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GAIA Corfu, Greece

Kouloura House Corfu, Greece

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Dominic dominic@skinnerandskinner.co.uk +30 697 708 4501

@skinnerandskinnerdesign

skinnerandskinnerdesign

~ Dominic and Claire Skinner
~ Architecture and Interior Design

Twenty plus years. Over 100 projects — villas, e

Twenty plus years. Over 100 projects — villas, estates, restorations, and boats — across Corfu, Paxos, the Greek islands, the mainland, and beyond. All of them in two minutes.

Behind every one of them are two people. Today belongs to one.
Happy birthday, Dom!
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Photography from:
@clivenichols @itsjamiejames @costastsiringakis
Dafni Colla and the Skinner and Skinner Team
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#SkinnerAndSkinner #LifestyleByDesign #Corfu #Paxos #IonianIslands

The work continues at the Old Soap Factory, Loggos

The work continues at the Old Soap Factory, Loggos, Paxos.

The reinforcement mat is laid. The retained perimeter walls, rubble limestone, hand-set brick arches, and render worn back to its history stand as they have for over a century. New concrete will be poured within them. The steel portal frame sits inside the original masonry envelope, touching it as little as possible.

Dominic Skinner has been on site throughout, reading the building as it opens up: which voids to preserve, which thresholds to keep, where the new structure can sit without disturbing what was already there.
This is the part of a restoration that doesn't photograph easily. The decisions made now, in the structure, below the floor, within the walls, are the ones that determine whether the finished building holds its integrity or loses it.

📍 Old Soap Factory, Loggos, Paxos.
Restoration and architectural direction by Skinner & Skinner Design.
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📷 @itsjamiejames Dominic Skinner and @clivenichols
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#loggospaxos #paxos #heritagerestoration #adaptivereuse #greekarchitecture #industrialarchitecture

Four semi-circular arches form the ground-floor lo

Four semi-circular arches form the ground-floor loggia at Velanidia, lit from within at dusk, their geometry reflected almost as precisely as the building itself.

The building is dressed throughout in coursed Corfiot limestone, the consistent bed height holding the façade together across its full width. Above the loggia, full-height glazed doors open onto the first-floor terrace, set behind a continuous glass balustrade, offering unobstructed views of the Ionian and the mainland beyond. The roofline disappears into mature woodland behind.

📍 Velanidia, above Agios Stefanos beach, north-west Corfu.
Architecture and landscape by Skinner & Skinner Design.
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#corfuvilla #greekarchitecture #ionianislands #mediterraneanarchitecture #stonemasonry #corfudesign

A steel-grated jetty set just off the rocks, light

A steel-grated jetty set just off the rocks, light underfoot, clear water below, and a ladder placed for an easy return from the sea. The structure is kept deliberately simple: galvanised edges, open mesh to let spray and sand pass through, and a line that projects far enough to clear the shallows.

For clients with direct beach access, it sets a clear route to the water: terrace to stone, rock to jetty, ladder to sea.

📍 Corfu
Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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📷 @itsjamiejames
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#SkinnerAndSkinner #LifestyleByDesign #CorfuArchitecture #IonianLiving #MediterraneanDesign #CoastalArchitecture #LandscapeDesign #PoolDesign #OutdoorLiving #GreekIslands #DesignThatBelongs #ArchitecturalDetails

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” ~ Jacques Cousteau.
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📍Loggos Harbour, Paxos.
📷 @itsjamiejames
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#paxos #ionianislands #greekislands #paxosgreece #seasidearchitecture #greececoast

Shutters back, salt air in, Agni bay right outside

Shutters back, salt air in, Agni bay right outside the window.

Spiti Antigoni is a fully restored fisherman’s cottage sitting right on Agni beach, on Corfu’s north-east coast, with the sea approximately ten metres from the covered terrace.

The plan is compact and straightforward: open-plan living with a marble-topped kitchen and dining for four, two shower rooms, and two bedrooms (a super-king master and a second room with queen-size bunks).
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📍Spiti Antigoni — Agni, Corfu - Available to rent via @ionianestates
Restoration and interior design by Skinner & Skinner Design.
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#corfu #agni #ionianislands #greekarchitecture #interiordesigngreece #beachhouse

Stepping out onto smooth stone, worn by centuries

Stepping out onto smooth stone, worn by centuries of passing feet.

Our @townhouseco suites bring new life to Corfu’s historic buildings, carefully restored so that what was there before still carries through. The proportions remain, the materials hold their patina, and each threshold continues to mark the shift between street and interior.

From there, the day tends to take care of itself. A short walk for coffee and something warm from the bakery, a slow return through the same streets, and by evening, the light has changed, and the town settles into a slightly different pace.

This is not about reinvention, but continuation.

A way of living that already existed, simply made possible again.

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📷@itsjamiejames

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#TownhouseCo #SkinnerAndSkinner #CorfuOldTown #CorfuLiving #HistoricBuildings

The bay at Kouloura is too close, and too calm, to

The bay at Kouloura is too close, and too calm, to be treated only as a backdrop.

This project was never about starting again, but about tightening the relationship between land and water. Openings were adjusted to draw the harbour further into the main rooms, terraces extended so the bay had more presence in daily life, and circulation simplified so movement through the house and gardens became one flow.

The changes are measured, but they alter how the place is experienced, where you sit, what you see first, and how the day moves between inside and out. The result feels settled because the interventions are precise rather than loud.

📍 Kouloura, Corfu
For stays & availability, please enquire via our sister company @ionianestates
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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📷 @clivenichols
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#corfu #ionianislands #greekarchitecture #luxuryvilla #mediterraneanarchitecture #designprocess #architecture

One mast, one horizon, and a long reflection betwe

One mast, one horizon, and a long reflection between.

A few evenings into the shift from spring to summer in Corfu. The view reads as simple structure: the ridge line, the verticals of the boats at anchor, and a flat plane of water carrying both.

📷 Dafni Colla.

📍 Corfu - Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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#corfu #ionianislands #greekarchitecture #architecturalphotography #mediterraneanlight #architecturalstudio

It's Wisteria season at the Rou Estate. Wisteria

It's Wisteria season at the Rou Estate.

Wisteria @rouestate arrives all at once, but it’s not incidental. Wisteria sinensis and Wisteria floribunda have long been used in Mediterranean settings for their ability to climb, shade, and soften stone without obscuring it. Left to itself, they’re vigorous. Trained properly, they become part of the structure.

Here, pergolas, doorways and facades give them that framework. Timber and stone carry the weight, while regular pruning keeps growth under control, encouraging flowering rather than excessive foliage.

Corfu’s conditions do the rest. Mild, wetter winters followed by warm, humid springs create a reliable cycle for growth and bloom. The island’s free-draining soils suit wisteria’s deep roots, allowing it to establish and return year after year.

At Rou, Wisteria is used with intent. To define routes, to create shade, and to mark the points where spaces open out or shift in character. Seasonal, but considered.
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📷 @clivenichols
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#RouEstate #WisteriaSeason #CorfuGardens #MediterraneanPlanting #LandscapeDesign #GardenDesign #ArchitecturalLandscape #Wisteria #CorfuGreece #IonianIslands #HistoricRestoration #OutdoorLiving #SkinnerAndSkinner #LifestyleByDesign

They’re back! Each year, swifts and swallows re

They’re back!

Each year, swifts and swallows return to Corfu, travelling thousands of miles from sub-Saharan Africa to nest through the summer months.
The Old Town provides exactly what they need. Stone façades, deep eaves, and the small gaps formed over centuries of building and repair offer shelter and protection, high above the streets. Buildings that have stood for generations tend to accommodate more than just the people who use them.

By late summer, they’ll move on again. But for now, they’re once again part of the fabric of the towns' familiar sounds and spectacles as you wander through the streets.

@townhouseco
Suites in Cordu, Athens and Paxos
📞 +30 6934 664 607
💌 info@townhouseco.co.uk
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📷 Hark and Lark
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#CorfuOldTown #CorfuLife #IonianIslands #SwiftsAndSwallows #MediterraneanLiving #ArchitecturalDetails #HistoricArchitecture #BuiltToLast #CorfuGreece #EverydayCorfu #SkinnerAndSkinner #LifestyleByDesign

Brick arches, long stone walls, and a roof opened

Brick arches, long stone walls, and a roof opened back to daylight.

Dominic and Claire are on site at the Old Soap Factory, Paxos, a 19th-century industrial building with its scale intact and the reminders of bygone days written into the fabric of the building.

A restoration developed as civic infrastructure for the island: a marketplace for local produce and makers, flexible warehouse volumes for exhibitions and performance (in collaboration with the Paxos Music Festival and Paxos Art Festival), with loft-style suites that retain the building’s industrial character.

The approach is to reintegrate rather than overwrite, keeping original materials where possible, working with the existing voids and thresholds, and setting a palette that sits naturally within the island’s vernacular.

📍Old Soap Factory, Paxos
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#paxos #ionianislands #adaptiveReuse #industrialarchitecture #greekarchitecture #architecturestudio #paxossoapfactory

The Kardaki Estate and the @rouestate were opened

The Kardaki Estate and the @rouestate were opened to the public this week as part of @corfugardenfestival

Both projects approach landscape and planting in much the same way, not as something added at the end, but as part of the site’s structure and fabric from the outset.
At Kardaki, the house sits within mature olive and cypress, with planting shaping movement, shade, and outlook. At Rou, terraces, paths, and garden rooms follow the original village layout, working with the slope rather than reconfiguring it.
The gardens at both estates were developed in collaboration with Jennifer Gay, whose approach reinforces this same thinking, using planting to support how the spaces are used, rather than simply how they look.

There’s also a longer connection here. This part of Corfu has been known to Dominic Skinner and his family for many years, and that familiarity shows in how spaces are positioned, how planting is handled, and how the buildings sit within the wider landscape.

Thank you to the Corfu Garden Festival for including us again this year. The festival offers a rare opportunity to walk and take in these spaces, to understand how architecture and landscape have been planned to work together over time.

Go to: www.corfugardenfestival.com to see more events happening this week.

Follow our stories today for some of the photos from yesterday by @emelys_footprints
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Photos: 1, 3, 4 @clivenichols

At Rou Estate, the setting was already there: the

At Rou Estate, the setting was already there: the hillside, the terraces, the views across the Ionian sea toward Albania.

The work was in understanding how to use it.

Dining spaces like this aren’t placed by chance. They sit within a wider plan, terraces cut into the slope, planting used to shape privacy, and each platform positioned to take advantage of the outlook without competing with it.

Across the estate, this thinking repeats. A series of outdoor rooms: places to eat, sit, gather, or step away. Some connected to the houses, others set slightly apart, all arranged to follow the natural fall of the land.

It’s a careful balance between what existed in the past, retaining the character of the original village, and what was added to be enjoyed now and in the future.

Good planning, more than anything, is what makes a place like this feel effortless.

For enquiries and bookings
E: enquiries@simpsontravel.com | IG: @simpsontravel
T: +44 (0) 208 392 5854
Architecture & Design: @skinnerandskinnerdesign
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📷 @itsjamiejames
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#corfu #rouestate #wellnessretreat #yogacorfu #ionianislands #greekislands #outdoorwellness #corfulifestyle #retreatdesign #mediterraneanliving

Some places understand exactly how to hold a view.

Some places understand exactly how to hold a view.

At Kouloura, the pool sits directly above the sea, with the uninterrupted views across the channel to the mainland beyond and fishing boats passing as they always have. It’s a scene that feels timeless and delivers ease that comes through careful design, shaping the terraces, refining the setting, and allowing the house and landscape to sit naturally together.

This is the kind of living the Ionian does so well: mornings by the sea, long afternoons in the sun.

Lifestyle by Design, where the view is part of everyday life.

📍 Kouloura, Corfu - For stays & availability, please enquire via our sister company @ionianestates
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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📷 @itsjamiejames
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#SkinnerAndSkinner #LifestyleByDesign #CorfuArchitecture #IonianLiving #MediterraneanDesign #CoastalArchitecture #LandscapeDesign #PoolDesign #OutdoorLiving #GreekIslands #DesignThatBelongs #ArchitecturalDetails

Stone, shade, then the horizon. We start under th

Stone, shade, then the horizon.

We start under the loggia. The loggia reads as an outdoor room, sturdy arches, a deep threshold, and a roof that distributes geometric shade across the day. It’s the first place you sit out in the day, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.

From there, the project steps outward. The pool continues the architectural conversation: a crisp edge, a deliberate point reaching out into the beyond, and water held level against the slope. In the wider view, you understand the arrangement, house above, swimming below, and terraces make the connection in the in-between.

Inside, the palette stays light and controlled. A large kitchen island becomes the working centre, with openings kept simple and well-proportioned so the room still reads as a room, not a glass box.

Then the context: Kipos below, and the Ionian beyond. By dusk, the pool takes on the colour of the sky and the parasols become silhouettes, the day ending where it started, in shade.

📍 Pelagos, Loggos, Paxos, designed by Skinner & Skinner Design.
For stays & availability, please enquire via our sister company @ionianestates
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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#paxos #paxosvilla #ionianislands #greekarchitecture #landscapearchitecture #interiordesigngreece

Morning begins on the covered terrace, before the

Morning begins on the covered terrace, before the heat has settled across the hillside. Mats are laid out in quiet rows, the stone still cool underfoot, with olive branches moving at the edges and the sea held wide in the distance.

The platform is open on all sides, but protected enough to make the space feel contained. Timber beams frame the light overhead, while the balustrade keeps the landscape in view throughout the session. Nothing is sealed off from its surroundings. Air moves through the structure, shadows shift across the floor, and the horizon always remains part of the experience.

Set high above the northeast coast of Corfu, the estate carries a sense of remove without feeling cut off. The villages and shoreline sit below, while the terraces, old stonework and layered grounds give the place its own pace and way of being.

Wellness here is less about retreating from the setting than being fully in it.

📍 Rou Estate, Corfu, Greece.
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian.
For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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🎥 Video credit: @itsjamiejames

#corfu #rouestate #wellnessretreat #yogacorfu #ionianislands #greekislands #outdoorwellness #corfulifestyle #retreatdesign #mediterraneanliving

A refit is a negotiation between line and life. A

The boats hold their position just beyond the shor

The boats hold their position just beyond the shoreline, spaced loosely across the water as the light begins to fall. Movement slows almost imperceptibly, reduced to the slight pull of a line or the shift of a hull against the surface.

From higher ground, the view settles into layers. The sea deepens in colour, the distant coastline softens, and the horizon becomes less defined as evening draws in.
Nothing changes quickly. The light lowers, the water steadies, and the boats remain.

📍 Corfu, Greece.
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Lifestyle by design - architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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🎥 Video credit: @itsjamiejames

#corfu #ionianislands #corfuvilla #greekcoast #mediterraneanlight #seascape #corfulifestyle #coastalliving #designinspiration #slowliving

Paralia House is drawn in layers: planting, terrac

Paralia House is drawn in layers: planting, terrace, waterline.

It’s a seafront house with its own jetty, but the architecture doesn’t lean on one big gesture. The composition is quieter than that, with low roofs, pale walls, and a sequence of outdoor rooms that lead you down to the shore without fanfare.

In the middle distance, the garden thickens and loosens the edges. Grasses, flowering drift, small trees: enough density to blur the base of the buildings, enough air to keep sightlines open. The pool sits within that planting, so the terrace reads as part of the garden rather than a platform beside it.

At the shoreline, the language becomes more graphic. A straight jetty fixes the edge. A simple balustrade marks the boundary without interrupting the view. A pergola beam makes a clean cut between shade and open sky, the kind of restraint that keeps the sea present.

Inside, the rooms stay crisp and lived-in: white-painted timber overhead, soft walls, and pattern used with discipline, a shaped headboard, a blue trim detail, ceramics placed where they hold the eye for a second and then let it go.

And then there’s the wider sea beyond all of it: midday glare, late-afternoon clarity, dusk settling in, sometimes with a ship passing through like a moving light.
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📍 Paralia House, Corfu - designed by Skinner & Skinner Design.
For stays & availability, please enquire via @ionianestates
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Skinner & Skinner Design · Architecture, interiors & landscape across Corfu, Paxos and the wider Ionian. For private villas, restorations and hospitality projects, please contact the studio via the link in bio.
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#corfuarchitecture #ionianislands #ionianestates #coastalarchitecture #landscapearchitecture #greekinteriors #corfuvilla

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