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…

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Renovation

Interiors

Lifestyle

Travel

Latest Blogs…

Renovation

garden wall construction begins…

garden wall construction begins…

Having lived for six years now with the view out of our living room window being the small stone house we purchased from a neighbour, things are going to be looking very different, very soon. The vine...

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the demolition of our small stone house

the demolition of our small stone house

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...

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getting plastered…

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...

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an anniversary…

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...

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Interiors

lluna aqua hotel : sóller : mallorca

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 completed and the hotel only...

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window shelving…

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 living room, are still in their...

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decoupage doors…

decoupage doors…

Decoupage or découpage is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and other decorative elements. Commonly, an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts...

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grey & white, with a woodland vibe…

grey & white, with a woodland vibe…

We've never had so much space and shape to play with before, in any of the houses or flats we've lived in, and our stone house has proven itself to be a complete source of surprises. Each time we think we've finished somewhere, we see something else that could be...

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Lifestyle

the easiest recipe, ever…

the easiest recipe, ever…

If you are a fan of curry, then this is a perfect recipe. I found this on Instagram, and just had to give it a go as I couldn't believe that a curry - or, soup, as the recipe calls it - could be anywhere near tasty with so few ingredients. How wrong was I? It...

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ikea mash soup…

ikea mash soup…

Yep, you saw that right. We really did use a packet of IKEA frozen mash in a recent soup recipe. And, believe you me, it was a bit of a game-changer. Our freezer often has a few packets of this particular brand of mash - containing apparently 82% potato - because of...

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sprout and stilton cheese quiche

sprout and stilton cheese quiche

Stilton cheese and brussel sprouts, combined, to form the filling for a quiche. I mean, what's not to love? We adapted this recipe slightly - the original recipe called for the sprouts to be halved and steamed, but we wanted them to be shredded, so did things a little...

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structural gardens

structural gardens

Over the years, our gardens have evolved. The front garden has become more private as we have had walls constructed, not only to denote our boundaries, but also to provide us with privacy. The rear garden had been designed from scratch, after the demolition of our...

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Travel

lake bled : slovenia

lake bled : slovenia

Autumn is our favourite time of year to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. It's only just over a couple of hours from our home in Istria, and if coupled with a break in Ljubljana, it makes the perfect out of season get away. The little town of Bled, on the shores of the...

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the redipuglia war memorial

the redipuglia war memorial

Redipuglia is pretty unremarkable Italian town, on the road out from Trieste. We usually pass through it on our way to IKEA. It's one of those Italian towns where the houses sit alongside the road - it always seems as if everyone lives on the roadside, as detached...

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Šibenik : dalmatia coast : croatia

Šibenik : dalmatia coast : croatia

Although we've now lived in Croatia (Istria, to be exact) over six years, and we've done lots of exploring, we are still yet to discover the hotspots of Split and Dubrovnik and the more southerly islands. It's not out of lack of interest or for want of trying, but...

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art hotel tartini : piran : slovenia

art hotel tartini : piran : slovenia

Piran, on the tiny sliver of Slovenian coastline, is very close to our home - about 35kms, through beautiful countryside and across the border, which now, thanks to Croatia joining the Schengen Zone, is open and we have free passage. Hurrah! Recently, we visited this...

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