Interior Design Services Available
HOUSE DOCTOR SERVICE
A 2 hour onsite or online session to take a look at your house, or room issues and come up with on the spot suggestions for each space.
£/€ 50-100 Consultation
STYLE GUIDANCE
Through a process of elimination from my style files, and with the use of Pinterest and other on line images, be assisted to find the style that you wish to achieve for your room or house. With or without personal Mood boards. In person or online.
£/€ 50-200
DETAILED DESIGN DRAWINGS
Do you need scaled drawings for your carpenter, to help guide your architect or electrician? We can meet to look over the needs of the project, or any designs that you would like creating and I will provide detailed drawings for your needs. in person or online.
£/€ 50-500
Renovation Services Available
Each job will be looked at individually to suit your needs. Please contact me directly with your request to discuss your needs.
1/2 DAY CONSULTATION WITH ON THE SPOT ROUGH SKETCHES & IDEAS
PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT : Visiting your build regularly to check on progress and report to you the realities and directions for you to push towards. Giving you alternative options and thoughts for your designs and materials used in the finish.
FULL PROJECT MANAGEMENT : Responsible for the builders, getting in quotes and following through your desires for the house as instructed.
PURCHASING ASSISTANCE : Visiting suppliers (floors, windows, furniture etc) assisting you in coming to the right decision for you.
Traditional House Renovations
Renovating old Greek stone houses with environmental principles is what I love to do. Creating sustainable solutions by choosing materials wisely, using natural plasters, eco freindly materials & paints and wiring houses in preparation for the future is a necessary choice to make a difference to the environment wherever possible. You can see the gallery of some of my work here, and more in the Houses for sale section.
Tris : Summer Pyrgos (Tower) House
This pretty summer house in Tris was in need of total renovation and had been left to ruin hidden away at the end of a pathway. This is a very particular style of house to the Trianda/Tris area of the island called Pyrgos houses, tower houses with one room upstairs. They were built for people to escape the city heat as breezes always pick up in the afternoon on the west of the island. These small summer houses are true indoor/outdoor houses, and I designed the kitchen space to be able to hand food in and out through the kitchen windows, added a compact toilet and shower space into the old chimney oven area of the house, and kept 2 bedrooms.
After living in this house for a summer, I found it adorable, practical, and it felt like you were constantly on holiday. The summer holiday nature of this house is why I choose the pale blues inside. This house was featured on the UKs ‘Place in the Sun’ TV show, and was sold not long after.
Koskinou : The Vicars Camara House
This renovation took 12 weeks to clear out and bring it back to life after a full rewire, new plumbing, re-plastering, new windows, repainting and re-furnishing.
Living in this house gave me the opportunity to really feel the character and style of these fabulous old arch houses for the first time. The colours chosen for this house are the true traditional colours of the Dodecanese islands, and much softer on the eye in the bright mid summer sun. The shower has a natural plaster with a blue pigment mixed in, which allows the sandstone to breath rather than grow mould.
Koskinou : Cafe-Store House
Just a long rectangular building previously a cafe and store room, it had been split into 3 rooms we knocked a door through one wall to access all the house internally and blocked a double door in to make the bedroom window.
With a spot of creative layout work this compact house had great practical spaces and was fitted with quality wooden windows with iron inserts, a mix of stone and solid wood floors, and access out onto the roof from the kitchen with sea views.
The local man who bought this house had a great house that he could walk into ready to live in. He went on to build a new room on the roof of the house which had been prepared for in the original renovation.
Koskinou : The Ruin Next Door!
This lovely little house tucked away in a corner, was a total ruin when I bought it with a fig tree merrily growing in the lounge! With all stone walls treated in an eco concious way, the fine sand and lime plasters move playfully on these walls and prevent damp forming on the walls as they are allowing the sand stones to breath.
The local stone and wood floors are practical, good looking and warm to the eye in this house. I knocked through a wall to join the house up from inside, and went up a floor too. This house was designed with access out on to the roof to enjoy the village and sea views, and was also set up for a natural central heating system for future installation.
Whilst living in this house people often though it was central heated, yet it was not at that time. This was clearly from the natural plasters retaining the heat in the building.
Before and After!!
Each house takes on a life of its own during the renovation period. Here is a little insight into the building of 1 of the 8 houses I have built here on Rhodes, the Big Arch house in Malona.
The process of renovation is a bit like having a baby, the purchase, the realisation of what is ahead, the period of development, the waiting for it to be over, the decision making and final touches, and then finally a perfect blank canvas to nurture and bring to life.
This is a photographic story of what happens during the rebuild of a total ruin. I choose this house to view in this condition as the most environmental of my builds, and probably the most memorable for all involved as this was finished just in time to have my own child !!
My Interior Design Background
Whilst studying for a Design Diploma at the Open university, I discovered a passion for Interiors whilst living in Amsterdam, and focused further studies in this area. After a few years working in the UK for a top end Interior designer, and renovating my first house from top to bottom, I moved on to the Middle East for another few years and discovered a greater interest in the interior architectural aspects of Interior design, working on residential, business and ministirial projects.
With a desire to bring it all together and be able to develop environmentally, I spent some residential time on courses at ‘CAT’, The Center of Alternative Technology, in Wales, and started implementing these principles into my own houses in Rhodes.