I don’t miss the winters of colder climates, but I do love a nice cozy fire, and warm wintery recipes.
While the Med is known for its sunny hot climate, it does still have a short “winter".
After my first Med winter, I started to think of how I could better optimise my home and lifestyle for the Mediterranean winter wet season.
In this blog I share 4 Med Home Winter Renovations that have really made a big difference for optimising my Med winter lifestyle - with BEFORE & AFTER photos!
I’ve learned since moving to the Med that hot climates don’t have hot and cold seasons, but rather dry and wet seasons. I now find myself rejoicing when the first rains come after the long, hot and dry summer, signalling the start of winter, or wet season.
In my corner of the Med, temperatures in winter still hover around 20 degrees Celsius which is still delightfully warm for my cold climate blood. However when it rains it can feel colder and darker without the sun, in addition to the shorter days. By the sea there can also be hefty winds.
Here are 4 renovations that have made the biggest difference in my Med Home in winter with DIY tips and tricks!
Read on for inspiration and ideas - with Before and After photos!
1. Creating a winter garden terrace
I recognised that I had a lot of outdoor terrace space that goes under-utilised in the rain or wind. I love my Med Garden and wanted to be able to be immersed in it even during the rains. In addition, my main terrace off the main room of the house and kitchen is a large space. If I were to enclose it with glass it would extend my indoor-outdoor living space substantially and put me right in the middle of my glorious garden.
Glass however can be problematic in the hot Med summers. Therefore sliding or folding glass doors to enclose the terrace in rain or wind, and keep open in the hot summers seemed to be my answer. Importantly, by creating a removable structure I would not be changing the facade of the house, which would have required additional building permits.
The first estimates that I got for sliding and folding glass doors were exorbitant. At that price, it was difficult to justify given that the doors would only need to be closed for a few days a year. Then we came across another option - a window curtain. It is frames of glass that slide together with just a thin plastic divider - vs. a full frame for each piece of glass - that fold into a stack at the wall when open. The window curtain it turns out would be half the price of the sliding or folding glass doors with full frames.
I was a little worried at first that it might be too fragile for the high winds and tropical storms we can get in winter. But the price was right, and so with some expected assurance from the glass curtain manufacturer, we went for it!
I am so happy that we did. The window curtain has been resilient to high winds and tropical rains so far - and as a bonus, with no frames on the glass we have achieved no obstruction to the view of the garden. It is really as if you are sitting right in the middle of the garden, just as I had wanted.
I can fully recommend the window curtain as an option to create your winter garden terrace. We contracted a manufacturer in Spain called VEMAX . We experienced excellent service and they did a professional job with the installation.
Here are some before and after photos of my winter garden terrace - which we are fully enjoying this Med winter season.
2. Replacing the fireplace
When I bought my Med Home there was a fireplace in the main room of the house - which can be rare in sea-side houses. As mentioned, I do love a cozy fire from my up-brining in cold climates. I was really happy that the house had a fireplace.
In Med homes there is not usually central heating. Space heaters are more common for the few days a year when you may need them. But a fire really warms the whole house, with that glorious fire-light glow and campfire smell !
Unfortunately I learned that my original fireplace was not very efficient and often produced a lot of smoke before the fire got going. I also didn’t like that the opening of the fireplace was very low to the ground, making it hard to see the fire over furniture unless you were sitting right in front of it.
After my first winter in the house I knew I wanted to replace the fireplace. I wondered however how big (and messy) a job that would be. Again, hard to justify when we only use the fireplace a few days a year.
I did continue to browse Pinterest for ideas however, and eventually found a beautiful modern wood burning stove fireplace with wrap-around viewing windows that are high above the ground creating optimal views of the fire. This model, the Arlet from TRAFORART in Spain happened to be in a similar style to the fireplace I fell in love with at one of my favourite boutique hotels in the Algarve, Portugal. (See photo of grand fireplace at Vila Monte Hotel, Moncarapacho, Portugal below)
Now that I’d found my perfect fireplace design, my moment to take the leap on the fireplace came when we decided to renovate the floors in the house (see next section Lightening up the floors). Renovating the floors would mean removing all of the furniture - and so it seemed like a timely opportunity for a messy job like demolishing the existing brick fireplace and replacing it with the new wood burning stove.
The timing worked perfectly with the planning for the renovation of the floors, and we now have a beautiful new modern design fireplace that fits perfectly with the house - and which I try to use every time it rains!
PS - this fireplace is super efficient. It lights up immediately with no smoke and starts to pump out the heat with that warm fire-light glow which we can see from all parts of the main room and kitchen.
Here are some before and after photos of my fireplace renovation.
3. Lightening up the floors
The original floors of my Med Home were the charming terracotta clay tiles that you find throughout many homes in the Med. I loved the floors at first as they represented a sense of place and made me feel like I was on eternal holiday. Terracotta clay floors are extremely functional in the Med as they stay cool in the hot summers, and you can do almost anything to them without damaging them.
However, in the shorter days of winter they are dark and cold making you long for the hot, sunny and long days of summer. I began to think about the breezy beach-y essence I was aiming for with the house and what I could do about the dark terracotta floors.
I knew that ripping up the original tile would be a big job - and replacing it with new lighter coloured tile would be expensive.
I had lived in many industrial loft style flats in the past which often had polished concrete floors which are super modern, and like terracotta it’s hard to damage them. I wondered if instead of ripping up my existing tile floors, I could simply cover the tile with a layer of concrete and polish it up to my desired lighter tone. I was imagining a grey-beige colour like sand under your feet for my beach and sea inspired home decor.
After consulting with several contractors who told us it couldn’t be done because of this or that - we suspected that they had just never done it - we found a company, again in Spain, who specialises in exactly this floor treatment: RESISTONE. And again, the cost to cover the existing tiles with microcement was more than half the estimates we had gotten from contractors to rip up the existing tile and replace.
We were planning a celebration at the house that summer and so I got into gear and advanced my plans to renovate the floors - and at the same time replace the fireplace.
I was dreading emptying the house that I had so carefully put together. But in the end it wasn’t too bad. We were able to put all of the furniture into a tent on the driveway. And we could stay in the small guest house by the pool which we had renovated the previous year. (More on renovating the guest house in a future blog!)
The whole job of renovating the floors by applying the microcement on top of the original tiles only took 1 week - and then we were moving back in, with a nice buffer of time until our guests arrived that summer.
We had a lot of back and forth about how much the floor would be elevated by pouring cement on top, and would all of our doors still fit… but in the end this was not an issue at all. Some of the bedroom and closet doors (which are wood) had to be shaved just a little on the bottom, but this was easy to do - and with that the original doors fit perfectly in their place with the new floors.
The new microcement floors turned out beautifully - and actually feel soft on your feet, like the finest grind of sand. It looks like sand too - the colour is perfect for my beach-y decor and makes the house infinitely brighter - even in winter.
I would highly recommend RESISTONE if you are thinking about a job like this - super professional, great service, and a job done on time and on budget.
Before and after photos of my floor renovation below.
4. “Skylight” effect lighting
I’ve mentioned the shorter and darker days of winter throughout this blog as a key factor we were seeking to optimise for in these renovations.
It is a small thing, but I stumbled upon skylight effect lighting when choosing an overhead light for the main bathroom. It really feels like sunlight.
After being so pleased with the lighting in the main bathroom, we ended up adding it to all bathrooms and the hallways which received no exterior light. Skylight effect lighting in the hallways really makes a difference in the darker days of winter. Bringing a sunlight effect to the alley-ways of the house also creates a back-lit effect which you can see from the main rooms - very cool.
If you are considering how to optimise your home for winter - in the Mediterranean or anywhere around the world - I hope that my experiences with these 4 renovations provide ideas for your next project.
Let me know your recommended winterising home reno and home decor tips in the comments below!
Jade
Lewon
Med
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