Update: Photos from our project

The new year has just started and it's already February! While Angelo works on our project in Pizzo - the wooden and tile flooring now is all done - I am sitting at my desk in Bangkok searching online for some decent outdoor furniture. Calabria has not yet been discovered by IKEA & co and so it is not easy to find cool stuff. Beside having done some shopping in Northern Italy lately, ordering online seems a good solution to save time, but not being able to see and touch what you get and shipping cost to the most distant region of the Italian mainland are the downside. And while we are working on getting the apartments furnished before early summer, I get already many booking enquiries. I am really delighted to see that we get credits for our 5 star rated hospitality. But of course, our potential guests want to see photos! - Photos? But it's not furnished! - However, Angelo sends us on our what's app group (yes, that's how we manage another long distance project) almost daily updates. Although these are not for advertisement, I am posting them today as an update from the project side. And I promise the furnishing will be as nice as in our residence: a mix of old and new decorated with local art. Expect nice shots mid April. For now, please accept that we are at this state:

Dependance: entrance area from the street with view into second bedroom

Dependance: The second bedroom with small balcony facing the sea and restored stone wall 

Dependance: living room with passage to the kitchen and restored original stone wall

Dependance: living room and restored original stone wall - I am curious myself how the staircase leading to the attic will look like ...

Dependance: restored wooden ceiling

Dependance: roof terrace detail (wrought iron railing still coming)

Dependance: roof terrace stone bench (wrought iron railing still coming)

Dependance: kitchen not yet delivered but floor tiles look great!

Dependance: open window in the kitchen with a view

Dependance: kitchen will be on the left, passage to living room, kitchen balcony

Dependance: master bedroom with original stone wall and small balcony 

The house: Studio Bellavista entrance below left, Dependance entrance upstairs

Studio: entrance and kitchen area

Studio Bellavista: The bedroom with a small balcony facing the sea

Studio Bellavista: living room with 2 windows facing the sea

Studio: balcony of bedroom facing the sea 

All photos by Angelo, shot with his phone and sent via what's app group. Please expect big progress in April and more photos on the way. 

Bathroom: Can't take my eyes of subway tiles

A beautiful mix of three different shapes of white tiles, separated by a thin border of black tiles and finished with a pastell mint wall paint - I am impressed by this composition ! 

Not sure via which blog I found the above picture, but the photo below is from another blog and it shows the the same bathroom! So, I proudly present both pics together in one blog :

I just can't take my eyes of subway tiles

Subway tiles (on walls) are often combines with hexagon tiles on the floor. Here above with tiny, mosaic type hexa tiles.

But you can do it easier and cheaper, but not less interesting with square tiles :

Just another bathroom of ours ...

Rectangular subway tiles on the walls and square tiles, diagonally layed on the floor

Since we had not made any further specifications than "green" wall colour, our son (7 y.) actual favorite colour, Angelo used the leftover paint from downstairs and added a border of his choice. I think it looks super good, especially when you see the "matching" green leaves through the bathroom window and ....

.... a bit of sea view

More about this bathroom later with before & after pics.

More Green in the Green Bath

Remember the green bathroom with the beautiful ceiling? Now the walls and floor are finished too and worth to post about. We have chosen a green mosaic for the "wet" areas - sink, shower, toilet and bidet - the latter not yet installed.

Actually, CC had chosen the mosaic after one of my Internet finds. And Angelo has chosen a matching colour and stucco border. And it was CC's idea to repeat a bit of green mosaic in the terracotta flooring.

Initially, I wanted two single sinks as I did not wanted to queue for hand washing when coming home from the beach. Also I thought of using one as a utility sink to rinse swim wear. However, at the end, to safe space and reduce interruptions, we agreed on one long sink with two faucets. I just learned that this solution was probably more expensive then two sinks.

I like our idea to have a stucco border to finish the mosaic area and to paint the other wall parts below the stucco border in a darker green. Similar like in the original green room.

Above you see on the left that the shower is installed - and a bit of the restored ceiling.

In this green painted corner (above) we will install a washing machine. I know..., but it has to be somewhere in the house. (If it does not look nice, I will have built a wooden frame.)

Above picture (without flash) shows again the nice floor - and walls ! 

Above: floor in the making

Below: floor finished (terra cotta con mosaico)

Here some BEFORE pictures:

Above: Splitting the "green room" to gain a bathroom. One old niche, on the left, where the sink of the old bathroom used to be (however in reverse direction) remained and now is hosting the shower in the new bathroom.

I wanted to keep that "green room subject": a two colour wall with stucco border.

Below: my "inspiration sheet" for the bathroom - we pretty much kept the theme.

But at the end, the ceiling turned out much better than planned, thanks to Angelo's artistic talent:

Above: ceiling BEFORE restoration

Above: ceiling AFTER restoration

The Green Bath Room Ceiling with BEFORE and AFTER pics

amazing restored ceiling of the "green room"

At the beginning, when we overtook the house, there was only one room painted in "original" colours (all others were painted white). And that room became then our "green room".

Later, we decided to have a larger kitchen by giving in the space of the former bathroom. So, the new bathroom had to be part of the "green room". There was no way around, we had to remodel it by building in a wall and split it into two spaces. By doing so, the ceiling stucco pattern was interrupted. However, we decided to restore it as good as possible and even use the same colour scheme as before: pale green, and pale rose for the ceiling with white stucco ornaments.

And here is the result !

Angelo did again an amazing job ! Bellissimo ! Grazie !

walls are painted with "smalto" (water-repellent paint)

Below, see the BEFORE pictures :

I am not sure in which corner of the "green room" I took these pictures (above), since I took them some years ago... But when the wall was installed that separates now the coming new bathroom from a kind of side entrance and storage area, the pattern of the ceiling stucco looked like in the picture below :

ceiling stucco interrupted by new wall

my "photoshopped" proposal for Angelo

But he did a much better job ! What a surprise !

Coming next :
Walls: pale green and a darker green, eg. Pea or Saxon green by Farrow & Ball, for the lower part with a white stucco border inbetween the two colours. We have ordered mosaico tiles for the wet areas and terra cotta tiles for the flooring.

narrow bathroom with arch

This is a bathroom I saw a while ago over at desire to inspire. It cought my attention because we also do have one narrow bathroom with a shower at the end. We still have not found the right tiles for the walls and flooring. I somehow like the above solution for that situation. It looks very clean and natural. I wonder if the bathroom has natural light, and if yes were it comes from .

That's why I was impressed by this simple solution in the first picture.

A calm and basic look would suit maybe our bath - that, so far, looks like this:

 

The view is from the entrance: Under the arch will be the toilet. Around the corner on the left will be the sink. And around the corner on the right, at the end, the shower. A dark narrow tunnel (much shorter though that the other bath above). No natural light.

 

Above, more pictures from different angles - this is part of another PowerPoint presentation by CC.

And for the better understanding, below, the floor plan:

(click on pic to enlarge)

And to see our progress, below, one ugly before photo :

 

We enlarged this space by breaking through the wall on the left and taking away some 80 cm from the guest/office room to add a shower to the bathroom. The arch remains and will host the new toilet.

Our first idea for the end of our narrow tunnel (on the left) was an eye catcher by Bisazza. We thought that the a red coral motif (below) would look great for the shower. But the tunnel / shower is only 80 cm wide and while the motif comes in 129 cm wide. If you take away 40% of the motif, it has not the same effect. And of course it is a waist of money, as it would not be ideal to use on the other wall as well. When you shower in a narrow place and you have this mosaic in front of you, I think, you might feel dizzy and your eyes get crazy...

Therefore, still in my filing are the following pictures:

 

I always had this photo (from a magazine) in mind.

I like the red, warm, cozy atmosphere. And the fake coral deco.  

But after we deem the coral mosaic not suitable, we only found these:

 

by Bisazza, but somehow boring if on floor and walls

 

Slightly better: mosaic by SICIS for the shower and sink area, square tiles (by de Maio) for the flooring

 

to understand better what is on the floor and what on the wall

Alternatively: one of these mosaic tiles could be for the floor

 

.... or these colourful stripes for the floor ( by la moderna manifattura) and water resistend paint for the walls ? Maybe even golden tiles, like in the 3rd page of this powerpoint presentation (made by CC).

 

... mmh, I can't resist Vietri tiles, especially when they are put together in that mosaic style... I picture a Vietri carpet that at the end of the shower goes up the wall till the ceiling. The other walls would be white, tiles and/or paint.

Interesting kind of Greek style antique looking flooring (by la moderna manifattura).

 

Or after all this beautiful blue Bisazza mosaic (Paola) ?

Since we have seen all this and still have no solution, none of the above will be realised. The room does not bare too much or too big pattern. Unless we want a cave feeling we should go for natural, light & bright colour and reflecting material.

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you can click on all pictures to enlarge (except the first one)