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
Latest Blogs…
Spring Project
We knew we had to tackle this part of the garden, because it was overgrown, messy, full of stones and rubble from previous renovation works and the trees were literally being strangled by vines and brambles.The little stone wall was falling down in places, and in...
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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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Hail the Hasselbacks
I can eat a potato in any guise. They form a staple of our culinary output : creamy mashed potatoes with coconut milk cheesy mashed potatoes, usually on top of a shepherd's pie or a fish pie home made chips in the oven - always thinly sliced, cooked in olive oil and...
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Spring Planning in the Garden
I finally feel we're coming to the end of a very long winter. Although we've still got to see February out - and this is the month when for the past four years, we've had snowfall in Istria - there are signs of spring. The bulbs we planted around the base of a big...
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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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Simple Supper, No Fuss
Sometimes, all you want, is the simplest meal, which doesn't take forever, uses just one roasting tin and packs an absolute punch in terms of flavours. And this is just what this meal provides. Wildly tasty, and if you like your cheese on the strong-side, this...
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The Start of Something New
2020, as everyone knows, was a pretty unbelievable year, all round. If someone had told me the following, in January 2020, I'd have thought they were daft: that we'd have to have official travel permits to drive to the supermarket that wearing a mask would become the...
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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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Brussels Sprouts Risotto
Yes, you read that right. A risotto with brussels sprouts. A rich, blue cheesy, creamy risotto packed with those little green globes of gorgeousness. You might guess that I love a sprout - and if you're also a fan, I promise you too will love this. However, if sprouts...
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It’s A Filthy Job – But Someone’s Go To Do It…
Ah, Christmas Eve. Snuggled up on the sofa, the woodburner roaring away, lights twinkling, candles flickering, the scent of mulled wine filling the room as we wrap gifts and eat chocolates and watch festive films. That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's certainly...
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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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Life For Sale
Plans have a habit of changing, don't they? Not so long ago, we were preparing to work on a number of other Life sites, promoting other local, independent businesses and communities. In order to make this happen, we purchased a number of domain names and started to...
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