When the doors open you hear laughter and whispers. It is a huge country house where only the access says we are close to the city. Inside and outside everything is perfect for life to be spent in celebration. Facing the estate that is lost in the horizon, we imagine gatherings around the pool until the sun goes down. The green and wood dominate the environment and leaves smells of the forest and the countryside.
Countless details can be seen in the rooms, kitchen, bedrooms, office, games room and wine cellar, telling the story of each place. Handcrafted pieces inspired by other times let the fruit picked from the orchard rest. The memories and aromas of time without hours, are present in the lively conversations about the gifts of Bacchus and when the huge cupboard opens from it comes out a terroir that spread around the table covered with hydraulic mosaics.
Dinner is a feast. On the table, with its waxed chestnut top, there are linens, flowers, silver, crystals and around the dressed chairs. Nothing is missing.
A breeze with the aroma of hot bread and jams comes from the kitchen, while the moss-green cupboards with linen curtains hide other flavors and many recipes made with love. The tea time arrives at the stone table in Estremoz, while the benches that came from old trees are waiting.
In the distance you can read “Histórias que o Avô Vai Contar” (“Stories that Grandpa will tell”) and there is a playhouse with dolls that also stay in silence to listen to the adventures of the elder. The memories made in embroidery, dishes from the East and memories from other times have narratives to be listen in the coziness of the sofas, under the crackling of the fireplace.
In the master suite and the granddaughters’ bedroom, the colours are light and natural, creating a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Flowers and plants come to life in herbariums and on wallpaper. The relationship with the outside world is emblematic and of great importance.
The adventures of the day are also told near the lamps that were once country buckets or watering cans.
At the nook that shows the garden, there is time to think, read and anticipate the dawn, with blankets that warm the cold days.
The house is a gift to who you love, to family, to everything that has been lived and to unfulfilled desires. There are memories and feelings, with scent, that go through books, embroidery and china that float in every space.
Sometimes you can hear the keys of the old typewriter, just like the pool cues playing. In this bucolic environment, wood, iron, stones and mirrors appear with new existence, the old gives hand to the new days and the memories will continue to be built and forever there will be the house of grandparents.
Photographer: Pedro Ferreira
Text: Cristina Freire
