Sigal Sivan’s second career as an interior designer led her to areas she had never dreamed of such as entrepreneurship, planning and design projects in Greece.

From a desirable job of a Microsoft spokeswoman in Israel, Sigal turned 8 years ago to specialize in her favorite hobby, interior design.

Sigal Sivan Yidov

Paros Project

Her first project in Greece started couple of years ago, on the island of Paros, where her sister lives.

While she visited her family, she and her brothers noticed an abandoned building near the sea ,in the trendy town of Naoussa.

They decided to raise the gauntlet and invest together in turning this building, which was a “real bargain,” as Sigal defined, into a complex of boutique apartments for hospitality.

Sigal took upon herself, of course, the role of designing, while her brother and sister took care of all contracts and transactions.

The building has been transformed into 5 charming vacation units of 35 square meters each, with a pampering bedroom and a living room that can also be transformed into a children’s sleeping space. A fully equipped kitchenette, balconies, and a bathroom, all designed in a local Greek style typical to the island. With high-end finish and quality construction.

The abandoned building has become a magical and prestigious guest house.

SIVANIS PAROS

The place has named SIVANIS, the name of their family, and has been working successfully for two seasons.

You can order a place through Airbnb website. Each apartment has its own page. More information on the apartments along with extra info can be found here.

“Designing villas or apartments in Greece is great experience,” Sigal says, “and doing it when the goal is a vacation, It’s even greater pleasure. You have to think about every detail so that the vacationers will have peace, relaxation and a magical sense of freedom, this is one of the fun things in my work”

Every detail has been taken into account while designing the five apartments, even their key holder.

They designed in white, gray and blue, the style of Cycladic. Each apartment got a different color:

Jasmin apartment – yellow, gold and gray.

Lavender apartment – pink, gray and slight black.

Mint apartment – Yellow, grey and gold.

Lily apartment – blue, black and gray.

Daisy apartment – wooden furniture inspired by a wooden beam from the original house that was restored with turquoise, blue and silver.

The style chosen for the apartments is the Cycladic style – the construction of the furniture and the cladding in the Greek cementagonia material.

All of the apartments has built in blocks and concrete castings. Including the beds cabinets, the cupboards, the kitchens, the cabinets and the bathrooms.

The entire design is clean and airy and it blends into the town landscape. As part of the construction, old parts of the original house were preserved and reused, old window blinds were painted and hung in the balconies, the original beams of the house were preserved, windows became colorful mirrors and more.

Through the designing, it was important for Sigal and her brothers to provide vacationers a holiday experience in a typical Greek home. Emphasis was placed on the style to the Greek island where the complex is located, a simple and quiet island with a rural character.

Today, as a cohesive and experienced team, they are receiving requests from various investors, and now they are in a process of building six similar vacation units on a lot that purchased by a number of investors in the village of Ambles in Paros.

Lefkada Project

Another project that planned and completed, is a vacation villa on Lefkada Island, where massive renovations were needed in an old 85 square meter house on a mountain overlooking the bay.

“It’s not easy to work remotely, but to make a project of planning, renovating and building a villa complex in Greece is an interesting challenge,” says Siegel.

“You have to prepare building plans in Israel, send by e-mail, and remotely control using SMS images and videos. As well, as travel to the destination to supervise all construction work on the ground.

All of the purchase of furniture and interior equipment should be purchased in Greece, and in Europe, some of it is performed online, and part is performed on various trips. But all this is great fun, the Greeks are very pleasant, flexible and attentive which makes the experience very positive”.

As part of the planning of the renovation of the villa, the entrance floor of the house was enlarged to add a double bedroom suite with balcony and en-suite bathroom. A balcony was added to one of the bedrooms on the second floor, and a spacious pool was built with a spacious sitting area with flower boxes.

Throughout the house, new openings were opened to the landscape, the existing windows and exit booths were enlarged to the outside areas.

The special location of the plot and the view from it were a resource to the planning process.

The designer’s goal was to utilize this unique and beautiful resource as much as possible and to bring it into the entire house with as many openings as possible.

The swimming pool was designed parallel to the entire width of the house.

The house is relatively narrow, so at any location in the house, you can feel and see the pool that looks like it’s levitating over the landscape.

The chosen material was a combination of wood with blue tones, and the openings are painted in grayish blue, the minimalist clean design gives a stage to the amazing landscape, which allows endless relaxation for those who enjoy it.

In this house, Siegel continued with the traditional Greek style of design – the internal construction of many furnishings inside and outside the house,

One of the reasons for choosing this style of building for the additional time at Lefkada is to provide the experience of a Greek house vacation. In order to save on the cost of the furniture and accessories of the villa (a few furniture was purchased, such as tables and chairs), the significant cost savings are also reflected over time when it comes to maintaining the villa because of the good durability of the material that covers all the built furnitures.

For those interested, the villa can be rented through this site.

Sigal is currently working on additional projects at Lefkada but continues to deal with planning and interior design in Israel as well.

To the designer’s website.

Lefkada villa photograghs: Tal Nisim