning to explore where we live. Travel in the past has...
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Lluna Aqua Hotel, Sóller, Mallorca
When we last visited Mallorca, one of the hotels we booked was the Lluna Aqua Hotel in Sóller. Housed in a traditional Mallorcan townhouse, which we were told had been empty for over eighty years, the renovation had only recently been...
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A Vision : From Beautiful Home to Boutique Hotel
Our renovated house, in beautiful northern Istria, is for sale. We have thought since Day One, that it would sell to people like us. People who wanted to either live in it it full time, or use it as a holiday home, for themselves, family and friends. We think this...
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Brondo Architect Hotel, Palma
Over the last few years, we’ve been very lucky to be able to pack in a huge amount of travel – as well as actually move abroad, relocating from Manchester to Istria, in northern Croatia. We’ve spent the last couple of years renovating a stone house and exploring our...
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The Secret Garden
So, the last renovation blog detailed the thinking behind creating the Secret Garden. Although it's not a real Secret Garden - it's pretty obvious it's there when you look out of the living room window - it feels quite secret, when you're in it. And, we are delighted...
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A Bit of Bling
In the olden days, when I wanted to up-cycle something, out would come the paint pots and brushes. Faffy and fiddly and usually waiting ages for the paint to dry. And because I am ridiculously impatient, I'd try and pick up or move...
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Growing Our Own
2022 is going to be Grow Our Own year. We've tinkered around the edges of growing vegetables and herbs before, but it's always been pretty half-hearted as far too much else has been going on in and around the garden. We've had minor success with lettuce and tomatoes...
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Mallorca : One To Avoid…
It’s hard to imagine that there could really be anywhere to avoid on Mallorca. We’d discounted Magaluf, as unfortunately we’re no longer in our early twenties, and so, when booking places to stay, we were pretty confident that every place we chose, would be a winner....
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Creating A Secret Garden
Whilst we've spent the best part of the last four and a half years, fully renovating our Istrian stone-house and creating beautiful gardens to the front and side of the property, the rear has been woefully neglected. We've tried to titivate it up, but it's never...
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Window Shelving
One of the things that we've always meant to tackle, but never got around to it, as there always seem to be other jobs which take priority, is the levelling of a number of our window sills. Some are level, but some, including one in the...
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The Easiest Irish Soda-bread
Like everyone else in lock-down, we tried our hands at bread-making. Not the arduous kind of bread where you have to proove it for days. More the kind that you knock up in a bread maker. We did have success although we did still find even using the machine to be a...
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Vrbnik, Krk Island, Croatia
This was originally posted in August 2019, so all pre-Covid, when we could all travel much more freely... As well as family and friends coming out to visit us in Istria, we now have the opportunity to meet up with people who come to Croatia on holiday. We still find...
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