Casa Bellini

The client asked for very little in the initial briefing, and that restraint became the guiding principle of the entire project. They wanted a countryside residence that felt as though it had always existed—not a new build imposing itself on the land, but something grown quietly from the soil beneath it. The existing farmhouse structure was preserved entirely; our work began only at its edges and interiors.

Set within the rolling hills of the Chianti region, the house sits at the end of a long cypress-lined drive. The Tuscan afternoon light arrives horizontally, flooding the kitchen and dining rooms with a warmth that no artificial source could replicate. We stripped back every interior surface to allow this light to become the primary decorative element of the home.

The material palette drew exclusively from the immediate landscape. We used hand-cut pietra forte sandstone reclaimed from a collapsed outbuilding on the same property, paired with aged chestnut recovered from the original roof structure. The continuity of material between exterior and interior dissolves the boundary between inside and outside in a way that feels entirely unforced.

All cabinetry, ironmongery, and pendant lighting was produced by our atelier in close dialogue with local Florentine craftsmen to ensure the new elements held the same weight and patina as the old ones.

The house now feels as though it was never touched. Which, for this particular client, was precisely the point.