House in Cales Fonts: A Contemporary Fisherman’s Cottage
This charming house in Menorca is designed around the colour white. Decorated with crafted elements from Let’s Pause and handmade todobarro floor tiles (of clay and terracotta), Cales Fonts is a celebration of Mediterranean light and traditions, created by interior designer Carmen Carretero.
This new project by interior designer Carmen Carretero is one the most personal of her career. Together with her husband they decided to buy an old country house, not far from her home in Mahón, Menorca with the idea that she would refurbish it.
From the beginning Carmen was convinced that she had to follow her heart: and celebrate the local fishermen’s cottages of the Cales Fonts port, one of her favourite places in the world, located in Es Castell, Mahón.
PEACE, TRANQUILITY AND HARMONY.
The Menorca based designer is a great believer in authentic and unpretentious, simple and honest spaces. Which inspired her to establish a conceptual starting point for this Mediterranean style house: the chromatic coordination of the flooring and walls around the colour white, thus flooding the spaces with light and generating a sensation of calm and harmony.
Maintaining the characteristic traditions and comfort of these Menorca style homes, the walls are constructed from piedra de marés (local stones sourced from the sea) covered with limewash.
For the flooring the todobarro traditional crafted floor tiles perfectly capture the spirit and contemporary style of the project: white clay handmade tiles by the renowned Malaga company used as paving for the open plan living / dining room providing a sensation of warmth with their silky worn texture.
In the bathroom the same style todobarro floor tiles combine white with soft earthy tones, highlighting the traditional inspiration behind the brand’s range of finishes, characterised by their comfort and belief in a more sustainable luxury.
SPATIAL ENCLOSURE AND MASSING
The vaulted ceilings are also typical of houses in Menorca which for Carmen represents one of the key elements of the space that adds a magical quality, with a unique acoustic sensation that wraps itself around you in a subtle, inexplicable manner.
Curved lines predominate over straight geometrical lines helping to establish a feeling of peace and harmony that reflects a more relaxed, seductive lifestyle.
NATURAL CONTRASTS:
Quality woodlands timber with organic Let’s Pause designs
In contrast to the white finishes the furniture and decorative objects on the other hand add a touch of natural colour to the various rooms.
The vegetable leather COURO lamps by Let’s Pause are featured throughout the house, amongst other elements from Let’s Pause, lending a luxurious attenuated lighting, sensual and understated, that invites calm and contemplation.
As Carmen outlines, “the language of Let’s Pause pieces perfectly reflects my approach to understanding life; objects that tell a story of love, of creation, that are in tune with the cycles of Mother Nature.”