This is my favourite part of any renovation; making the house a home with creative ideas and interior design. There was never a real theme in mind, other than wanting the cottage to have an element of Greece, to have natural and simple designs that would not look outdated with time.
The walls are an art form in themselves so we decided to leave them clutter free of pictures.
Having used new pine wood to replace the old, this quickly darkens to orange in colour.
A good flood of light from the windows and the pale stone allowed us to choose an oak stain for the floor, gabled ceiling, stairs and utility ceiling.
A daunting task... I set myself two weeks to complete upstairs and down. Maverick 'reaches parts others cannot reach'. A mammoth job but what a 'wow!' when finished.
On entering the the cottage a partitioning wall separates the entrance lobby area from the small kitchen. We used shiny corrugated iron to add some texture. This is a well used material in Greece but rarely seen indoors, so this naturally created some conversation among our Greek visitors.
The wooden seat was the plank passerelle from our second yacht.
It took some persuasion for Maverick to accept my idea of using rebar for stair spindles. But after a wire brushing and polyethylene coating to prevent rusting they looked fabulous; giving a rustic look and cheaper than mass produced wooden stair spindles.
We injected splashes of colour by adding vibrant orange contemporary dining chairs, bright rag rugs, cushions and handmade throws.
Lace curtains dressed the french doors adding a softness and a barrier to insects.
We treated ourselves to the largest of tables; it will last a lifetime. Great for dinner parties and as a working table for baking and crafting. Finished with large drop lighting from the beams and occasional lighting with an up-cycled shade the open plan area now has a warm ambiance for evening dining during winter months.
We fitted a pulley clothes airer above the log burner. This is a great environmentally friendly way to dry laundry in the winter. It gives me a homely cosiness just looking at it.
After tiling the kitchen with a traditional Greek mosaic design we added a few finishing touches that turned this basic Ikea kitchen into something more bespoke on a budget.; A spice rack and kitchen towel holder (made from an old pelmet), kilner jars, infused olive oil, traditional lace doilies, and under unit lighting.
Downstairs our personal view was that the bedrooms needn't be large as we valued the space elsewhere. Maverick made sliding sturdy barn doors as a great space saver.
The bedroom side tables Maverick made from wood off-cuts to fit the spaces perfectly.
The ceilings and walls are all painted white to give both bedrooms a light cool airiness. The whitewash paint technique is new to the elderly Greek villagers. My neighbour could not grasp why i was painting and they wiping it off with a rag.
The wetroom/bathroom unit I up-cycled from a gifted pine dresser. We cut out the centre shelf and added a mirror and overhead light to create a large vanity/storage unit. We made a toilet unit to match using wood off-cuts. I made a bathroom rag rug using re-cycled t shirts.
The laundry/utility area was kept simple and functional with its Belfast sink and rustic lighting. The units and work surfaces are the same as the upstairs kitchen.
Handmade gifts adorn our home, with old objects we found downstairs, in favour of chintzy miss-matched ornaments.
The significance of the pomegranate in ancient Greece......The pomegranate fruit has been used throughout history and in virtually every religion as a symbol of humanity's central beliefs and ideals, namely, life and death, rebirth and eternal life, fertility and marriage and abundance.
Every beautiful home should have them.
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