Spaces

SCANDI x ITALY

26th May 2017

Sometimes you just have to take a break to deal with ‘life stuff’, so it’s great to be back here thinking of blog posts again. And after a fraught few weeks I was feeling the need of some Scandi calm when I spotted this gorgeous house featured on Inside Out. What do you get when a Norwegian interior designer, Hanne Poli, who has also lived in New York, Malaysia and Amsterdam, relocates with her family to Italy? Well, you get an amazing house for one thing, and an interior that blends Poli’s pared back Scandinavian roots with a relaxed rural Italian vibe and a fair share of eclectic touches.

The Italian home of Hanne Poli. Photographer Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside with stylist Francesca Davoli. The Italian home of Hanne Poli. Photographer Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside with stylist Francesca Davoli.

Normally I’d be keen to write lots about an interior like this, but there’s a great feature on Inside Out written by Francesca Davoli and Victoria Baker, with these beautiful photos by Fabrizio Ciccone, so you can find all the background to this project here.

I couldn’t resist highlighting this home though as it reflects so many of the things I love: streamlined design, with a contemporary approach and a contemporary grey-toned palette, and patina, as seen with the textured walls and concrete flooring. Poli used traditional Italian plaster for the walls and mixed the pigments herself to get these gentle hues.

The Italian home of Hanne Poli. Photographer Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside with stylist Francesca Davoli. The Italian home of Hanne Poli. Photographer Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside with stylist Francesca Davoli.

One thing that struck me when reading the feature on Inside Out was the timescale of this project. Poli bought the property in the village of Trevignano Romano in 1999 and at the time there was just a basic structure on a plot of land with no electricity, water, or gas. Poli has spent years refining her home, and that’s the thing – a space like this isn’t created overnight, and it’s easy to forget that when looking at so many perfect interior photos on blogs or Pinterest or Instagram. Of course, it takes vision, but it also takes time.

And how about this for a dream bathroom! I love all the contrasts: the rustic ceiling against the delicate chandelier; the smooth concrete floor alongside the patina of the feet on the bath; the soft drape of the curtains against the windows, which were made by a local blacksmith. Beautiful.

The Italian home of Hanne Poli. Photographer Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside with stylist Francesca Davoli.

See more of this home on Inside Out, with all photography by Fabrizio Cicconi/Living Inside (via Inside Out).