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…
demolition : update 1
the story of the little stone house When we bought our house in Istria six years ago, this little tumble down cottage sat to the rear of it.There are lots of properties like this scattered across Istria and Croatia. There are many reasons for the properties being...
the well room : a makeover
With Spring knocking on the door and a house to get back on the market, we've been beavering away at the interior of our home since New Year. Now that we are also seriously looking at other properties to buy, we're seeing things slightly differently and have realised...
spicy salmon curry
I had to share this recipe as it's the easiest - and easily most delicious - curry, we've made in a long time. And, we are trying to extend our curry repertoire as we currently don't have Indian or Nepalese or Thai restaurants on our doorstep. so this has been a find...
free passage : croatia : schengen zone
When we moved to Istria in 2017, we knew that at some point in the future, the country would be allowed to join the Schengen Zone and there would be no more border checks, between Croatia and Slovenia. And Hungary, but we never cross any of these borders. We kept...
new year : new project : the house
Summer 2022 ended with a bit of a whimper of the house front, as we reluctantly made the decision to take the house off the market and give up on our dream of The Printworks - the property we had secured which we hoped would become our open plan, super modern, dream...
a place for dinner
Although we are lucky enough to have a few options regarding where we can eat, sometimes we just want to eat in the living room, where the big woodburner is and where we can watch TV. When we've done this in the past, it's had to be on...
homemade hummus : a recipe
I've dabbled in the past with making homemade hummus, but it's never become a habit. Hummus is so widely available that it just seemed a bit of a faff, and I could ever get a consistent recipe that I was happy with. When we lived in West Didsbury this was fine, as we...
los caracoles : frigiliana : andalucia : spain
On a drive, high up in the Andalucian hills, above the white washed town of Frigiliana and the coastal town of Torox, we spotted some very unusual shapes ahead of us. White domes, almost hobbit-like, overlooking the sea. From the roadside, they looked a bit forlorn,...
getting plastered…
Throughout the house, in most of the rooms - apart from the ones we have totally taken apart and renovated - there is still evidence of it being an original Istrian house. A lot of the walls are either fully plastered, or at least, partially. And where they are only...
the *unfinished* apartment : citta alta : bergamo
Although we've largely finished the renovations of our stone house, I can always find something else that needs to be done. So, effectively, it always "unfinished". But not on the scale of these properties, which have been designed to be...
our friend, the mosaicist…
Many years ago, when we had a website called Didsbury Life, promoting independent businesses in Didsbury and West Didsbury, we had a beautiful office, right on Burton Road. We designed the logo for this business and commissioned our very talented friend, Amanda, to...
antiq palace hotel : ljubljana : slovenia
In the heart of Ljubljana city centre, a distinctive stone archway marks the entrance to Antiq Palace, a luxury 16th century palace hotel. Designed originally as the residential palace of noble Slovenian families, it’s now part of the Historic Hotels of Europe group....
an anniversary…
Sunday 16th October 2016 saw us meeting up with the couple who we were buying our Istrian home from, and staying over in the house. With hindsight, all a bit bizarre. But then, not much about this adventure has been normal, so I guess we started off as we were meant...
string curtains…
Our bedrooms are not overlooked and so we don't necessarily need curtains at the windows. But sometimes, curtains - or a simple roller blind - can just finish off a window. We have installed white roller blinds in all of the window...
christmas : 2022
Well, that's almost a Christmas wrap. We've spent the last few days hunkered down, with the wood-burners on, lights twinkling, candles flickering and eating all manner of luxurious food at the most inappropriate times of the day. Chocolates for breakfast, with a tot...
venice : italy : december 22
The last couple of years have been a bit crazy, haven't they? Travel, in the early days, was for very obvious reasons much curtailed and so for a long time we didn't get to see family and friends in person. Thank goodness that we do live in an age, though, where...