Inside designer Carolina Irving's rustic retreat in Portugal
I never quite know what to call my friend Carolina Irving. Somehow, despite her wildly stylish and successful fabrics collection, the description textile designer never seems to do her justice, for her considerable talents have been applied to far more than just designing prints. Nor does tastemaker suit – it is too vacuous for someone as naturally intelligent and autodidactic. Indeed, in Carolina’s company, one feels her unquestionably perfect taste is almost secondary to her strong character, a happy accident, as the concept of good taste seems to be so unimportant to her.
An itinerant soul from the start, Carolina was born, almost by accident, on a stopover in the US as her Venezuelan parents made their way into exile in Paris. This émigré spirit has remained through the various well-documented homes she has made over the past three decades. They reflect a global life, emblematic of a vast curiosity of both mind and eye. She has lived in such disparate spaces as a Stanford White ball-room in New York, a shingled beach cottage in Amagansett and a Haussmannian flat in Paris, carrying her cherished possessions from place to place and imbuing each home with her unmistakable style. This is especially true of the Portuguese hideaway she has crafted over the past decade.
Nearly 15 years ago, at the invitation of her friend, shoe designer Christian Louboutin, Carolina saw the untouched beauty of the Melides rice fields. At his prescient instigation, she quickly snapped up a small plot of land for sale, situated at the top of a bank and cutting into the fields below like a ship’s prow. Descending down a dirt track that leads to the Atlantic, and which, despite the arrival of many high-wattage neighbours in the intervening years, has remained the same as it was when Carolina first arrived, one would be forgiven for missing her house altogether. In fact, that is quite the point.
When Carolina purchased the property, there was barely one wall left standing from the previous structure. However, much to her chagrin, the town had satellite imagery from the 1970s that showed the old footprint, so building restrictions meant her home could barely exceed 93 square metres. She accepted the challenge, undaunted, and has created a home that is perfectly compact, where nothing is unaccounted for.
The rice fields are dotted with whitewashed fishermen’s houses, a delightfully unpretentious local vernacular that, in conjunction with strict building laws, has helped to keep the village atmosphere intact. Not simply a weekend pied-à-terre, Carolina’s house had to function as a year-round escape from her home in Paris – for herself, her partner, French documentary producer Bertrand Devaud, and two sets of children from their previous marriages, who would often arrive with last-minute house guests (guilty as charged) in tow.
With space at a premium, Carolina cleverly designed the house around one principal room that feels cosy for two and yet spacious for 12. Small, self-contained bedrooms fan out from this central space, providing a surprising amount of privacy for so limited a footprint. Not content to rely on the decorating clichés common in this coastal Alentejo region, Carolina chose materials and finishes that are more evocative of a 17th-century finca, but were all crafted for the house. As with her textiles, Carolina is a master at making the new look old, but without a whiff of pastiche or imitation.
The most striking feature is the vivid emerald floor tiles in the sitting room, locally made in the nearby town of Setúbal, but with an ancient tin-glaze technique that the designer notes wryly is ‘not quite safe for eating off, but perfectly fine to have underfoot’. They give a strong base to soaring white-washed walls and ceiling beams, the perfect backdrop for an ever-increasing assemblage of 19th-century ceramics and a well-loved framed botanical artwork. This was formerly a three-panel screen that designer Christian commissioned for Carolina 25 years ago from a gardener in the French village where he has a home. It has travelled with her from the Hamptons to Paris and now Melides –and, much like Carolina, has been perfectly at home in each location.
Elsewhere, tiles by Carolina’s friend Patricia Medina, made in Seville using a centuries-old technique, frame windows and line the reveals of doors. In the rustic kitchen – a clap-board appendage to the house heated only (even in winter) by a corner wood stove – marbleised tiles designed by Carolina create a dazzling splashback. A built-in banquette is covered in cushions made from traditional Mallorcan ikat fabric mixed with Carolina’s bestselling ‘Patmos Stripe' linen.
What the house lacked in buildable square metres, it more than makes up for in sweeping vistas. The early evenings are bewitching – those moments when the soft light that precedes a glowing setting sun envelops the whole of one’s view. It is not a house with land, but rather land with a house; days and evenings all year round are largely spent out of doors. One of Carolina’s first works was to lay decking throughout, done ingeniously to blend into the landscape. The outdoor areas have evolved into a series of rooms dotted across the property, culminating in a strikingly simple swimming pool, which could be the work of Ed Tuttle but was in fact Carolina’s own design, influenced by the agricultural water troughs synonymous with the area’s farming community.
Like most great minds, the designer dwells in a paradoxical world of splendid isolation and social activity. Her home is a refuge, with books and papers on every surface, and also a place of work. The serenity of the environment spurs bursts of creativity. I cannot recall a time when we did not review her latest fabric strike-offs over coffee in the morning sun.
That said, Carolina is a natural host, with infectious energy, who has mastered the art of nonchalant entertaining, a skill inherited by her daughters (and my frequent collaborators), Olympia and Ariadne. Together, they founded Carolina Irving & Daughters, a homeware brand that has developed a cult following in less than six years, and introduced an American audience to a thoroughly European way of living.
When Carolina fancies a break from hosting, she has the benefit of neighbours who also entertain brilliantly, like Christian and winemaker Countess Noemi Marone Cinzano, whose homes are perpetually filled with a vivacious cast of characters. Carolina is deeply connected to the area, having collaborated with Christian on his hotel project, Vermelho, which has become an anchor for Melides. This small town is now so important in her life that, last June, Carolina and Bertrand marked their wedding at the just-opened hotel with two days of celebrations that united family and friends. That weekend, it felt as though, for someone whose life has been a roving journey, in this special corner of the world, Carolina has created not just another house but a home m
Carolina Irving Textiles: carolinairvingtextiles.co | Carolina Irving & Daughters: ci-daughters.com
Dean Hearne1/14Featuring dried gunnera leaves, an artwork given to Carolina by her friend Christian Louboutin hangs above a table covered in a traditional white Portuguese cloth. Bujosa Tèxtil’s hand-woven fabrics, typical of Mallorca, were used for the seat cushions on the banquette and chairs. Carolina’s husband Bertrand made the table
Dean Hearne2/14Handmade floor tiles from Azulejos de Azeitão set off an Ikea sofa in a mustard-coloured fabric by Carolina. Spanish ceramics are displayed on the wall below a hand-woven textile at the top of the stairs.
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Dean Hearne9/14The striking headboard is covered in colourful tiles handmade in a small village in Andalusia, which were also used to create a splashback in the kitchen. An antique textile from Crete brightens the foot of the bed.
10/14Carolina’s own pretty ‘Ciara’ paisley linen on the cushions of the window seat picks up on the blue of the closet curtain in an Indian weave from Gujarat.
Dean Hearne11/14Rustic beams, unpainted wooden window frames and pale walls are the simple backdrop for a checked bedcover from India and window-seat cushions in a plain cotton that draws the eye to the restful greens of the landscape beyond
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Dean Hearne13/14The walls are painted in a striking combination of a warm melon shade above a rich terracotta on the lower area, which matches the band on a distinctive woven bedcover from Morocco. A slim green table, made by Carolina’s husband Bertrand, bears a yellow jug of bright flowers that echo the colours of the carved wooden animal masks from Mexico above the mirror.
Dean Hearne14/14Cacti and other drought-tolerant plants edge the pine-shaded steps leading down to the pool designed by Carolina
