journal

Have you ever walked along a street in a new city, looked into the windows of a house you’ve never visited, and dreamed of staying there for a while? If you have, you’ll love the collection of Barcelona apartments offered by Anne Nijstad, a Dutch former graphic designer who has been in the Spanish city […]

Villa Elisabeth is a small Corsican family house with a great view overlooking the Mediterranean sea and the island of Elba. But it’s also an artist’s house, inspired by its owner, the sculptor Marie-Pierre Germain-Fortini. When she’s not in the Italian town of Carrara, where she has a studio and creates figures in white marble […]

We often come across fascinating stories within the BoutiqueHomes community, but there was something about this one that really made us pay attention. Pasadena-based graphic designer Nicolette Wales recently reached out to us, wondering if we would be interested in including her mother’s art in our new Marketplace. Ginette Bernas Wales, now 96 and living […]

In the center of the French city of Arles, only five minutes from the ancient Roman theater, Michel Montagnier welcomes us to his old Provençal house, La Maison des Arts. He has retained the light and delicate breeze of the past, but has added his own style, with a variety of artworks, furnitures, objects and […]

In Port-en-Bessin, a small Normandy fishing harbor between the D-Day beaches and Mont Saint-Michel, only two and a half hours from Paris, Astrid Barbey and Laurence Berdeaux have opened nine different vacation home rentals. They began with a tiny sailor’s house, with a fantastic view of the harbor and cool marine deco. Simple but comfortable […]

In many ways, Casa dos Passaros is typical of Portugal’s Alto Alentejo region – with its bleached white limestone exteriors, ochre trim, and granite stonework. But when you step inside the house, you realize there is so much more to it. This is a work of devotion. Designer Marisa Osorio Farinha bought the property in the 13th-century […]

You may follow the delightfully whimsical @cabinlove on Instagram (after all, 492k people do). It’s a feast of “cabin candy” – and as fellow cabineers, we really love its gorgeous pictures of little homes in all shapes and sizes, all over the world. But you may not know much about its creator. Allow us to introduce […]

Swiss visual designer and food blogger Heike Müller has been a member of BoutiqueHomes since we first started out. Over the last few years, she and her partner, architect Peter Kessinger, have stayed at quite a few of our properties – from Aufberg 1110 in Piesendorf, Austria, to Venice Place and Cactus Flower in Venice, California. […]

The charm of the past. From this 15th-century Corsican monastery, the view looks like a perfect Neapolitan gouache, where the island of Elba replaces the volcano Vesuvius and the town of Bastia stands in for Naples. But Il Covento is more than a balcony on the Tyrrhénian Sea. It’s an old family house, with a special perfume and ambience, […]

Danish artist and designer Silke Bonde reached out to us a few months ago and, after learning about her tranquil, minimal Scandinavian style, we were intrigued. Her beautiful watercolor “Blue World” map represents a unifying global responsibility to take care of the planet, inspired directly by nature and all its intricate patterns and seasons (and […]

Catania shines like a black pearl under the Sicilian sun. Built with the dark stone of Mount Etna, it’s a city of contrasts. Nowhere else are the blue of the sky and the green of the plants as bright. Here, flowers are more colorful, leaves are brighter, fish are glossier, cats are more silky… and man […]

Gemma Ingalls and her husband Andrew are the ultimate chic nomads. As a couple, they’ve worked all over the world, photographing everything from food to the great outdoors, for publications including Architectural Digest and New York Magazine. They’re rarely in one place for long. Last year, they shot four books, each with a different theme – interior […]

What an amazing wilderness: 16 hectares of maquis, pine and olive trees above the gulf of Calvi in Corsica, with unique views of the sea and the mountains. At barely 10 minutes from a beautiful sandy beach and a tiny international airport, Bergerie Above Calvi is an ideal spot to enjoy the light and fragrances of Corsica. […]

In the middle of the Tuscan countryside, close to the medieval ruins of Montelifré, lies one of our most unusual properties, Siena Loft. Sitting almost out of place and time, it was once an industrial hangar, but in 1999 became the home and atelier of Austrian artist, sculptor and architect Reinhold Traxl. He and fellow […]

Patricia Marchetty has brought her very personal vision of luxury to an island where austerity is often the rule. A converted 16th-century palazzo, Palermo B&B is an unusual place to stay in the heart of a town like Palermo, and a kind of exuberance lingers in the air. Passionate about decoration, a colorful character like Patricia brings […]

Laura Austin‘s photography has been described as “that feeling when you finally hit an open stretch of highway at the start of a road trip, the windows down, with the world in front of you, and your favorite song comes on…” So it’s not surprising to find out that her career was inspired by exactly that. […]

Below the magnificent Duomo of the barocco city of Ragusa in Sicily, Villa Ragusa is a small and typical house dedicated to the local culture of literature and art. Like in a family house, books, paintings, sculptures are everywhere and guide your mind and your dreams. In an island of diverse cultures, Arturo Arezzo belongs to one of […]

Nancy Bachmann loves traveling. In fact – rather enviably – she’s made a career out of it. Among the many strings to her bow, she’s a partner in Smart Travelling, a multimedia project that creates “hand-picked” travel guides in English and German. She has also published two coffee-table books, 99 perfect Restaurants and 66 perfect […]

From the ruins of a medieval house in Modica, an atypical construction, both modern and ancient, is born. Hidden behind the closed doors and walls, an aromatic garden of oranges and mandarins shimmers in the sun. This is the last but not the least of Giardino Mediterraneo, a very elegant house made of stone and fantasy. […]

Sorrento Villa: a unique piece of art From the window, Capri is so near, Naples is just in front of you, and Vesuvius is your neighbor. From the Sorrento Villa, a great 60’s house built on the Punta Lagno cliff, the Mediterranean light shines even at night. Under the stars, the curves and lines of the amazing […]

Boris Kajmak is, like many of the people we meet through BoutiqueHomes, a cultural nomad with an unconventional approach to creativity. An interdisciplinary artist whose work explores social realms, he grew up in Croatia, studied in Mostar and London, and currently lives in Rome. But it was through his Croatian rental properties that our paths […]

Draw a triangle between a rice field, a pine tree forest and the Atlantic ocean, and build a house inside it! This is Modern by the Sea, a contemporary home where the exceptional sounds and light of the Alentejo and the nearby ocean create a relaxing place. Andre Antunes, journalist and executive producer for a Portuguese […]

House on the River: A contrast between tradition and modernity Perched on a hill, overlooking the Douro River east of Porto, House on the River is a stone house designed in nature, for nature. Every window is a frame, every tree is a sculpture, every shade an ideal spot to rest.  A mix between tradition and modernity, […]

River View: From a Lisbon Window  From the 6th floor of this historic building, Lisbon’s roofs are like the waves. They undulate from all the windows of this charming apartment. Even from its stunning shower, the old castle along the River Tage appears like an island while bell towers seem like rocks. Just like 40 year old Portuguese tourism professional and […]