Sunday 24 June 2012

Italian Country Style Interior

Friends know my dream is to one day have a home in Italy, a little rustic house in the country where I can paint and live the Italian lifestyle, possibly this comes from watching "Under The Tuscan Sun" an embarrassingly huge number of time. It might only be a dream right now, but for me it's a bit like the Pantene hair advert...how does it go? "It quote, "It might not happen overnight, but it will happen!" unquote. So with this in mind, meanwhile I  still enjoy looking for my dream Italian home.

This fabulous discovery has wonderful old wooden beams (a must have for me), and ancient terracotta tiled floors.  A lot of old Italian country buildings tend to be a little on the dark side with small rooms and few windows. However, this interior has been opened up and brightly painted accent walls have made this home light and inviting.  If you ask an Italian about renovating old buildings, most will say they prefer a new apartment or newly built house, it's usually the expat buyer that seeks out old barns and derelict buildings and turns them into a wonderful living spaces such as this.

10 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous post! I really love the mixture of the buffalo check and floral window treatments.... I could move in.

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    1. Thanks Erin, yes I could move in too, although I might wash over the limey yellow walls. I absolutely love the two bedrooms.

      Lee ☺

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  2. It's incredible, I'd happily live here. I love 'Under the Tuscan Sun' too - more for the scenery and architecture than the actual story line though. x

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    1. Isn't it just Vic and I agree about under the Tuscan sun, it was the setting that made it magical for me. I love Italy, my sister in law has a couple of apartments in Italy so am lucky enough to go and stay.

      Once we stayed in a beautiful little cottage in Corsignana about half an hour out of Florence, it was full of antiques and you could open up the bedroom shutters(no window panes) to views across open meadows, it was the most wonderful holiday I have ever had.

      Lee ☺

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  3. My parents recently renovated our old farmhouse in southern Italy, and what I lke best is the original brick/stone oven and other original "old features" of the house! I have to say I LOVE Italy too...but I am bias on this one!!

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  4. Well, you've got me except for the second last photo with that saggy center beam that looks like the bed (or bathtub) above might come crashing through at any moment... LOL!

    Otherwise, Bueno! Bella!

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  5. What a gorgeous post. I love this look too and I look forward to checking out some your other posts. Those ceilings and the old faded beams are amazing. You've got a lovely blog, I just found your blog from last week's SavvySouthern Blog hop. I'm Leslie from Gwen Moss blog (a few of my bigger house projects.

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    1. I am so sorry I never responded to your comment Leslie, for some reason it got missed :(. Thank you for the kind comments about my post, I hope you still follow along. I will check out your blog.

      Lee

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  6. I love the Italian style -- the simplicity but I also like the French country light colors. Do you think I could successfully combine the two? I'm Italian living in the States and would like to change the limestone ranch we're living in now more to the Italian style.

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    1. Hi Marisa,

      Firstly, I don't think it matters where in the world you live, you can achieve the look you want. I am not familiar with limestone ranch style (I live in NZ but will look it up after). However, limestone sounds very Mediterranean and I think would work wonderfully with the style you are looking to create.

      I perceive an Italian look to have some rustic elements where you could use rustic beams and some wrought iron. Black Iron curtain rails with plain linen weave curtains in a sheer linen would look gorgeous. I would keep your walls neutral in a warm white and introduce colour and pattern with cushions/pillows and decorative pieces. You could hang a fabulous iron chandelier as a focal point in a dining or living space.

      You could use the soft greys and blues of French style and then introduce pops of colour with decorative cushions/pillows, maybe some sunny yellow which works beautifully with greys or blues, or both. I wouldn't go crazy painting walls as they have done above, but more using it in your soft furnishing and not too much. If you don't like yellow you could use greens or turquoise. Have a look at these homes I have saved in my Houzz profile.

      http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/53060826/thumbs/mediterranean-style

      Also I photographed a fabulous French style home in Auckland, New Zealand, here is a link to the images, she is an interior designer and so the house was beautifully decorated. Maybe you will get a few ideas:

      http://leecarolineart.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/an-exclusive-tour-of-auckland-interior.html

      It is in four parts but you will find the links to the other photos at the end of the post.

      Would love to see your home after you transform it :)

      Lee

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