Isle Be Back

ON THE IDYLLIC AEGEAN ISLAND OF SERIFOS, DESIGNER ANDREW SHEINMAN TRANSFORMS A MODEST HOUSE INTO A SHANGRI-LA BY THE SEA.

- Zander Abranowicz

 

In trade and conquest, religion and nutrition, life in Greece has long emerged from the sea. It seems fitting, then, that it was from the Aegean that I first set eyes upon the humble one-room house on Serifos that I would end up buying and transforming into a retreat for my family. My wife, Helen, and I had been vacationing in the Cyclades for many years and had fallen in love with Serifos, home to a creative community of artists and writers. That summer, we were renting an apartment in Chora, the ancient fortified town built to repel marauding pirates in medieval times.

One day, we chartered a yacht and set sail around the island. Squinting in the midday sun, I noticed the unassuming structure on a rise above the water. A grove of silver-leafed olive trees dappled sunlight onto the soil below. A stone path meandered down from the house to a pristine stretch of coastline, past prickly pears, fig trees, and bougainvillea bursting from the earthen palette.