The best Hellenic interior design inspiration, from our favourite Greek homes
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Loading... - Ruben Espinoza
- 16 Sep 2022
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When we think of a home in Greece, images of stark white walls, framed vistas of the Mediterranean Sea, and cobblestone flooring spring to mind. In truth, Greece offers a multifaceted design ethos that reflects its varied and complex land and culture. Extending from its many islands speckled with blue and white villas to the mainland homes built with red terracotta roofs on mountainous, rocky cliffs shaded by ancient olive trees.
Home to the oldest civilisation in Europe, architecture and design in Greece plays on this dichotomy of the ancient and modern world by mixing and contrasting old with new, leaving its buildings brimming with character and depth. Today it is one of the most visited countries on the planet, and as such reflects a worldly palette of design references that only enhance its traditionally minimalist aesthetic.
If a holiday to Greece isn’t on the cards this year, enjoy these six Greek homes that beautifully encapsulate contemporary design with old-world foundations.
A refined twist on bohemia
Six miles from the town of Chora and its old port on the Greek island of Mykonos along dusty narrow roads and many disinterested donkeys stands a whitewashed home to Australian-born, London-based designer and skincare entrepreneur Rebecca Korner, her husband and their twin sons. A courtyard herb garden scented with basil, lavender, thyme, oregano, parsley and lemon balm now welcomes visitors to the newly refurbished home. From the outside, the property resembles a display of iced wedding cakes yet inside the main building are three floors housing five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.
“I wanted a sense of Greek rustic mixed with an international Australian flavour,” she says. “The great thing about Australians is their outward and inspired thinking. I grew up in a Sydney home that looked like a modern art gallery with expansive whitewashed walls that had colourful contemporary paintings lent against them... they were never hung. The ‘new world’ is more open to modernity and that mindset continues to influence me. We kept the authentic Mykonian architecture but inside used collectible pieces from across the globe.”
Greece’s ‘West Wing’
As the founder of Zeus+Dione—a high-end clothing line highlighting Greek craftsmanship—Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis has a trained eye for design. So when her husband, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, became prime minister of Greece in July 2019, she couldn’t help but notice that the space where he worked running the country—and, pre-pandemic, received foreign officials—wasn’t exactly an advertisement for Greek aesthetics and industry. In fact, describing the 1921 building known as the Maximos Mansion, which has been the office of every Greek prime minister since 1982, Grabowski-Mitsotakis says, “It had not been repainted since 2004, just before Athens hosted the Olympics.” Read More...
