Decorating Details

Decorating Details 



More about the decoration of the old house…

This time about the colours and those smaller details that I think add to the Greek shabby-chic-style finish.

I have already mentioned that there was a lot of very old furniture in the house that we had to get rid of, but also there were one or two pieces we restored. However most of the furniture we now have, and a lot of smaller items, came from a spree of buying at auctions in Melbourne. This furntiture was later sent to the island in a container.

A mix of styles is typically found in old Greek houses
From Australia:
Green rocking chair, round coffee table, pictures, standard light, books.
From the Island:
lace curtains, yellow chair, converted book case, large platter

So many of the items have stories attatched. These curtains for instance I bought from a Russian who was selling cloths and curtains from a roadside stall. I bought two for another room then realised that they looked better in this room where there were three windows. One day a neighbour who knew of my dillemma came rushing in to tell me ‘The Russian is back’.  Running down to the corner we found that indeed he had the same pattern, and only one left! I bought it.


A lot of the old furniture in the house had a dark wood finish and we did keep some of these items but as Takis loves a more simple wood finish (and the traditional ‘shabby-chic’ uses a lot of the lighter wood) the furniture we bought at auction tended to have a simple polished wood finish. One item we loved, and everyone who comes also appreciates is our oak kitchen table.

A simple wood finished kitchen table plus white painted chairs

Guardian magazine article






www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/07/antique-dealers-home-josephine-ryan

This ‘shabby-chic’ look has been around and copied by many decorators and  it still is used to update old houses. I just came upon this house featured in an article in the Guardian.

Our much used island kitchen

Note: Takis made the stove hood and I decorated it with the pattern found on some old plates

But back to the decorating. First, to achieve the look I wanted, I made sure we had light background. Before the house was dark. The paintwork, originally a light green or pale blue, had darkened with age. I chose a very light pallet for the whole house, cream for all the walls and a slightly darker cream for doors and skirtings. The windows however were painted white, inside and out. This contrasted well with the maroon shutters.

Cream paintwork and comfortable lounge chairs

Guardian magazine article

Our mid floor TV and sitting area

Note: The curtains were given to us, and the material for the cushions was another great find. 

Then after achieving this cream background colour I added a different colours to each room. This was done by painting the wooden ceilings in two tones of the same colour; in one bedroom the ceiling was painted peach with salmon struts and our computer room has a pale green ceiling with slightly darker struts. On the top floor there is another similar green room, but the bedroom next to it has the mose complicated of all patterns on the ceiling and so I painted it a pale mauve with two other mauve tones plus maroon florettes.

The floors on the ground floor are tiled or still have the old marble slabs. 0n the middle floor (the floor previously most used) the large wooded planks had either cracked, been eaten by mice, or sloped as one corner of the house had sunk a little. We were only able to keep the old boards in one room and in the other areas Takis had to try various things. In one room we took up all the floor boards and struts, as the wood stank of mice, and in the main family area half had to be raised and so it seemed sensible to rais the whole of that area. In these areas we have polished wood and on top various rugs, some with a Turkish look about them even though not authentic (also bought in acution in Australia).

Stone walls, tiled floor, plus a ‘Turkish’ rug, dining table and chairs from Australia

Note: how the stone relief highlights the structure of the house

(I also love the fact that the Greek Goddess head in the corner came from IKEA in Melbourne.)

In each room the furniture and furnishings compliment the ceiling colours. We include many items that we found in the house, all of which had to be restored to some degree. For instance there was a hall stand that Takis kept hitting his head on as he passed, so he cleverly converted it to a book case.

An old hall stand converted into a book case.

Note: The mix of dark and light woods. 
(Do not note the mess on the table in the foreground!)


The decorator in the Guardian article states that they added classic antiques old items such as second-hand mirrors. I’d often seen this style in magazines but I did not want to go as far as some, also adding plinths and urns to give a Greek atmosphere. We did put up a lot of old mirrors, again bought at aucion in Melbourne but I was lucky enough to find a lot of old family photos and some old dinner plates to add to the atmosphere. They held the history of the house, and they now give the house a look of continuity.

As mentioned we bought a lot of old mirrors at auctions, and also some old light fixtures. They all arrived unbroken but they all needed rewiring. However again Takis performed a miracle and got them working.


Mirrors and lights

The Guardian article                           

One of our mirrors and lights combinations

(the wall lights on each side of the mirror are fittings taken from the mirror of an old dressing table)

Note: Symmetry is often important, giving a room a sense of calm and balance


A book about the importance of details

Barbara and Rene Stoeltie, Living in Greece (Taschen Germany, 2002) These two photographers have taken pictures of twenty two different houses, illustrating the way in which detail supplies atmosphere.

Decorating to Suit the Architecture

Decorating to Suit the Architecture

Built of what came to Hand

Internal walls of our house


Having been busy pulling many of the structures of the house apart and putting them together again, what we did know quite well by now was something about the materials used in its building. The construction was beautifully efficient. Totally insulated by stone, earth, wood and reeds, our house had withstood earthquakes, and could stand for another hundred years if lived in and cared for. Moreover, being made with natural materials when abandoned it would quickly deteriorate and become just a pile of stones and timber in a field. Modern cement houses unfortunately don’t disintegrate as beautifully, and an abandoned cement factory, showroom or workroom will be an eyesore for many years.

Some old Greek towns

Walking through Myrina

I was aware that here in Lemnos one did not find the white houses with blue shutters except where someone was trying to attract tourists. No, we were in Northern Greece, though it seems as hard for tourists to understand this as it is for them to understand that Greece is not hot all year and that there can be snow in winter. 

In the north, up in mountainous areas you find houses built like Swiss Chalets. Of course, houses were once built of what came to had, wood on the wooded mountains, rocks on our island. Thus, most homes on the island, before cement homes became so prevalent, were built of stone with clay tiled roofs. 

Chalet in Metsovo

Julia Klimi, At Home in Greece (Thames and Hudson,) Julia Klimi gained access to thirty-five private homes and has captured the very Greek essence of each, though each is very different.

The Northern Aegean?
As I’ve indicated, finding pictures that could guide the decoration of a traditional northern Greek country house was difficult. The reason for this I found was that since liberation from Turkish rule in the nineteenth century what had often occurred was that only something that could be identified as ‘Greek’ – limited to Byzantine or Classical Greek – was deemed authentic. This means that often, though a fabulous mix existed before, the idea of a mix was discarded with the rise of a proud Greek nationalism, and so often what was Venetian or Ottoman hasn’t been well preserved. Even in Myrina the biggest architectural site, the Venetian castle, is hardly conserved, and some old Ottoman wells have been demolished while a mosque has been left to deteriorate. Nevertheless there are some traces to be discovered.

A well-made stone house

Our stone house with painted stucco

Vanishing Greece (Conran Octopus, 1991). This is a photographic essay on Greece by Clay Perry introduced by Patrick Leigh Fermor who, like Clay Perry, had conducted a passionate love affair with Greece over many years. Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, another philhellene, has written the text. All three are aware that by the end of the twentieth century the landscape and the traditional way of life may have changed irrevocably.

Architectural details that linger

Picture of internal courtyard

Greek houses, in the 6th and 5th century BCE, were made up of two or three rooms, built around an open air courtyard, built of stone, wood, or clay bricks. Larger homes might also have a kitchen, a room for bathing, a men's dining room, and perhaps a woman's sitting area. 

Although the Greek women were allowed to leave their homes for only short periods of time, they could enjoy the open air, in the privacy of their courtyard. Much of ancient Greek family life centered around the courtyard. The ancient Greeks loved stories and fables. One favorite family activity was to gather in the courtyard to hear these stories, told by the mother or father. In their courtyard, Greek women might relax, chat, and sew. Most meals were enjoyed in the courtyard. Greek cooking equipment was small and light and could easily be set up there. On bright, sunny days, the women probably sheltered under a covered area of their courtyard, as the ancient Greeks believed a pale complexion was a sign of beauty.

I think our house shows signs of some of the older building styles. 

Inside is a vestibule with a balcony above, and two internal windows looking down into this inner well.

See Also

resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/greece/hous...‎

by Mandy Barrow - in 36 Google+ circles

Men and women lived in different parts of the house. Women had the back and upstairs part. Most houses in Ancient Greek towns were built from stone or clay.

Doing it the Lemian Way

As we couldn’t consult with any of George and Ephterpi’s generation, all I could do, as I’ve mentioned, was to try to put myself in grandmother Ephterpi’s shoes. I played with the idea that the passions and energies of past generations remain imprinted on a house. It was this, and the familiarity of living there ourselves for some years, that had given me the clues to find the well and later the chimney. Yet mysteries remained. Often we could only speculate about the use of some of the rooms. For instance, why were all four walls of the room just inside the front door two feet thick? Was it the outline of some original shepherd’s hut, and perhaps the future house grew around that first structure? Or was this room built at the same time as the rest of the house, and made so solid because it was to be a storeroom? 

I wanted the decoration to hint at all of the possible architectural history, yet I also wanted the local family history to have pride of place. Looking for inspiration I found it in some magazines but also in some museums, particularly the Benaki Museum in Athens. (This museum is yet another instance of how Greeks from Alexandria came back and enriched their native land.) In it you can find preserved some of the internal structures from old Greek houses, with wonderful  painted freezes and carved woodwork.

It was my friend Ourania who encouraged me to emphasis the island history and told me that no way should I repaint the shutters a light blue but that I should stick with the traditional Lemian maroon (the colour that they had been and that we could identify under the flaked paint.)

And Inspiration from Books
Dimitris Philippides, Greek Design and Decoration: Three Centuries of Architectural Style (Melissa Publishing House, 1999). The author writes with great authority about Greek design in this book. It was one I could use with confidence when planning the interior decoration of our house.

Eleni Gage, North of Ithaka (Bantam Press, 2004). Eleni is the daughter of Nicholas Gage who wrote a book called Eleni about his mother. This book was later made into a film and it told of her imprisonment and execution during the Greek Civil War. Eleni, the grandaughter, goes back to rebuild the family house. This is the book that most echoes our building adventures. She also wanted to preserve and highlight the history of her family.

A Kitchen Story

A Kitchen Story

Dreams Awakened

Takis wanted his girls to experience the tastes of his childhood







For Takis, who as a boy already loved food, the idea of the island as a place of bounty was confirmed each year as the almonds and figs arrived in their Alexandrian kitchen from the garden of the house in Lemnos. So while he hadn’t visited Greece or the island at that time, and Alexandria was his actual home, Lemnos was probably his fantasy home. He often related to me the story of a later, and first, visit to the island.
‘So everybody was still going there in those days.’
'Some were in the kitchen, some playing cards on the terrace, and I could hear others calling from upstairs as they got ready for a swim. There were wonderful aromas from the kitchen where my aunts were preparing meals and sweets, supervised by my mother who was the matriarch at the time. Ah, I remember it so well, the meals, the swims, the discussions on the terrace every evening while we sipped coffee, Greek coffee of course!’
 ‘Perhaps it’s the lifestyle and food that I want to enjoy again – though I have to admit, there’s a larger range of food in Australia than one gets in Greece.’
‘I know,’ I laughed. ‘It’s the aromas coming from the kitchen mingled with the sea breezes that make you long to return to the island.’
‘It’s the whole lifestyle,’ he nodded. ‘When it was time to leave the beach, everyone walked up the track and reached the house ready for the daily siesta. The afternoon heat, after a good meal, ensured we all slept well. Then, after waking, we’d all have a light evening meal, perhaps some cakes that someone had bought from the nearest zaharoplastio. It was the perfect end to a perfect day’.

Reality hits Home

On a later visit to the island he returned with some less glorious stories.
‘I’ve told you the house is in a shocking state, but I didn’t know how bad it was till I saw it. Zoe and Costa only live in two rooms on the ground floor – a bedroom and the kitchen. You can’t use the top floor at all now, because the roof leaks. Something should be done.’
‘When you say the house is in a bad state, just how bad is it?’
‘Well, there’s a hole in the roof, and even parts of the middle floor get wet when it rains. One sister was sleeping up there and was OK, but my cousin was in another room and she had to move out into a hotel because there was a summer storm and the water came pouring onto her bed from the floor above.’
‘Oh, dire indeed!’

Kitchen before





So, when we began buying the house, and renovating it we needed a good plan of action. In 2004 we went there with great resolve, aiming to get two bedrooms and the kitchen cleaned so that we could live there. The only bathroom was practically unuseable so we’d use the outside toilet. And the kitchen had a ceiling that was grubby with years of splatters from cooking. It also had numerous small tables, whose legs were standing in metal containers filled with water. We assumed this was Costa’s work, to keep ants at bay.

KitchenAfter

It’s difficult to convey how packed with action the first weeks were, and it was amazing how much we accomplished in four months. Among other things we’d decided we needed to lower the floor in the kitchen so that there was a little more head-room. As a tall former basketball player, Takis found he kept bumping his head on the low doorway that led into the small kitchen, but lowering the floor was not enough for him.

One day he said, ‘Let’s take the dividing wall and door down as well.’
What a great idea: we could then have a larger kitchen. I emailed my very tall architect son Andrew to ask his advice.
Dear Andrew, We need some help. We are thinking of taking down a wall at the back of the house that separates the kitchen and back hall. Even if we lower the floor it will still be a very low room. I’m sure you’d hit your head on the doorway. What is the usual height of a ceiling and door these days? 
Love, Mum. Kisses to Elke. 
And back came his reply:
Hi Mum, Thanks for your update on Lemnos. Sounds like you’re having an interesting time. Hope you and Takis aren't overdoing it, remember to relax and enjoy yourselves. Have attached a couple of photos of Elke. I think we've got a little performer on our hands. 
In answer to your question, I am 195cm tall. Standard ceiling heights are 240-270cm Minimum door openings should be 210cm. Must get back to work but good to hear from you. 
Lots of Love, Andrew, Debbie & Elke 

Of Mice and Women     

Sink







We also wanted to get a new sink and while doing that we thought we’d reposition it. I’d decided the old sink had to go after I’d come into the kitchen in time to see a mouse running down the outlet. (It was after that I'd always made sure to position a stone over the outlet!)

We knew there were mice in the house, as the smell of mice permeated the woodwork everywhere. Indeed, it was hard to deny their presence when you could hear them scampering up behind the plasterwork and between the joists in the ceilings. We were doing what we could to rid the house of them but I hated the local mousetraps, which were just strips of plastic coated with glue, onto which the now screaming mice stuck fast. And as they unfortunately didn’t die instantly, someone (Anestis!) had to take them outside to be walloped. In the meantime, until I could find some old-fashioned mousetraps, I placed a stone over the sink outlet, and I bought a packet of rat and mouse bait, which provided a much quieter form of destruction.

Cupboards and Customs

January the next year in Melbourne, at auction houses, we bid for garden seats, oak tables, chiming clocks, oil paintings, oval mirrors, bookcases, desks, beds, candlesticks, chests of drawers, lounge chairs and bedroom chairs, more tables, lamps, carpets and copper pots. All these things were to be packed up and placed in the container, along with an IKEA kitchen and that icon of Australia, a rotary laundry hoist that we’d bought at a local hardware store.


But later that year, on the island, with the European summer nearly gone, we were getting anxious about the whereabouts of our container. Why had it not arrived? We’d lowered the kitchen floor and were now ready for our IKEA kitchen cupboards. Takis talked to the custom officials and found that the container was sitting in the port of Salonika, where it had evidently been for a while. Eventually Takis now had to concede and agree to a ‘bonus’ payment to get things moving. Though it went against his principles he could see he would have to pay the extra money to get the customs officers on the mainland to release it and send it to the island.

When the container eventually arrived we could at last put in the kitchen cabinets. This wasn’t the first kitchen Takis had put together but it was the first IKEA one. It took him a little time to get to grips with the instructions but soon cabinets were erected on a newly tiled floor. We were thrilled, especially when the stovetop and oven were also installed. The finished results were magnificent, and Takis was keen to begin cooking immediately. I believe that this was the first year he made marmalade in Lemnos, using bitter oranges from an old tree in the garden.

Ozo Tiles

The dining room next to the kitchen (same tiles)

There were those times when we weren’t sure whether to scream or laugh. Take the case of the kitchen and dining room floor tiles. We’d left Marcos and Anestis to finish a job while we attended to other business in Myrina and, as it was late when we arrived home, they’d already left.
Takis went into the house to inspect and came back out roaring. ‘Just come and look at this, they can’t even lay tiles in a straight line if I’m not here.’
I surveyed the offending tiles. ‘They’re not quite aligned, are they?’
‘And can you smell that? I can smell ouzo!’ He went to the shelf where we kept a few bottles of wine and a couple of bottles of ouzo. One ouzo bottle was empty. ‘They were drunk. Wait until I see them tomorrow. They’re going to take up every one of those tiles!’
I had to agree with the writer who wrote, ‘It’s hard to know if renovation is comedy or tragedy.’

Stepping Down (how many steps)

Being a devoted worrier, one morning I was sitting at the kitchen table in the early hours trying to work out how many steps we needed from the kitchen to the terrace outside. I’m sure this phenomenon of a small problem blowing up out of all proportion in the early hours of the morning is something many renovators will have experienced. When Takis awoke and joined me at the table I explained my dilemma to him. I also added that I was very worried about finishing the project if he died and I had to carry on without him!
‘One thing at a time,’ he replied. ‘First we’ll get the steps done and then we’ll talk about my death.’ Then he went off to get me a glass of water and a Panadol, and I went back upstairs to my bed. As it was Sunday, and no workers were coming, I slept until ten.

The back door is a project that we have continued this year. Now we have taken out the metal door and replaced the old metal one with one made by Takis which gives more light and a wonderful view of the garden.

This year’s kitchen door project

Dreams Fulfilled

Each year new aspects of the old Mavrellis story have unfolded, as new parts of the old house have been reawakened. In the kitchen, where once servants carried out duties and the nine children rushed past, played their games in and out of the rooms, now we meet with guests and workers for our elevenses. And now, as cooking scents begin to permeate the house, though there is still work to be done on other rooms in the house, with the arrival of guests, and of our grandchildren, again laughter can be heard from room to room as the house becomes re-enlivened.


Guests and Workers on a VERY HOT DAY having elevenses in the kitchen

Decorating Greek Shabby-Chic

Decorating Greek Shabby-Chic

To live in an old house is to live with an old house. It requires a degree of unrequited love, a romantic disposition, and a distracted and remote state of mind. Kevin McCloud


The house before and after

At this stage of the project I was a devote collector of ‘Mediterranean-style’ pictures which I pasted in a book under various headings, ‘kitchen’, ‘bedrooms’, ‘sittingroom’, etc. Of course I had to wait for the big projects (roof, floors, windows) to be finished before putting any of these ideas into practice but this didn’t deterred me, for my scrapbooks of ideas could always do with a little more fine tuning.

I took this aspect of the job very seriously, especially when in Melbourne. I’d consult magazines and decorating books, and check out armfuls from our local library. I’d cut out pictures from old house and garden magazines, then sorted them into categories  and even had pages for small details like ways to hang pictures that I thought suited the Greek country style that I was after. I liked, and so these too were added to the scrapbook. And I was not just considering furniture I was carefully thinking about colour schemes as I collected pictures of Mediterranean houses and gardens.

When it came to style I tended to agree with the art historian Kenneth Clarke who once wrote that ‘a certain sense of limitation seems to be a condition of what we call good taste’, so it didn’t worry me that all the furniture would be second hand, a mix of what was already in the house and what we were able to collect in Melbourne auction houses.

It all began with a watermelon

‘In January the auction rooms in Melbourne open after the Christmas break, so as soon as our grandchildren returned to school and we weren’t needed to assist with baby-sitting, we began haunting our favourite auction house in a nearby suburb. Although we’d begun to think about comfort, I considered it too early to buy specific ‘hotel’ furnishings, for as yet we hadn’t decided how many rooms and ensuites we might install. However, I thought we could at least find something that would be suitable for a traditional Greek house, to give it the right ambience. I’d sadly but sensibly put aside my earlier ideas about French chateau or Italian farmhouse styles, for I’d now seen pictures of Greek houses in the northern parts of the country. These were rugged stone farmhouses and the furniture in them was solid but with a simple elegance. And this style was also more suited to our island home than that featured in magazines of house renovations on popular southern islands such as Santorini.
Soon we were bidding for garden seats, oak tables, chiming clocks, oil paintings, oval mirrors, bookcases, desks, beds, candlesticks, chests of drawers, lounge chairs and bedroom chairs, more tables, lamps, carpets and copper pots. All these were to be packed up and placed in the container, along with an IKEA kitchen and that icon of Australia, a rotary laundry hoist that we’d bought at a local hardware store.

At one auction, tired of waiting for our lot to come up, Takis took a rest on one of the sofas yet to be sold. He should have known better as once before, when buying a sofa for his bachelor flat, he’d tried out a leather lounge and had fallen asleep on it in the showroom. He’d woken to see the sales person bending over him and in his embarrassment bought two sofas. We still have both and they’re a very good buy, though they do rather overfill our small city unit. Predicably, the same thing happened this time. He sat down on the sofa and fell asleep. When he awoke with a start, he began bidding immediately, only to find it was not the items he’d planned to get. Still, like the leather sofas, the marble-topped outdoor table and iron and cane chairs were a very good buy.’

The marble-topped table in use


















After buying all these things we had to get them to the island. Takis also wanted to buy and take a lot of building materials so in the end we bought a whole container and sent them off. It took a lone while for them to arrive but eventually they did.

The container arrives

‘On arrival, the truck carrying our huge metal container had to manoeuvre its way through miniscule local streets, around sharp narrow corners between houses, and then, when it got to our street, the container had to be lifted by crane up over the stone wall and into the garden. The neighbours gathered to watch this procedure and three customs officials arrived to be present when it was opened. In their hands were forms to check off what was unloaded. No cannabis, only second hand garden seats, oak tables, chiming clocks, oil paintings, oval mirrors, copper pots, bookcases, desks and beds, along with candlesticks, chests of drawers, lounge and bedroom chairs, and then more tables, lamps and carpets. But that wasn’t all. After Anestis and Marcos had helped us drag out Takis’ carpentry bench and stacks of wood, we finally came to the piece de resistance: the rotary clothes hoist.
Handling all these things again, it occurred to me that, as most of the furniture and furnishings had previously adorned someone else’s house, and many of those houses would have belonged to Europeans settling in Australia, these items had probably crossed the world twice. Take the oak table. Everyone who saw it said it must originally have come from England. And I wondered if it would look more comfortable in a European house than in an Australian house, but we wouldn’t know this until the rooms were ready to be furnished. Meanwhile most of these goods would have to join the other useful objects stored on the top floor.

In many ways, with its three floors and high ceilings in the upper floors, the house is a typical Mediterranean neo-classical building in a style found throughout Greece. As I’d been told previously, such houses are known locally as ‘Venetian Houses’, indicating an Italian influence and a Venetian style. On the island these mansions appeared towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, when locals were allowed to travel and trde outside the Turkish Empire, and newly wealthy merchants returned to their islands to build their grand homes.

Although at first glance these square two or three storey stone buildings do look alike, I had noticed differences. Ours, for instance, had simple shutters, not the louvered shutters found in nearby houses, and its windows were less symmetrical, giving the house a slightly more rustic look than some of our neighbours’. Its asymmetry caused me to think it was built in stages, and the unusual interior windows, looking down into the front hallway, added an Ottoman influence. However, it was its rustic look that influenced me when I was deciding how to decorate it. I didn’t want to turn the house into something grander than it was, an Arhondiko (mansion), or to make it into some kind of architectural-digest modern-Greek renovation. The interiors could reflect a little past wealth, but it had to be a wealth that had passed. Therefore it seemed right to me to include some local peasant touches – a pitothiki (wall rack for plates), or an old nissiotiko (wooden bench with pillows). Could this style perhaps be called ‘Greek chic gone shabby’?

The kitchen before and after

Colour had always been an important issue. Early on I’d decided the colour of the shutters would be the baseline from which other colour decisions would be made. Consequently, first and foremost, we had to decide whether we we’d keep the shutters the traditional maroon, the colour they were when we arrived, or paint them green like some of our neighbours, or use the clichéd bright Greek blue, or even try for a French light blue. Ourania had insisted we stay with the island’s traditional maroon, and that’s what we finally did.

But what did fascinate me in pictures of old Greek houses was the way that the wooden ceilings and cornices were often highly decorated. They were amazing. Painted scenes and patterns imitated the grandeur found in the plasterwork of much grander houses. The wooden boards of the floor above, which created the ceiling below, were often held in place with decorative wooden slates, which were brightly painted, while frescoes were often used around the cornices. As a result, when painting our house I decided to paint walls, doors and windows a plain light cream and let the ceilings have the colour. Thus, though I didn’t make them as bright or decorative as ceilings were in the past, it was our ceilings that made a statement in colour.

The lounge as a bedroom before 



With walls taken down and the rediscovered fireplace

Grandfather George had had grown up under the Ottoman rule and had later travelled abroad. He was no doubt influenced by this past as well as by what he’d seen on his travels in Europe. Hence, if you looked hard at our house, it was not hard to identify some of these influences. We knew that there had once been a lot of beautiful furniture, crafted in the style of Louis 14th and brought here from Alexandria; this baroque style of furniture was facetiously known among the Alexandrians as Abou Quatorzieme (Abou being a common Egyptian name). Unfortunately, most of those pieces had long since been sold.

Some old restored ‘Abou Quatorxieme’ furniture



Cousins who visited told stories about a table with legs carved with the feet of lions, and the huge old-fashioned bed that had once been on the top floor. And gradually some family members gave us a few hints about the objects we found in the house. A few of the simplest of the early pieces remained and we’d integrated them with the furniture we’d brought in the container from Australia. We still had a carved frame and picture of Papous Mavrellis which was hung with other family photos over an old bedroom chest of drawers that now served as a sideboard. There was also an old marble-topped kitchen cabinet, which we’d placed in our library/computer room. It now displayed a selection of magazines instead of pots and pans.

While I was sure that, on the whole, Grandfather would have been pleased to see what Takis had accomplished, I did wonder what his wife, Ephterpi, would have thought about my contributions. For while the Lemnos house had been Takis’ project with me tagging along, on the whole he’d let me have my way when it came   
 house decoration and garden development. Nevertheless, I was very aware that when it came to decorating I’d probably not divorced myself from my Englishness, for obviously these biases were deeply embedded in my aesthetic. So I admit that any attempt on my part to do ‘Greek decorating’ has probably ended up something of an ‘Anglo-Aussie-Greek’ mix.

The middle floor before and after

Some Books on Decorating Greek Style

Dimitris Philippides,Greek Design and Decoration: Three Centuries of Architectural Style (Melissa Publishing House, 1999). The author writes with great authority about Greek design in this book. It was one I could use with confidence when planning the interior decoration of our house.

Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff and Daniel Rozensztroch, photography by Gilles de Chabaneix, Greek Style (Thames and Hudson, 1988). This book is one of a series dealing with the unique decorating style of particular countries. In this book they show the range of styles found in Greece, from that of the northern mainland with its mountain and oriental influence, to that found in the Cyclades, Ionian and Dodecanese islands, with their white-washed fishing villages.

Julia Klimi, At Home in Greece (Thames and Hudson,) Julia Klimi gained access to thirty-five private homes and has captured the very Greek essence of each, though each is very different.

Barbara and Rene Stoeltie, Living in Greece (Taschen Germany, 2002) The two photographers have photographed twenty two different houses, illustrating the way in which detail supplies atmosphere.   

Myrina Town: past and present

Myrina Town: past and present

The little I knew about the house before arriving was that it lay on the outskirts of the island’s principal town of Myrina, close to one of the town’s main swimming beaches. In the past this location had given all of Takis’ extended Greek family wonderful summer holidays. Takis’ mother and her siblings had known the town as Castro, named after the Venetian castle at its center. Still today it is sometimes called that by its old inhabitants.

When we first arrived it was late evening but the next day – a bright crisp January morning – I looked out of our hotel window and saw the old castle glowing in the early morning light and all around it the red-tiled roofs of Myrina. I’m not sure when or why there was a name change, but now the town is known as Myrina after the wife of an ancient prince who arrived on the island in the Bronze Age from the Royal Minoan Court in Crete. King Thoa and Queen Myrina, as they are now known, came with their daughter Hypsipyle and a number of courtiers, and with their coming a town was built on the western side of the island.

It was only when we went to the house, and carefully ascended the stairs to the top floor that I saw that the house we were thinking of buying overlooked the town, the old Venetian fort and the blue waters of the Aegean beyond. Looking out and seeing how the house was positioned, on the outskirts of the town, I began to wonder about the history of this site. After all, the island had a very long history. And I immediately wanted to know more.

The house is now situated on the outskirts of Myrina but we knew that in previous generations it lay in a separate village. I’d been told that when Takis’ cousins arrived with their families they’d walk through fields to get to the sea. On that first drive to the house Takis had been surprised to see that nowadays there are new homes climbing the hills surrounding the town. Lemnos may not have many tourists, and Myrina may still be a quaint Greek town, but like everywhere in the world things are changing here also.

Myrina 

Holding Hills:

Myrina’s embracing arms encircle
Traditional homes in the valley below,
Or cup houses with red tiles.
Like locals we live in Myrina.





















Minuscule Passages:

Cars and prams and scooters go rattling
O’er cobbled lanes ‘tween imperious stone houses
Along patched and white edged roads.
Like locals we walk through Myrina.

Jumble of Stores:

Shop-keepers flaunt their post-cards and trinkets
Down in the Agora ‘neath leaning striped awnings,
With towels and shoes and toys.
Like locals we shop in Myrina.

Local Inhabitants:

Lemian men walk with rolling gait,
Their women in black shop for their daily needs
Young girls stroll in sparkling tights
Like locals we watch the folk of Myrina.























Visitors:

English and German and Dutch and Greeks
Sun-redden or browned on the sand they lie
Smoking and sipping a frappe.
Like locals we tolerate tourists in Myrina.






















Historic Island:

Near an old castle in Myrina we live
In one of those tall imperious stone houses
Built by a trader from Egypt.
Like locals we’ve a past in Myrina