A Peek Inside: indie home tours with Ana Pina

I love getting a sneak peak into people’s home & lives. I guess that’s why I started the series A Peek Inside: indie home tours. I love to see how people decorate, organize and arrange their homes. You might call me a voyeur, but I think it’s the inner curator in me…I am interested in the material and social culture of our times.  I’m pretty sure you are too. 😉

Today’s tour is of the home of Portuguese architect and artist Ana Pina. Ana very graciously takes us on a tour of her home and answer some questions about her decorating style.

Tell us about where you live. House or apartment? How long have you lived there?

Well, my home isn’t quite a house, but it’s not an apartment: it’s a bit of both. I live in a housing complex consisting of 4 blocks that alternate with green courtyards, where every house is a duplex, so there are many houses in the same building but each one as its own independent access.

It was a  social housing project by well known Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza (around 1975), but left incomplete at the time, which led to its decay through the years. Fortunately, it was finally completed and totally rehabilitated in 2006 and me and my boyfriend where lucky enough to find one available when we started looking for a house together in the summer of 2009. We moved in December of that year, so we’ve celebrated our first year together in this new home!

I love living here! As an architect, I’m a big fan of Siza’s work, so it’s an honor to live in a house that he designed. In addition, it’s great that this place is so quiet, but at the same time so close to the city center.

How would you describe your designing style?

My style is quite simple as you can see from the pictures. I like plain and functional pieces, modern lines, light and clean ambiances. I added a bit of color to some of the walls of our home, to personalize the different rooms, but I elect white as the main color in walls and furniture, which I try to keep to the strictly necessary, because I don’t like to over-weigh the space. As you probably noticed I’m a big Ikea fan – I love its clear and versatile Nordic design, which makes each piece interesting, both aesthetic and functionally.

Share the story behind one of your treasures.

It’s so hard to pick a treasury among the objects that fill my home, because I’m really attached to my things and I like to preserve even some insignificant things as reminders of the past (which I usually have the wisdom to keep stored in boxes away from sight!). One of the objects that I most cherish is probably a drawing that I made a few years ago and framed when I was still living with my parents, but it’s now in my home. I love to draw and have many drawings, but few of them had the lucky to be framed…this one’s special since I chose it to be the cover of a little poetry book I wrote and which was published by an alternative publisher about seven years ago.

Who is your furry roommate?

My furry roommate is my lovely, sweet and stubborn kitty Frida Kahlo. She was born in April 2008 and was left as an abandoned orphan in the streets by someone with cruelty in their heart, but she was lucky to be found by a girl who took good care of her until she was adopted by us. Frida is independent and has a strong personality, just as the artist that inspired her name…and she sometimes like to pose for me, so I can draw her.

What’s your favorite room and why?

It’s so hard to pick only one favorite room, because I really love this house and there are so many reasons for me to enjoy its different rooms. For instance, I love to cook so the kitchen is probably one of the places in the house where I spend  a lot of my time. I also love the way the kitchen is designed, open to the dining room and near to the secondary entrance and with adjacent windows, making it always filled with light. One of my other favorite places is the wall of our living room that’s totally covered with shelves. I’ve always dreamed of filling an entire wall of my home with my music and books, lots of books that I love – and now my dream  has come true!

Do you consider your home “complete” or are you continually adding new pieces or makes changes to it?

Our home is far from complete. During the last year it’s been a pleasure turning our new house into a home, but there’s still some things missing. Like some lamps in the ceiling, some more paintings and photographs of our travels in the walls and some little details that add personality and coziness to the space. I don’t like to constantly change things in the house, but I like to think of the living space as a working process, always open to receive more signs of the people that live in it and the years that pass by them. I hope this to be just the beginning of a journey where I want to feel more and more at home as the years go by!