Stile e Design

Renovating a house in the countryside with porcelain stoneware

Ristrutturare la casa in campagna con il gres porcellanato

Are you thinking of remodeling your home in the countryside?
This article will surely be useful to you!

Spring is not far away, and the desire to spend weekends outdoors with friends and acquaintances is getting more and more intense after the winter period.

Renovating a house (or farmhouse) in the countryside, however, provides many questions: how to maintain the original style? Should I use the same materials? Are there regulations to be respected? How to renovate the interior and exterior spaces in a functional but pleasant look?

We answer it all!

INDEX

  • Types of houses in the countryside
  • Type of intervention: restoration or conservation?
  • Tax breaks for houses in the countryside
  • Materials and colors: a guide to choice

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Types of houses in the countryside
Cottages, farmsteads, and farmhouses are three typical country homes we would all like to escape to sooner or later. Here where nature combines with the work of man to create charming resorts and homes. But let’s see the difference between the three.

Cottage: is the iconic English country house. It is a detached residence usually surrounded by a small plot of land.

Farmstead: is one central space used as a courtyard and farmyard, surrounded by several buildings used as residences or to store tools or shelter animals.

Farmhouse: is a rustic building, often immersed in captivating and pastoral landscapes, where time seems to stand still. It is different from the dairy farm (stable with attached small building to make butter and cheese), conversely, it looks more similar to a grange (agglomeration of isolated rustic buildings).

Types of intervention: restoration or conservation?

When you decide to intervene on a building in Italy, whether countryside or not, there are two main modes of intervention (defined by the Consolidated Law on Construction, art. 3 of Presidential Decree 380/2001).

Restoration and conservative rehabilitation

The restoration – or conservative rehabilitation  does not alter the structural characteristics of the building, it must preserve the functionality and structure of the building respecting the existing elements.

You can therefore embellish and modernize your house, but you can not change its original appearance (it is limited to a consolidation, a remake of the flooring, systems or similar interventions).

Building renovation

The building renovation, does not put constraints on your freedom of choice: you can modify the building, make extensions, demolitions or change the intended use.

It is also important to consider whether your house in the country is subject to monumental, landscape or cultural constraints, in this case, in order to carry out interventions you need the permission of the Ministry of Culture.

Tax breaks for houses in the countryside

To carry out an intervention on a house in the countryside of Italy, you may be entitled to various tax breaks, depending on the type of intervention you intend to carry out (restoration or renovation). In general, these are the main bonuses to which you may have access:

  • Eco Bonus: deduction of up to 65% of energy efficiency work.
  • Renovations bonus: 50% deduction on building renovations, restorations and conservative renovations (until 2024).
  • Sisma (Earthquake) bonus (for properties built in seismic areas): deduction of up to 85% of seismic upgrading works.

Materials and colors: a guide to choice

Porcelain tiles represent the most practical and versatile choice for the floors of a house in the countryside, especially when it is not possible to preserve stone floors, which are typical of Italian rural structures.

The choice of ceramic floors is the most suitable, especially because it is possible to vary between many finishes, decors and colors, as the collections of Ceramica Mediterranea.

Porcelain tiles are very resistant and long-lasting, moreover they do not absorb liquids and do not have problems related to humidity in the environment.

Preferring porcelain stoneware is a practical choice and easy to sanitize (especially in environments adjacent to sometimes dusty outdoor spaces), it is among the easiest surfaces to clean and to keep as beautiful as just installed.

Porcelain stoneware is an extremely compact and poreless surface, which makes it an inhospitable environment for mold, germs and bacteria, plus it is highly resistant to stains.

For floors green light to the natural terracotta effect, marble or stone effect.

If the floors of the house in the country are not subject to modernization, or only in part, you can mix the existing materials with ceramic inserts, to make the spaces cared for and design.

In particular, the details tone on tone or with colors similar to the original context, make the restoration project pleasant and characteristic. (in the photos in detail some examples of Abitzai collection).

 

Porcelain stoneware surfaces
In addition to the floor, we can use porcelain stoneware to make details of surfaces, such as the kitchen, small niches in the living area or the bathroom, always in a rustic and traditional style.

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Renovate outdoor spaces of the house in the countryside
In having to intervene on the outdoor spaces of a house in the country you can really indulge, because it often means dealing with very large spaces and surrounded by greenery.

You can choose to create a dining area, with tables, sofas and outdoor grill space, or a pool area or simply a veranda or a porch.
It is important, in this case, to choose porcelain stoneware tiles resistant and non-slip, such as the collections presented in our catalog OUTDOOR 2cm.
If you want to deepen the topic on the choice of floors for terraces and exteriors, read our article!

 

 

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