Villa A “Santa” by Selina Bertola
Villa A “Santa” is a house in Italy by Selina Bertola, designed in 2025 with a measured approach to reworking a coastal home. The project concentrates on materials, light, and a sculptural hearth to reset identity without changing the plan, favoring warm neutrals and tactile finishes that echo the shoreline. Calm guides the brief.
Morning light slides across stone floors, catching on a pure, matter-of-fact hearth. Shadows feather along soft plaster, and the room settles into a gentle rhythm.
This is a house on the Italian coast by Selina Bertola, reimagined in 2025 without shifting a single wall. The work concentrates on the interior palette—its textures, colors, and weight—to reshape daily life and atmosphere. Materials carry the story.
Center the Hearth
The fireplace becomes a clean, sculptural presence, a calm anchor in the living room. Its pared geometry reads as architecture, not ornament, drawing conversation and circulation around a single, steady point. Mass and texture do the work here. Flames sit within a quiet volume that speaks to the room’s scale, turning heat and light into a daily ritual (and a subtle cue for gathering).
Calibrate the Palette
Everything else follows that tone—warm, neutral, and coastal in reference rather than theme. Stone flooring lifts the grays and sands of the shore, while soft plaster finishes catch daylight and dull glare into a mellow sheen. Wood runs through thresholds and furniture for continuity and warmth. Natural fabrics and woven details add a light hand, letting air and views do the talking without crowding the room.
Shape Daily Rooms
Furniture keeps to essential lines, scaled for comfort and clarity. The living and dining areas read as one continuous field, tuned by texture and light rather than partitions. Discreet, material-forward lighting creates changing scenes over the day: focused at the table, diffuse by the hearth, and quiet along the perimeter come evening. Nothing shouts. Everything finds its place.
Quiet the Bedrooms
In the night rooms, the palette deepens and lowers the pulse. Greens and grays edge toward the natural wood, with a touch of satin brass for a soft gleam. Built-in headboards and slim bedside ledges streamline the plan and reduce clutter. The result is contained and restful, tuned for slow mornings and cool, shaded afternoons (doors cracked to the breeze).
Refresh the Baths
Bathrooms pick up the same material language and sharpen it. Ribbed wood vanities add texture under hand, while sculptural basins give mass and clarity to simple volumes. Matte black fittings cut a crisp profile against warm surfaces, setting up a controlled contrast that threads back to the living core. It reads as one continuous interior, not a set of rooms.
Evening returns the hearth to focus, stone cooling underfoot as plaster walls hold the last light. The house breathes with the coast—measured, calm, and ready for another day.
Photography courtesy of Selina Bertola
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