Choosing a quirky apartment, instead of a hotel in Porto

Usually our holidays tend to be cottage-based rather than in a hotel, and that's how we like them. And so when we were in Portugal I was keen for part of our trip to follow our preferred approach. I struck lucky in Porto finding the Apartment Bomfim 234, and as you can see from the photos it positively shines.

Unbelievably I booked it on Expedia.  I know, that surprised me too.  From the outside though you'd never have known what was inside. This was the view that met us as we opened the door.

I wouldn't call myself a natural fan of mid-century modern furniture, it's a style of furniture that while I admire, I skip over when choosing items for our home. I'm not sure if that is due to growing up in a sea of teak and G-plan furniture in the seventies or because I'm pre-disposed to other styles, but in this apartment I started to see what I was missing out on.

This cabinet was the winner for me, not that we had the TV on (that's a rarity on our holidays too), and I think it's the added colour that won me over. For me, that takes this style of furniture to another level and I've found myself admiring similar projects since I've been home. It moves it away from those seventies memories, and into something more up to date, don't you think?

But there was more to the apartment than the furniture. There was the layout. On the mezzanine level there was the bedroom, on the ground floor the sitting area and a half floor below housed the kitchen and bathroom.  

All were accessed by open staircases, which were the feature. These above, which lead to the bedroom do have a look of "shelves" about them, and were much easier to navigate than perhaps you'd expect.  

Upstairs the bedroom area, although snug, was just as stylish.  

When I say snug, there was just room for a bed, and just about enough room to get in it. Just, it was a bit of a squeeze, but I forgave it; its stylishness one me over. 

And, oh... the bedside lights.  A feature we both liked and a design element we're storing for the future.

Heading downstairs to the kitchen area felt in some ways more precarious, but no less stylish. MOH kept marvelling at the building regs and such like that made this possible, ever the practical one...

Standing at the kitchen table gave a great view up to the living area and full length windows, complete with shutters.

Now you might be thinking Porto, fabulous tiles and wondering where they are in this apartment. Well it didn't disappoint there either. They were saved for a full wall of pattern in the bathroom. 

My first thought was wow, they're busy, but that quickly turned to wow, they're beautiful. Beautiful close up and from more of a distance, and they certainly made an impact. With another idea for the future banked, and another style feature I'd usually shy away from I was having quite an epiphany, and we'd only just arrived in Porto!

As we headed out of the apartment to explore Porto some more I noticed the first of many more walls of tiles. These were in the hallway, which somehow I'd completely overlooked as we arrived. 

Geometrics are big in the shops here at the moment aren't they, but it seems in some places they've never gone away.

A treasure trove of crockery

On a recent visit to Norfolk dad told me about a place he thought I'd like, but would say no more. On Sunday morning instead of pottering around the garden we got in the car and headed down to Snettisham, a few miles along the A149. We stopped at an old industrial building which I knew previously used to be a carpet shop, and had then turned into a cafe and I was intrigued.

Even more so as we headed to the cafe, and hoping for a large iced bun, my hopes were high. There wasn't an iced bun, and instead of going into the cafe we headed upstairs and into a space full of curiosities and no doubt lots of families own histories.

The place was full of bays of all manner of items, big and small, but what stood out for me was the amount of crockery and kitchenware they had. Today I'm sharing some of those photos, most of the items are what would be classed as mid-century modern and I'm sure it's the kind of place where new stock is arriving all the time, so for me it's definitely a place to keep an eye on.

I was amazed by how many different sets they had, as well as how many different designs. The jewelled coloured cups, and black saucers, caught my eye, but I wasn't sure about the circular patterns on the side plates. Black featured quite a lot I discovered, in roses too.

It was absolutely the type of place to be inspired, and somewhere I'll be heading back to when I hope next time I'll be less overwhelmed and more prepared, and perhaps pop in with something in mind. I mean, this colander, apart from being used in the normal way would be ripe for an upcycling project, wouldn't it?

And then I saw these mixing bowls and almost squealed. They just remind me of cooking at school and were just as heavy as I remembered.

Next I discovered a dinner service whose simplicity appealed to me. I spent a bit of time trying to consider and convince myself that the serving dishes would match our Greenwich Denby set and would be perfectly fine to buy as some extra crockery for those dishwasher-is-full-there's-no-plates-left kind of days.

But I failed at the time and looking at them again I think they might, well apart from the mustardy coloured lids (the same colour as the saucers above), but now I've given it more thought they'd tone with the chairs wouldn't they?  

So I think I've convinced myself and might well be leaving with them if they're still there on my next visit - thanks for your help, that's much appreciated.

Next up was a tray of old cutlery, which is always an interest, and I'm always on the lookout for old teaspoons and cake forks. Because that's normal, right? Well, ok maybe not, but I've got this idea that if I collect pretty vintage tea sets then at some point I can hire them out, but for that I'll need teaspoons, cake forks, tea strainers and cake stands too. It makes perfect sense now doesn't it...

This next set reminded me of an aunt and uncle, who I'm sure had their front room decorated in very similar colours. All blues and purples and all very seventies, and perfectly normal at the time. Unless, like us, you went for the brown, orange and yellow colour scheme instead.

Ah, yes, more serving dishes. I've clearly a need for more in my life. These have a more natural look to them, and definitely won't match in the same way the ones earlier will, but I quite liked the tulip design. 

I'd clearly found the more sedate end of the display as these were up next and I think have a timeless quality to them and would easily slip into everyday use.  Although with just one side plate to the four bowls and four dinner plates I feel it's a little unbalanced.

But moving onto some more classics, bone handled cutlery. I loved these, just look at the detail on the blades of the fish knives, and the presentation box. Definitely swoon-worthy, and *almost* enough for be to be less fish-phobic, but not quite. Now if they'd have been teaspoons and cake forks, it would have been a different story!

And to finish, a design that I was very taken with. At first glance I saw Christmas trees, I think it's the shape, but looking closer it's clearly not Christmas-related at all, and is the type of design I could stare at for ages trying to work out where it was and imagining all the times we've sat on the side of a river and watched the world go by.

As I said before, definitely somewhere I'm going back to. I've been back once already so far, to show MOH something completely different, a wooden chest that I've got my eye on for our spare bedroom. Before we got to Norfolk again I'll be measuring the space I have in mind for it and trying much harder to bargain with them, as by then if it's still there they'll have had it a while. And if it's gone, I'm sure there'll be something equally lovely to consider instead.

If you're near Snettisham on the A149, stop off at The Granary and prepare to be amazed.  But don't buy a wooden chest, or I'll be after you!