"A good interior is well balanced"
Marta Rocha dos Santos, interior architect
"Everything about the interior of a property can bring about a change in mood: colours, shapes, materials. Determining whether an interior is pleasant has very little to do with beauty, it’s all about the feelings it evokes.
For Nazaré Canyon I chose natural colours and materials; the colours of the sea - various shades of green and blue; the colours of the sand - white, pale yellow and light brown. Here and there I used darker shades to create contrast and depth. People come to Nazaré Canyon to rest and to relax, and the environment helps to reinforce this feeling. Nearly all the furniture is handmade, each piece is unique. A machine cannot make a product with love, only a person can do that. That’s why the lamb’s wool bedspreads were made by Portuguese artisans. These bedspreads are blankets that shepherds used in the past to keep themselves warm in the winter. Nazaré has grown in popularity, from a simple fishing village, and so I wanted to recreate the same atmosphere of simplicity.
For interior furniture we have chosen wood, mainly pine, a 'forgotten' wood that is deeply embedded in Portugal’s history and culture. In the past, this wood was used for house building and even ships with which explorers discovered the world. The pinewood we use comes from local spruce trees which hold the soil with its roots to prevent erosion. As in life, a good interior is well balanced. It does not depend on a certain kitchen or bathroom, but on its holistic functionality. Beauty is not a matter of taste, but of balance and simplicity.”