The interior designer <a href="https://www.holliebowden.com/">Hollie Bowden</a> has decorated some of Ibiza&rsquo;s most prestigious properties, from historic finca estates in the north to modernist pads on the south coast. She is known for her intuitive sourcing of remarkable objets and for the ongoing art and sculpture collections that she curates for her clients. In a conversation with L'OFFICIEL IBIZA, Hollie shares her tips and tricks for creating the ultimate Ibiza home.

My first Ibiza job was on a very large scale. Vast, in fact! It was a prominent coastal property in the north of the island: a really beautiful Blakstad finca overlooking the water that had been quite unsympathetically renovated over the previous decades. The bones were beautiful but there was a lot of dodgy eighties terracotta and dark wood and the whole place felt quite claustrophobic. We opened up a lot of walls inside and really allowed light to flood back in. The whole house woke up! We stripped away a lot of heavy decorative ornamentation and instead curated a collection of very structural, primitive, free-standing sculptures that contrasted with the pale, local limestone flooring.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The interior designer Hollie Bowden

Growing up in the countryside in a very old house in England was an absolute bonus for my career. It meant that I was never overwhelmed when faced with these historic fincas in Ibiza. In contrast, I felt very comfortable within these old walls and like I knew exactly what to do. I already understood heritage materials &ndash; wooden beams and plaster and stonework. Working on fincas has always felt very organic and natural to me. I feel sympathetic to the house&rsquo;s requirements.

Designing homes in Ibiza means you have to respond to the climate. Creating a fluid narrative between the indoor and outdoor spaces becomes a priority, as does using natural, organic materials. In London there&rsquo;s a lot more detailing &ndash; cornicing and panelling and decorative elements &ndash; but in Ibiza the summer heat steers me toward very smooth and clean finishes, so that often means polished plaster and poured concrete to create a seamless look. Plaster is actually one of my favourite materials &ndash; you can create a wall or a floor or a basin or a bathtub. And flush plaster wall lights create a really clean, minimal effect. Pebbles work really well in Ibiza, too.

Reclaimed materials always elevate a project. I&rsquo;m always drawn to natural stone that&rsquo;s worn and weathered and wood that feels soft and gentle to the touch. I like to work with the <a href="https://cancastelloibiza.com/">Can Castello</a> workshop in Ibiza &ndash; Pura and Jose create the most extraordinary pieces from reclaimed timber, doors and carpentry and standalone furniture. I also love vintage linen for its earthy, utilitarian feel.

I&rsquo;m obsessed with good storage solutions. I can&rsquo;t bear seeing beautiful homes that are full of clutter. We always try and build in a lot of neat, seamless storage in the early stages of a project. If that&rsquo;s not possible then I&rsquo;ll source some beautiful heritage pieces, like a Hungarian wardrobe that was hand painted in the eighteenth century and has an incredible patina. For one Ibiza client I recently bought a beautiful Hungarian blanket box &ndash; the colours are all faded and it&rsquo;s very old and weathered. Those pieces drop beautifully into a farmhouse renovation

The sourcing of art and unusual design pieces is a very important part of what we do. I have a network of dealers all over the world who know what I like and who are always sending me things. I like to mix a lot of styles &ndash; rustic and primitive and modernist &ndash; and periods that shouldn&rsquo;t necessarily go together. And I'm always on the hunt for special pieces at fairs and auctions in Paris, Belgium, the USA. Sourcing is my passion and understanding my client's tastes and interests is so important. I build art collections that will last my clients and their families a lifetime. And I have clients who I still source for ten years after our projects finish. It&rsquo;s an ongoing relationship that&rsquo;s constantly evolving.

When you really get on the same wavelength as a client, the project can become so much fun. I'm currently building 11 cottages in The Bahamas and a 13,000 square foot beachfront house. The client absolutely shares my taste for the weird and wonderful &ndash; I sent her a photo of a huge antique crocodile sarcophagus that I found at <a href="https://galerie54.com/en/">Galerie 54</a> in Paris and she was like &lsquo;get it. We need it.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s the kind of project I love.

Interior designer Hollie Bowden on building the Ibiza dream.

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