When one enters Lower Silesia, one gets the impression that one has just been teleported to another reality. All around is the green of fields, forests and meadows, the air seems fresher. No wonder, then, that this is where Tatiana Michalowska-Szope decided to settle down with her family. Even if it meant traveling across almost all of Poland!
Pokrzywnik - the village where Domnumer10 is located, allows you to connect with nature as much as possible. You can smell the scent of trees, flowers and hay in the air. All you can hear is the singing of birds, the concerts of insects and the rustling of leaves in the branches. Cars pass this way rarely, unless they are Tatiana's guests.
Basia Hyjek: How did your adventure begin?
Tatiana Michalowska-Szope: Lower Silesia.... it was love at first sight, because it was the only place where there were never people in May. For most, Silesia was associated until recently only with Upper Silesia. For us, it has always been with peace and quiet, amazing architecture and greenery. The magical Jeleniogórska Basin, the Sowie Mountains.... A mine of undiscovered places and mysteries. Palaces, castles, volcanoes and adits. Gold and garlic bears. We never wanted to be tied to one place. Lower Silesia enchanted us. It has become a part of our lives. It is impossible to get bored here. Every time you come here, there is something new to discover.
Basia: Where did you get the idea for such interior design?
Tatiana: We love everything old so we wanted to preserve as much as possible of what has survived. Wooden floors, stairs, stone walls. We uncovered, not covered up.... we wanted to show as much as possible of everything related to the history of the place. Instead of laying plaster, we peeled it off, uncovering the beautiful stone walls. We turned the part of the house where animals were raised into a space for relaxation. An open fireplace with an open fire was created from old sandstone fence posts. We love fire, so we don't like to look at it through the glass.
Since there was a threshing floor, we elevated the living room by digging in deep. We scraped the plaster off the ceiling, showing a wonderful sectional ceiling made of old bricks. As for me, a marvel not to be duplicated. In the corridor and living room on the floor we rubbed concrete by hand the way it used to be done. In the work rooms, where there were no original wooden floors, we laid old demolition boards. We chose one of the windows to follow the pattern by which the new ones were made. On the beams, we left carpenters' notes, old nails and hooks. We cleaned the interior doors of old paint, left some clean, and painted others.
Domnumer10 before the renovation
Photo: Tatiana Michalowska-Szope
At antique fairs we collected everything we could find useful... door handles, window handles, hinges, keys, nails and hooks. Stone slabs, watering cans, stools, tables, chairs, bottles, baskets and jugs. We collected and still collect.... literally everything! We made the frames of the beds from old brusks as well as the table tops. We obtained all the materials and furniture in the neighborhood. It was a wonderful journey into the past.
Basia: What were the most difficult moments - the old house certainly threw up a lot of challenges?
Tatiana: The challenge was not the renovation. The challenge was traveling 500 kilometers without a highway on a renovated road with small children. The renovation of the house was an adventure and, above all, the joy of saving it. What makes us most happy is that it is alive again. It lives the life of so many people, families who want to come back here. It is in their memories.
Basia: How do you want your guests to feel here?
Tatiana: We enjoy all the happy moments this place could give. No TV with the wonderful rustle of grass as you lie behind the barn. Evening bonfires... a walk to the dam... to the captain's bridge, skylights in a wild ravine... a waterfall, deer, cows and mists over the fields. Away from the city. When decorating this place, we wanted everyone to feel at home here. The old combined with the new, the austere but comfortable interior of a house outside the city... and the same white currant still grows here by the well.
