FROM THE UK TO CROATIA
My relationship with design and renovation did not begin with a grand plan. It started by accident.
I was living in the UK when a set of life circumstances placed me in a house in Surrey. It was not somewhere I would have chosen. A modest terraced property that felt uninspiring and dated. But it became a challenge and I have always responded well to those.
The house needed modernising, but not stripping of character. I wanted it to feel warm and considered while still appealing to a broad range of buyers. At no point did I imagine it would become a home. It was never my type of place. It was a project.
And that is how it began.
Over the decade that followed, we moved many times and renovated many properties. We were not developers. We were simply practical, curious and willing to learn. We did much of the work ourselves. I tiled, painted and even ran electrical cabling, always with qualified professionals checking and signing off where safety mattered. It was hands on, sometimes exhausting and deeply satisfying.
Each renovation was approached with the same mindset. Design for the future buyer. Keep it neutral enough to sell but thoughtful enough to stand out. Every decision was about balance, cost, function and resale.
Then came 2020.
COVID changed the rhythm of everything. We sold our most recent UK project and moved to Croatia. What was meant to be a shift in pace quickly became something else entirely. Here, we took on two renovations. One was a modern house from the 1970s. The other was an old villa in Pula. This story is about the villa.
By this point I understood renovation from experience, but I wanted to deepen my knowledge and sharpen my eye. I enrolled in an interior design course with NDA. It was online, intense and demanding. A full year of classroom learning compressed into three months. It pushed me hard and I am glad I did it. It gave structure to instinct and language to intuition.
So why the Pula house?
Every renovation before had been shaped by the market. This time was different. This time was about passion. Passion for local craftsmanship. For history. For blending old and new in a way that felt respectful rather than performative.
Most of all, it was about preservation. Protecting a beautiful building that had been neglected, damaged and slowly falling apart. Not polishing it for sale, but giving it dignity again.
The journey has been rewarding and it has been brutally challenging. It has tested patience, resilience and belief more than any previous project. But it also marked a turning point. This was no longer just renovation. It was a statement.
And it was only the beginning.