journal

The best travel books make you want to hit the road. For those of us who love books almost as much as we love travel, we’re always interested in recommendations. So we were delighted to discover The Telegraph’s list of the top 20 best travel books of all time. It starts with Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, and […]

Filmmaker Federico Fellini, many of whose movies were filmed on location in Rome, once said of the Italian capital: “Rome does not need to make culture. It is culture. Prehistoric, classical, Etruscan, Renaissance, Baroque, modern. Every corner of the city is a chapter in an imaginary universal history of culture. “Culture in Rome,” he continued, […]

After finding out how many times the futuristic homes of architect John Lautner have appeared in movies, we decided to see if we could find some films featuring the works of his mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright. Surprisingly, given his remarkable legacy, there aren’t as many. And only one – the Ennis House – has really made […]

With its year-round sunshine, diverse landscapes and wild-west sensibilities, Los Angeles was a natural choice to become the center of the movie industry. In the early 20th century, movies were made not only in the newly-built studios and in its backlots, but also on the streets of the city – streets that have changed a […]

If, like us, you’re fans of the legendary 20th-century architect John Lautner, you’ll know his space-age designs are bold, beautiful and like nothing else on the planet. And, rather impressively, five or six decades after they were built, they still manage to look futuristic. We couldn’t help noticing how many of these cool homes have made […]

For our new series of Movie Atlas articles, we’re taking a journey around the world using classic films made on location. In our last article, we traveled back in time to the California coastline of the mid-20th century. For this article, we’re staying on the west coast and visiting our favorite movie town. It’s Oscar […]

While we don’t usually promote armchair traveling over the real thing, there’s nothing quite like watching a movie that captures the beauty and spirit of a location. For this new series of articles, we are looking at movies made on location, films that feature their settings front and center. The best of them are set […]

It’s that time of the year again! When we start seeing traveling pines strapped to cars around the neighborhood, and around the world. It’s a winter ritual that ushers in the Christmas season as well as the pagan festival of light during the winter solstice. We were inspired by seeing these trees on the roads […]

At BoutiqueHomes we love getting to know the stories behind our properties, but this time we were happy to learn that the owner of Villa G in Umbria, Italy had an interesting story as well. Kristian Septimius is a Danish photographer educated in England, in 1987 he started his own studio in Copenhagen. His photography style has been […]

Sometimes you just have to follow your dreams… and figure out the details later. At BoutiqueHomes, we really get that. Our own properties, and many of those in our collection, were created from wild ideas. You fall in love with a space, play around with designs, and bring something unexpected to life. And the unexpected […]

The other day I baked my first homemade bread and it blew my mind seeing what you can create with just 2 or 3 ingredients: Water, flour and yeast. And while I was waiting for the bread to rise, 12-18 hours with the no-knead slow rise method, I started to contemplate all the different breads […]

It’s hard to compete with the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Sean Connery when it comes to celluloid appeal. But here are some architectural masterpieces that may even outshine their glamorous co-stars. Houses that appear in movies, but weren’t torn down when the film crew called it a day. Design gems, from Capri to Canada, that are still […]

At BoutiqueHomes, we love the idea of simple luxury. When we say luxury villas, we aren’t talking about homes with all the bells and whistles and some extra bling thrown in. But to get what we mean, it helps to look at the history – and changing meaning – of ‘luxury’.

At BoutiqueHomes, ‘holiday homes’ and ‘vacation rentals’ are part of our vocabulary. We talk about them on a daily basis. They are, after all, the product that we sell on our site. The other day in the office, we had an interesting conversation about how these terms mean different things to different people – depending […]

Graanmarkt 13 is the leading authority for innovation in hospitality in Belgium, and although is has not been open for long, it has made an impact in the way people experience hospitality.

Hipcamp, a discovery platform geared towards the curious, the wild, the adventurous, and the ecologically minded is at the forefront of a new way to experience the outdoors- land sharing.

What began as a discovery and retirement trip from a couple searching for retreat back in the 60s is now a full blown compound of seventeen structures with houses views out to sea.

Nicaragua is on the rise. After a great year of travel headlines featuring innovative itineraries and a newfound sense of vibrancy, the country has seen an influx of boutique hotels well worth knowing. 

What an amazing creation! This week we want to introduce a new dynamic outdoor furniture designed by Jason and Jules Henry. Two brothers from Big Sur, California that took inspiration form the wild and eclectic community they grew up in and turned it into creative self-expression.