COSMOPOLITAN
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Ali Pittam of Can Can Design and Roberta Jurado of Box3 Interiors worked miracles to inject personality into the blank canvas of a new-build house. The transformation took only six months, but resulted in the totally unrecognisable Can Fructu, now a truly unique and welcoming holiday home.
Ali Pittam, founder and director of Can Can Design, still gets emotional with the satisfaction of a job well done when she recalls the Can Fructu project and everything it entailed: ‘As I was driving home, dirty and exhausted, the clients called me to tell me they were completely blown away by what we had done, and that it was better than they ever dreamed it would be. Suddenly, all the adrenaline evaporated, and I had to stop the car at the side of the road and cry with happiness and relief–it had all worked out!’ It was far from an easy task for Pittam and her friend and collaborator Roberta Jurado of Box3 Interiores, who were charged with turning the recently bought newbuild house into the owners’ dream holiday home. It needed absolutely everything, from mattresses and martini glasses to curtains and coffee cups. Their work also included a curved, cantilevered platform to practise yoga, a pétanque court, wine cellar and a gym that had to be ‘fully equipped but still beautiful, not just functional’. And all this had to be completed in six months, as the brand-new owners wanted to use the house the first summer after buying it.
The building is a long, low, single-storey house, with a flat roof and beautiful, simple lines, large windows to show off the stunning views, interspersed with the warmth and texture of local stone. Much of the architecture is reminiscent of certain modernist gems in Palm Springs and California. ‘As The design duo Roberta and I developed the initial interiors concepts, sourced striking pieces of art for the we kept going back to the same phrase: contemporary owner, giving this newly built house its Mediterranean modernism,’ says Pittam. ‘This gave us own personality a useful style framework to work within, but it also gave us the confidence to move away from it when we felt it was necessary.’ They incorporated furniture, art and accessories from many different eras, multiple countries and continents, with some unique vintage pieces from the 1950s and 1960s that continue the original modernist thread. All of this is set against a backdrop of beautiful, suede-like polished-plaster walls and floors, with imposing full-height hardwood doors. To bring all this together, it was essential to first get to know the clients and visit some of their other properties. ‘It became clear they had a strong preference for a thousand 21