Inside our Menorca Home
Happy New Year to you all – it feels to me already that Christmas was so long ago. Does it feel the same for you?! It’s always at this time of year that I start to seriously daydream about sunshine, beaches and G&Ts at sunset.
So far our holiday planning has been a bit limited this year, as we have the cottage project still ongoing (due for completion late February and I will be SO excited to share it with you) and then hopefully another project (details to be revealed soon) starting straight afterwards.
I am sneaking away on a yoga retreat next month though, which will be much needed and then we will be in Menorca in Spring for a week or two getting the house ready for the new season.
We are putting in pool heating this winter, which will be SO exciting! We will mainly use the house out of the main summer season, so will make such a difference for us, but also for those of you who book in Spring or Autumn. The weather stays beautiful and balmy in the daytime, but the pool gets cold as the nights are much cooler then.
I meant to share this sooner, but life, work, toddler and Christmas sort of got in the way a bit, but here are the rest of the rooms in the house.
I shared a kitchen tour last year, which is one of my favourite spaces – so light, bright and happy, which to be honest was how I wanted to the whole house to feel. You can see the before pictures on this blog post – the décor wasn’t very cheerful and was also very dated, so we wanted to bring it up to date and give it an injection of fun!
One of the biggest changes we made was to change the flooring from traditional tile to wood throughout. I just prefer the feel of wood underfoot, especially in the cooler months and it gives the house a much cosier feel. Because Menorca is a very humid island in the winter, we knew that solid or engineered boards would be too risky and were thrilled when we discovered a lovely composite option from Havwoods. It is a great product and has made such a difference to the house.
The other thing I knew from the start of the design, was that I would paint the interiors all in one colour. Traditionally houses in the Balearics tend to keep the walls simple and painted white, but I wanted a slightly softer tone, so opted for the lovely Strong White by Farrow & Ball. It’s such a versatile and classic colour.
When it came to the bathrooms I wanted to have a bit of fun. I injected colour with tiles – the master bedroom has a lovely pink en suite and there is another bedroom with a blue and white tile mix. All the tiles in the house (including the stunning blue and white one of the main terrace) are all from Artisans of Devizes, a brand I have been using for all my projects over the last few years. They have the most amazing range of both styles and prices and I just love them. The quality and customer service is amazing too.
As the house isn’t an old finca, but a villa built in the 1990s I chose to make the bathrooms more modern with sinks, taps etc and went to Lusso Stone for all of these. Their taps, shower heads etc are gorgeous, great value and quality and I chose aged brass throughout. With the lighting, I used another of my favourite suppliers, Fritz Fryer and interesting to note that all these brands could easily ship to Menorca without huge additional costs.
For furniture, I focussed on fab high-street brands such as Made.com, La Redoute, Maison du Monde and Westwing, all of which ship directly to the island. Because it’s a holiday rental I wanted to make it look and feel elegant and stylish, but without breaking the bank and these brands are perfect for that.
I then accessorised with some fabulous and fun art – think Slim Aarons, Nina Brooke, Jessica Zoob, Andy Warhol and Kristin Gaudio Endsley, with some amazing photography from Tommy Clarke and the Crane Calman Gallery in Brighton. I think the artwork is so important to bring character and life to a space – I also filled any gaps with prints from Desenio, which have such a full and affordable range, perfect for starting out if you’re not yet sure of your taste in art. This can take time to develop, but it definitely did for me.
The overall feel is slightly ‘Palm-Springs-meets-Sydney-in-the-Balearics’ – a fun, fresh and happy place to spend time and I can’t wait to get over there again in the Spring.
It's the most amazing island - stunning beaches, some of the best in the Mediterranean, as well as delicious food and so much more to explore. It's a real gem and you can read some of my islands highlights here.
Thank you so much for reading and wishing you a wonderful 2020 :)
Laura x
Photography by Patrick Butler-Madden.
