How to be cool without even trying

Just over two years ago we relocated to Spain and bought a house. A small pretty Spanish villa built in 1972. The one thing we learnt very quickly from all the viewings was that if a villa description contains the words ‘recently modernised’, it’s not necessarily a good thing.

What it really means is all original features such as arches, wooden windows and decorative tiles are long gone, replaced now by harsh 90-degree angles, synthetic PVC glazing and shiny white floor tiles, which gave them all a morgue-esque feel.

The house we bought was, thankfully, packed full of original features including rubbish kitchen and terrible bathroom, but also terrazzo floor tiles.

Terrazzo was invented by the Italians over 500 hundred years ago. Marble chippings are set in concrete then polished to a fine finish. Cost effective and sustainable, I thought it was so gloriously Seventies that we had to keep it.

Me: ‘Wow those floor tiles are amazing.’

Husband: ‘You mean amazingly bad, right?’

After extensive research of floor tiles, two hushed arguments in the tile shop and one almighty shout-a-thon in a shopping centre carpark, we decided it was probably best if we gave the floor tiles a break as we couldn’t agree on, well, anything.

My reasoning was that the terrazzo floor tiles just weren’t that bad. I kept saying like a broken record, ’Maybe it will come back into fashion like marble has and this will all be solved in a jiffy’.

‘Yeah right,” said my husband. “When has that ever happened?’

At this point I would like to say a huge thank you to the gods of interior design. Because it’s back in fashion. Not just a little bit, but a lot.

My Instagram feed is stuffed full of it. From bedlinen and curtains, to mugs and toothbrush holders.

And of course flooring. Glorious terrazzo floor tiles are the thing to have. And we have it in abundance.

We’re cool and we didn’t even have to lift a finger.

Now if those interior design gods are reading this, can crazy paving be the cool new thing?

That would be great.

Photo by HOP DESIGN on Unsplash