How are you enjoying Summer! I must confess that despite enjoying beautiful days here in town, I have a bit of a struggle getting really into Summer this year. After chatting with my daughter, it became clear that since quitting my part time job as a social worker and no longer being obliged to take off holidays during school-summer breaks. It takes a bit longer to get that now-or-never on Summer holiday feeling out of my system, as soon as July and August approaches.
But we can still dream right, in September it is still Summer in the south and a lot less busy and hot, I stayed a few days in Sardinia last year at the end of September and I loved it! It feels like my second home and I secretly enjoy watching the different Italian housing sites almost every day, dreaming of that second home popping up one day. That’s also why I really enjoy looking at Italian Summer home renovations, and I got a really nice one for you today. Meanwhile enjoy every Summer day!
The story of Casolare Scarani
A few years ago I showed you the beautiful Casa Soleto in Puglia it has always been on my radar when dreaming about a second home in Italy. My home would be in Sardegna but I love following Studio Andrew Trotter’s renovations in Puglia. Hence I had a look at their work and found this new Italian dream home for you that Studio Andrew Trotter renovated. I will let them tell you the story of this home in their own words…
“Many years ago, a friend in Barcelona had the idea to move to Puglia. She showed me a few houses online to see what I thought about them. Maybe a year or so later, we passed a house while driving towards Carovigno, and I realised that it was one of the houses she had shown me. The house was beautiful, old, with so much character, and not too big. In the countryside you usually find small lamias, which are stone sheds for the local landowners to store equipment; or very large masserias, where the affluent landowners would have once lived. It was quite unusual to come across a building that had the style of a masseria, but the size of a small villa. We found out that the building was originally a school for girls, and had quite a history with the locals. It was abandoned in the early 1960’s, and we lovingly brought it back to life. This one was a gem.
At the time we were thinking about other projects, and we decided not to purchase it for ourselves so, when our friends and clients, the Coleman family, started to search for a house, we immediately showed them this one. Actually, we showed it to Ian, as Maree was in Australia at the time and a month later COVID hit. From the photos, Ian persuaded Maree, and they bought it without her seeing it. It would be more than a year later, when we had already started to renovate the property, that Maree saw the house for the first time. Luckily she fell in love with it, as we knew she would. Nine months later, Casolare Scarani was finished.
Regarding the renovation process, we tried as hard as possible to leave the exterior patina where we could. Together with Ian and Maree, we spent days scraping off years of flaky paint, to reveal the beautiful stone of the portico. The inside needed to be fully plastered, so we brought in an artisan who makes his own lime plaster and lime paints. All the old stones were repositioned, and we also added new chianca to the floors that matched the old ones perfectly.
The old garage was turned into the kitchen with its courtyard out the back. The stone oven was repaired, and the donkey house turned into the laundry room. We also added two new blocks to the back of the house which became two en-suites for the two downstairs bedrooms, while the two rooms on the upper floor were made into the master suite with its own bathroom. The living room has beautiful star vaulted ceilings and a large fireplace. The dining room is in the old stable, with the kitchen to the side.
Architectural and Interior Design: Studio Andrew Trotter
www.andrew-trotter.com
@studioandrewtrotter
Photos: Salva López
www.salvalopez.com
@salvalopez
Het bericht Casolare Scarani | Puglia renovation by Studio Andrew Trotter verscheen eerst op vosgesparis.