Urban Oasis

With their passion for plants and antiques, Annalisa Lo Porto and Francesco Dal Bo’s apartment is an idyllic haven in the heart of the city

The bare floorboards were stained and waxed to provide a warm contrast to the pale, chalk-hued walls. The wood panelling was added during renovation. The couple found the brocade armchair at the Fontanellato flea market. RIGHT A bank of pot plants dominates one end of the sitting room. The secret to maintaining them is to love them, says Francesco, ‘Look at them and water them according to common sense. Weekly is usually enough.’

ith its high ceilings, generous windows and tables lled with verdant houseplants, the open-plan apartment that Annalisa Lo Porto and Francesco Dal Bo have made their home is an airy oasis in the heart of Bologna.

From the moment you step into the main living space it’s clear that plants and nature are central to the way they live and work – Annalisa is a orist and Francesco is an environment designer. Their business, Flò, is a stylish and infuential orist’s shop, run from premises below their home.

Before moving to Bologna, the couple lived in the countryside within a short drive of the city. Their life was one of simple pleasures, explains Annalisa: ‘lighting a re every evening, tending to our vegetable garden, having friends over for meals in the farmyard on warm summer evenings.’ When work and their children’s activities called for the family to move back to the city, the couple were sad to leave these rituals of rural bliss.

But it was around this time that Francesco and Annalisa came across

Bloom, a Dutch lifestyle magazine focusing on nature in relation to interiors and fashion. ‘That was back in 2000,’ Annalisa recalls, ‘when topics such as ecology weren’t part of everyday life, though an awareness was developing.’ Fascinated by the potential she could see for a ‘greener world’, she took the plunge and started Flò, a shop that sells owers alongside artworks and vintage and antique furniture. ‘Flò has never been just

a ower shop, but rather my personal path to create and bring to life something I really believed in. Plus, to me, it’s the most fantastic job.’

The rst branch of Flò opened in March 2002, in the very centre of Bologna and, not long a er, the couple were thrilled to discover that an apartment above their shop was for sale. It was the perfect opportunity to create a living space that re ected the spirit of their business. ‘Nothing of what you see was the way it is now,’ says Annalisa, explaining that Francesco, whose work in fashion design o en involves breathing new life into historic brands, oversaw a complete redesign of the space, hiring specialist craftsmen to install oors and wainscots.

When it came to decorating the space, there was never any danger the couple would turn to the high street and big brands. Francesco has always preferred buying antiques and vintage pieces, a passion that began when he was a student. ‘I used to buy my clothes from ea markets,’ he says, adding that he would also raid his father and grandfather’s wardrobes. Over the years, his interest in vintage clothing expanded to include old lm and advertising posters and, from there, to furniture, art and other curios.

To furnish the house, Francesco and Annalisa trawled antiques shops

To furnish the house, Francesco and Annalisa trawled antiques shops and ea markets in Bologna, Paris and even the UK.

and ea markets in Bologna, Paris and even the UK. The simple kitchen area is dominated by a cream and turquoise dresser that the couple picked up in Montpellier, while the dining chairs came from a dealer in Sweden. Annalisa was responsible for the lush vegetation that lls every room, a domestic garden of Eden in which plants sometimes interlace with the furniture and climb the walls.

The couple see their home as a place for endless experimentation, regularly tweaking the interior and developing ideas for their shop, such as Substance and Nature, a limited-edition ceramics collection they created.

Although the move to Bologna prompted big changes in the couple’s lives, not least of which was founding Flò, many of their old habits remain unchanged. ‘We still light a re every night through the winter months,’ says Annalisa, and friends are regularly invited to join them for delicious meals around the large dining table.

The Owners Annalisa Lo Porto, a florist, and Francesco Dal Bo, an environment designer, live here above their atelier Flò (flofiori.com) The Property A spacious apartment in the centre of Bologna. A small entrance hall leads to a large open-plan living room with a kitchen at one end, a sitting area at the other and a dining table in the middle. A hallway leads to a large studio, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Annalisa and Francesco relaxing in their sitting room; a detail from Roberto Dapoto’s butterfly installation; an antique armchair covered with a rich gold and orange jacquard fabric sits in front of a large print from the Nature Contemplated series by Roberto Dapoto. LEFT A collection of delicate vases from Venice.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP The couple enjoy entertaining and serve delicious meals on the simple ceramic plates they sell in their shop; light pours into the apartment through three large windows and visitors are greeted by impressive houseplants arranged along one wall. RIGHT The characterful kitchen sits at one end of the open-plan living space, which allows for sociable preparation of meals. The dresser is filled with the couple’s collection of ceramics, which includes both modern and antique designs. The chairs came from a market in Sweden.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE As with the living room, plants provide much of the visual interest in the bedroom. The bed is made up with heavy linen sheets and the hanging on the wall is an antique tapestry fragment, which they bought from a dealer at the Marché aux Puces de Vanves in Paris; the unusual trough-shaped basin originally came from a school and the roll-top bath is 19th-century; the couple found the pair of vintage convex mirrors in a flea market on another trip to France.