An apartment in a 15th-century palazzo has undergone a restoration that is both sympathetic to its past and acknowledges modernity. The result is a wonderfully eclectic and highly original home.

The small and picturesque medieval town of Monteleone D’Orvieto is perched on a hill in Italy’s Umbria region – the green heart of Italy. Immersed in the area’s natural geography of luxuriant woods and olive groves, lively streams and soft countryside, it’s a peaceful paradise tucked away from the tourist hordes. In one of the town’s small alleys, Italian-born and Chicago-based architect Patrizio Fradiani of Studio F Design, and his husband Mark, have restored an apartment in a 15th-century palazzo.

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Abandoned for 40 years, the apartment clearly showed signs of decay, and the entrance had been closed with a heavy metal door. It was as if someone had dined and left right afterwards, leaving everything as it was: the entire apartment, its furniture, tableware, plates and cutlery were covered in a thick layer of dust. “It looked like a 19th-century film set, and it felt truly fascinating, but also really bizarre,” recalls Patrizio, who immediately fell in love with it. “I could not open the shutters because they were falling apart, so I saw the apartment by the light of a torch,” he adds, amused.

Coming to Monteleone was a journey back to Patrizio’s roots – as a boy, he had spent summer holidays in the family-owned Palazzo Bilancini, where his parents owned an apartment. These days, Patrizio and Mark spend time here in the low season and mid-season, relaxing, reading or taking long hikes with their dogs through olive orchards and woods, loving the peace and the quiet lifestyle.

The apartment origins may go back all the way to the 15th century, but it has undergone a number of changes and significant remodelling over the years. Its brick facade – typical of Umbria houses – and its unpretentious entrance door do not, however, reveal its noble past – it was once home of the Marocchi family, producers of olive oil, and owners of most of the land and olive groves in the area. The entire building was subdivided into apartments for different members of the family; this apartment was the most noble.

“During the restoration work, it was difficult to figure out what to keep and restore, and what to let go of and change,” Patrizio says. Some rooms he left as they were, while others underwent particularly attentive restoration. The entire building had only one bathroom, so three more were added to satisfy the owners’ and their guests’ needs. The original bathroom, built in the late 19th century, featured well-preserved yellow-and-blue tinted glass walls and accents that inspired Patrizio to introduce coloured glass walls throughout the apartment. “We did not add any brick walls, but the division walls we needed were created with tinted glass and screens,” he explains. He chose yellow, white and grey as the colours, because they were missing in the frescoes.

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To further enrich the spaces, he added a green bookshelf and a baroque armchair in pea-green velvet in the living room, a pink armchair in one of the bedrooms, yellow and pea-green dining chairs and myriad colourful artworks. “I like to keep the shell of a house in neutral colours,” he says. “In most of my projects, colour is added only at the end, with objects such as furniture, carpets or cushions, which results in a colourful overall ambience.”

The outcome is a stylish, elegant holiday home that skilfully and eclectically marries the past with the present. (It is also available to rent via Luci Stays.) Patrizio has succeeded in reinventing a building full of history and stories, lovingly bringing life back to its rooms, and adapting them to today’s needs and tastes without compromising their history or charm. It is as though the hushed memories of his childhood guided him to find the thread for yet another story to be lived and told.

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A Victorian home in Malmesbury has captured the heart of interior designer Etienne Hanekom.

“There was a wonderful feeling of glamorous decay to her,” says interior designer Etienne Hanekom of the grand old Victorian home he is lovingly restoring in Malmesbury. Languishing elegantly on a ridge overlooking the historic farming town an hour west of Cape Town, the generously proportioned four-bedroom house was built in 1850, when Malmesbury was still a popular destination for its revered hot springs.

Recent history, however, has not been kind. Rapid industrialisation of the town, as well as the ignominious positioning of a busy arterial road right in front of the house, threatened a fate of idle deterioration. Until Etienne stepped in. “I’d been keeping an eye on her, as I frequently used to drive past on my way to visit my parents,” he says. On an impulse, he decided to stop for a closer look, and discovered that the rambling 2 500m2 property took up an entire residential block, and had several unused outbuildings. The main house still retained original, metal- pressed ceiling tiles, timber floorboards and shutters, cast-iron fireplaces, and a deep front stoep so particular to its era.

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“I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task,”he says.“I realised that buying it would be less of a renovation project and more of a lifetime’s commitment to restoring the house to its former grandeur.” It was a commitment Etienne was willing to make – and, three years later, the dame is once more looking grand, and relishing in her fashionable makeover and new finery.

His starting point was to reconfigure the layout of the U-shaped home so that the outer facade and front garden act as a protective buffer from the road, while the interior living, dining and working spaces open up and flow out towards the back courtyard. Etienne ripped off the courtyard’s roof – which once covered a dingy, dark braai room – to let in light, and installed a custom-made steel bay window through to the kitchen. Today, a burbling water feature dampens any residual road noise, while a growing forest of delicate leopard trees, and what Etienne describes as a “silly mix” of shrubs and creepers, create a tranquil heart of the home.

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Inside, an irreverent mish-mash of designer pieces, taxidermy, art, greenery and vintage collectables exists peacefully against a muted backdrop of walls painted in dirty shades of green and pink. “I usually like bright colours, but here, I chose shades that work like shadows,” says Etienne. “I didn’t follow any particular brief; I just did what felt right in the moment.” This intuitive approach has paid off, as each hue sets a specific tone for every room in the house. Take the living room, for example, where one feature wall is painted a dark, almost black, shade of green. The darkness absorbs the warm glow of the spider-like ceiling lamp, creating a convivial cocoon conducive to long hours of lounging. The study sees every wall painted a satisfying shade of cinnamon pink to harmonise with the rich golden tones of the Oregon pine floors and ceilings. Apart from housing his vast collection of decor magazines and a treasure trove of well-worn books, this space also provides a secluded nook where he can quietly work or catch up on admin. One of his favourite rooms, however, is the large master bedroom, which he painted a soothing sage green because, as he puts it, “The heat can be unforgiving here in summer, and I need to feel cool and alive.”

At every turn, it’s evident that Etienne has used colour, design and his personal connection to the house to create a sense of warm invitation. The kitchen, in particular, resonates with this feeling of home: a tan leather couch reclines lazily before a large, farm-style fireplace, which has been clad in decorative blue-and-white plates. Rows of bottled peaches, pears and guavas jostle for space on a wooden shelf above the fridge, while pink tiles and a ceramic bunny head add a lighthearted cheerfulness in the scullery – unusual in a utilitarian space.

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Outside, Etienne has started rethinking the rest of the property. There’s a new open-air bar and lounge beside the swimming pool – a hot favourite with friends and family, who love to visit on weekends. He’s also converted one of the outhouses into a workshop, where he can happily create mess or while away hours tinkering on his vintage Mercedes-Benz SL. “I’ve put so much of myself into this house, and am emotionally hugely invested in it, so it’s been good to renovate slowly,” he says. “This way, I don’t rush changes I may later regret.

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Meticulous restoration – not renovation – was key in giving architect Robert Silke’s 1938 Arts and Crafts Revival home in Pinelands a new lease of life.

There’s a certain witchiness to Robert Silke‘s new family home in the Cape Town suburb of Pinelands. A darkly dramatic front gate framed by a brick archway reading Caverswall opens onto a narrow garden path, which leads you to a house that’s equal parts imposing and intriguing, with a steeply pitched, clay-tiled roof, spiral chimneys and brickwork finish – all in the same burnt-honey shade. “It’s basically a gingerbread house, right?” says Robert, taking in the facade of the 1938 Arts and Crafts Revival structure he shares with partner Gideon and their one-year-old daughter Lilith.

“Pinelands was established in the 1920s, when there was a big push around the world for an approximation of English country living,” says Robert. “There was a planner in the UK called Ebenezer Howard, who invented the suburb, which he originally called a garden city. The idea gained global traction in reaction to the Spanish flu – people felt that the way they lived in cities wasn’t healthy. Pinelands was actually the third garden city in the world.”

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Pinelands, which has since been declared a heritage protection zone, is a stronghold of Arts and Crafts Revival architecture – a movement pioneered by John Ruskin and William Morris in the 1800s as an antidote to the industrialisation of the Victorian era. True to the vernacular, the human hand is visible in every facet of Caverswall, from the intricately patterned brickwork of the double chimneys to the irregular, wavy edges of the teak board cladding embellishing the dormer windows.

“Designed by Walgate and Elsworth, Caverswall was built as a showhouse for a multinational company, the Hume Pipe Corporation,” says Robert. “The company originally made ceramic sewage pipes, but later expanded into bricks and roof tiles. They decided to buy the biggest plot in this area of Pinelands and build a ‘palace’ that would showcase everything they made out of clay. But just as they finished it, World War II broke out, and the whole enterprise went to seed because no- one was building anything. By the time the war was over, people were building modern houses.”

Robert remembers being mesmerised by Caverswall in his 20s when driving past it on his way to a friend’s house parties. Bought on tender in 2021, the once-stately residence had been abandoned and had fallen into disrepair – but Robert maintains his objective from day one was to restore what was there, not renovate the structure out of its identity. “For me as a modern architect, the joy with this house was in not having to make decisions. I was effectively the apprentice working for the master, trying to establish what the original architect’s intention was.I was not responsible for the house being good; it was already good. I was working in a custodial capacity, not a creative capacity.”

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That’s not to say that Robert didn’t approach the restoration process with the same slavish attention to detail as he does his new builds. The aged roof tiles, bloomed with lichen, were left in peace, with only the broken tiles replaced. The weathered wood was revitalised with a special oil Robert spent weeks choosing. The gutters, all rusted through, were replaced, but with ones that matched the design and cast-iron finish of the originals. “It was almost like scraping barnacles off the hull of a boat,” he says, smiling.

While, aesthetically, the interior of Caverswall is a radical departure from the exterior, Robert extended the same purist principles to the inside of the house, working with what was already there instead of bringing in the sledgehammers. As many of the fixtures and fittings had been vandalised or stolen in the years the house stood empty, the work inside entailed Robert fastidiously tracking down everything from washbasins and chrome taps to light pendants – and even kitchen units that would ring true to the zeitgeist of 1938. And much of the interior’s transformation was achieved thanks to the varying shades of pale, whimsical pink that Robert chose for the walls.

“The challenge was to make the house less serious about itself,” he says. “One of the few avenues of intervention without messing up a house is paint. Often the impulse with old houses is to get rid of things – but what you should be telling yourself is, ‘Slow down, slow down, slow down…’.”

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After an explosion severely damaged the Klinker family’s newly-bought Barcelona holiday apartment, architecture studio CaSA (Colombo and Serboli Architecture) was commissioned to salvage its original art nouveau elements while reinventing on a budget.

Located in the trendy neighbourhood of Born, the brief sought a major update that would make the most of the fire-ravaged apartment’s existing distribution and materials, yet upon completion would look dramatically different. Historical features – such as high ceilings, decorative motifs, floors, windows and doors – were preserved, rescued and highlighted wherever possible, with elements like art nouveau corner plaster motifs being totally recreated to mirror their original form.

The central area functions as a bold colour-block where the brick-like core orders the space around itself and comprises the kitchen, dining area and study. A rich terracotta colour dominates the space, including the recessed study that nestles cosily in a corner. The ceiling area above the kitchen was dropped in order to disguise a structural beam and the air conditioning ducts. In the living room, a Kettal Landscape sofa with mustard-coloured frame and mink cushions commands the space, while a planter by Ferm Living and a Handvärk lamp by Studio Floor make for the perfect finishing touches.

Beyond the brick-coloured core, walls are white to maximise light while a neutral sand-coloured valance running around the walls, doors and windows creates an inside horizon, visually widening the otherwise vertical space and making the shades of burgundy and grey pop. In the bedrooms, a gentle green affords a restorative ambience to make for the ultimate place to rest after a day of adventure.

Love this restoration? Check out the restoration of Casa Vicens, Antoni Gaudí’s first residential project in Barcelona.

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Iconic architect Antoni Gaudí’s first residential project in Barcelona has undergone a major restoration and is now open to the public.

The house, known as Casa Vicens, was built between 1883 and 1885 and designed as a summer house for Manuel Vicens i Montaner, a stock and currency broker. It was the first project designed and built by Gaudí, and according to the team at Casa Vicens, “his own idea of a single-family home, as a single unit and whole, where construction and ornamentation are integrated in such a way that one cannot be understood without the other.”

In 2014, the UNESCO World Heritage Site was bought by a family-owned Spanish bank, MoraBanc of Andorra. Working with Studio DAW they’ve spent about R68 million converting it into a museum and cultural centre.

For more information, visit casavicens.org.

(h/t) designboom.com

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A dilapidated warehouse in Cape Town’s Church Street has been turned into a gorgeous art gallery, Smith Studio – which opened its doors with a solo exhibition by Kurt Pio.

It is a dream come true for two Mother City friends and business partners: Not only have Candace Marshall-Smith and Amy Ellenbogen turned their love for art into a business by launching their very own art gallery, Smith Studio, but they have also given a 250-year-old double-storey warehouse a fabulous new lease on life.

Candace is the first to admit it was quite a journey to get where they are. A photographer, avid art collector and business whizz with an accounting back-ground, she knew the old pakhuis in Cape Town’s Church Street would be in need of very special attention. Not to mention vision.

After buying it on auction with her husband William and business partner Andrew Bonamour, Candace immediately called her friend Amy, an art history graduate fresh from a curating stint in Edinburgh, to partner with her as the gallery’s curator. So Smith Studio was born, the name referring to Candace’s surname as well as to a crafter, a maker of things. Smith is also a common surname, easily attachable to other names like exhibitions and artists’ names without stealing the show.

Next, they called in the experts to help reimagine their long, narrow space. And who else but heritage specialists Gawie and Gwen Fagan would ensure every little bit of the building’s history is honoured and restored to its former glory? Architects Reanne Urbain and Alex McGee gave it all a fresh and contemporary polish-up.

“We wanted the best of both worlds,” says Candace: “amazing art by new and established local artists as well as a beautiful destination gallery.”

Something Amy is especially mad about is the restored glass-front doorway, which is large enough to let in not only a car but also the First Thursdays art-loving crowd once a month.

“I look forward to all the possibilities the door presents,” says Amy: “Imagine large functions or exhibition openings stretching out of the door and onto the cobbled street.”

When Amy’s not dreaming of Smith Studio’s future ventures, her scouting eye is on the lookout for new talent. Once she’s set her sights on an artist, it’s a matter of guidance and support before they work towards a show together.

“Many artists have a background in illustration and want to move forward, try different mediums, change certain styles or simply grow. That’s where I come in,” says Amy.

And the upstairs area with its lovely light and sash windows? “It’s offices now, but our dream is that it will eventually become an exhibition space,” says Candace.

At the rate this duo is making dreams come true, it’s just a matter of time.

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