In Florence Officina Abitare has turned an old rural house into Casa Rosa B&B, an elegant, sustainably renovated bed & breakfast with panoramic views of the city.
The renovation preserved the original living area on the ground floor, featuring a large woodburning fireplace, while completely renewing the sleeping area on the first floor with four new rooms, each with a private bathroom.
The need to structurally consolidate the building, compromised by a clumsy 20th-century renovation, necessitated the use of plasterboard for the new partitions on the first floor, thus lightening the floors and minimizing the insertion of support beams into the historic wooden floors.
The new rooms, designed with a minimal and clean language, use natural materials such as solid wood and lime-based coatings and paints. The house has been equipped with lime and cork thermal plaster and a modern heat pump system, achieving Energy Class B.
From the wonderful private garden, one can access the historic spaces on the ground floor, originally intended as a living area, now transformed into the reception area. Here, guests are welcomed in the old living room, characterized by an ancient chestnut wood ceiling with carved capitals, carefully restored, and a large Tuscan wood-burning fireplace, around which a cozy space for relaxation and reading has been organized. The ground floor also hosts spaces for guest reception, relaxation, and food preparation and consumption.
The focal point of the project was the creation of four new rooms with bathrooms, each conceived as a small autonomous suite, with its own quality of natural light and view of the surrounding landscape. Each room is equipped with a large headboard made of natural lime and resin “pastellone” free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), protected with beeswax. This warm and natural material, with its soft color, integrates with custom-made Swiss pine furniture, creating quiet and intimate environments that promote relaxation and rest.
On the ground floor, the large breakfast room, adjacent to the entrance hall, has been restored and consolidated, with the wooden ceiling and the lime and cork thermal plasters painted with natural lime. The breakfast room, overlooking the private garden and the Florence landscape, conveys a sense of calm and peace and is connected to the kitchen through a large arched opening inserted into a stone wall, maintaining the use of this typical Tuscan house space. A contemporary and discreet lighting system completes the spaces, ensuring adequate levels of brightness for the intended functions.
The connection between the ground floor and the first floor is provided by a double-volume staircase, overlooking a mezzanine transformed into a common room for relaxation, with a view of the rear woods. This space, equipped with a sofa and armchair, is designed as a small environment for socializing among B&B guests.
Arches characterize the distribution space that connects the stairs to the three rooms on the first floor, each distinguished by a numbered wooden door leading to a private world made of fragrant Swiss pine, warm surfaces finished with beeswax resin, and splendid views of the hills of Florence. The new fir wood floors on the first floor have statically consolidated the upper part of the building.
The finishing materials and furnishings of the B&B are all natural: wood, lime, and beeswax, creating healthy and comfortable environments. The floors consist of old local terracotta tiles, recovered and reused to maintain continuity with the historic house. The private bathrooms in the rooms are designed for practicality and simplicity, with the same materials as the bedrooms, with double sinks on Swiss pine shelves and large showers. All furnishings are made of Swiss pine, known for its relaxing properties. Materials, adhesives, and furnishings were chosen for their absence of indoor pollutants, creating a healthy and comfortable environment.
