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Sallyann Cox used her creative talents to extend a small bungalow and make the most of the delightful coastal views. Idon’t want to live in a bungalow – I’m not ready for that!’ was interior decorator, stylist and maker Sallyann Cox’s reaction when her husband R ichard suggested it. It was back when the couple were regularly spending a few months at a time sailing around Greece and knew a lock-up-andleave home would fit the bill. The idea became a sad necessity, however, when Richard was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and had to use a wheelchair. ‘We’d looked at so many places, none of which were suitable,’ remembers Sallyann. Finally, and with no real enthusiasm, she went to see a small, two-bedroom bungalow almost untouched for nearly 50 years and had a change of heart. ‘During the viewing, I walked into the cluttered garage and noticed a tiny window on the side – one glimpse at the view and I realised there was so much untapped potential here,’ she recalls. The house itself had effectively been built facing away from ever-changing views across fields to the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary much beloved by the couple. ‘I knew that by doing some rejigging to the garage, I would be able to make a special place where Richard could enjoy sitting and watching the ebb and flow of the tides, and the boats down on the water – it would be a nourishing environment.’ In the end, Richard was not able to move in as his illness progressed quickly, but, after his death, Sallyann decided to continue with their plans. ‘It was very hard to be there without him and, for the first couple of years, I didn’t do much at all apart from replacing the bedroom window with French doors onto a little balcony; I had a constant need to get outside rather than be cooped up, so opening up the house as much as I could became a priority.’ Two years later, when she felt able, Sallyann began work on the rest of the house. The garage and carport were demolished and replaced with a sleek extension. ‘I knew I wanted an open-plan space where I could cook, eat and relax,’ she says. The original rooms were reorganised making an extra bedroom and guest bathroom, as well as a large, bright hall where Sallyann makes lighting and mirrors from items she salvages on nearby beaches. ‘I’ve always been drawn to the sea, whether living on it or near it and I’m always out collecting all manner of things!’ Her creative eye has also been used on the interiors. ‘I’ve designed and decorated shops and restaurants in the past, invariably in vivid colours with a Mediterranean influence, but in this house, I’ve been more restrained with lots of neutrals. I decided to think of it as a blank canvas that I could add to or remove from if I felt like a change.’ There are still pops of colour evident in the soft furnishings and the odd wild wallpaper and vintage find. ‘I used to have a lot more furniture and general “stuff” but we sold practically everything when we went off sailing. I had to start again which is surprisingly cathartic, if expensive!’ Renovating the house also proved to be a turning point. ‘It was completed in nine months and I barely had time to think about much else as there were so many decisions to be made but it was good to engage with something,’ she says. So has Sallyann been converted to bungalow life? ‘I actually feel really lucky to live here,’ she says. ‘The house makes for such easy living and with beautiful views, too – it’s an absolute privilege.

MARY LUSSIANA IS ENCHANTED BY AN ART AND CRAFT-FILLED HOTEL AMONG THE OLIVE GROVES AND HILLTOP TOWNS OF THE ALENTEJO REGION Somewhere in the range of two hours east of Lisbon, the scene of open fields is dabbed with olive forests and antiquated, white-washed, peak towns graced with settling storks. The as of late opened Dá Licença has brought a totally new dimension of cabin to this crude and true corner of Portugal's Alentejo region.Converted nineteenth-century ranch structures, dissipated crosswise over ground that was initially developed as a natural nursery by nearby nuns, are at the core of in excess of 300 sections of land of land. Here, somewhere in the range of 13,000 olive trees thrive and outcrops of the zone's fundamental marble – in delicate pink and glowing white – push through the ground like snowdrops in springtime.In the primary house, there are three roomy suites, one of which opens out onto an emerald green interminability pool. Four additional suites – two standing autonomously with private pools and two all the more framing a cluster with housetop porches and enormous patios – keep running from the house in the middle of fig, olive and stopper trees down towards Estremoz. An overwhelming town with medieval bulwarks and a 28-meter-high keep, created totally in the nearby marble, Estremoz stands high not too far off ruling the encompassing wide open. It is more than deserving of multi day's meandering (stop for lunch at Gadanha Mercearia and attempt generous nearby dishes, for example, braised dark pork cheeks). There is an abundance of recorded landmarks to visit, from holy places to palaces and houses, just as a rich territorial convention of handiworks to find, from weaving to brilliant earthenware production and dirt figurines.It is fitting, at that point, that Dá Licença's proprietors – Portuguese Vitor Borges and French Franck Laigneau – have made this little jewel so as to pay praise to expressions and specialties. They have drawn generally on the expertise of provincial craftsmans, with woven mats from Mizette Nielsen – long a figure of note in the Alentejo's weaving industry. The ubiquitous marble includes in side tables and lights structured by Vitor and made by nearby specialist Francesco Pluma; there are likewise material green-veined white marble baths and hand-cut bowls in Estremoz's palest pink marble – what the Italians call pelle d'angelo. Rock floors give welcome cool in the seriously sweltering summers here.Overlaying these insides are works of art from the Jugendstil and Anthroposophical structure developments – which Franck supported in his Paris display in a past life – just as numerous contemporary pieces, for example, pottery by Susana Piteira and a metal smokestack by Ico Parisi, formed like a drop of water. Every room has been deliberately designated with furniture and artworks that reverberation the country effortlessness outside.And it is the outside that left me with my superseding memory of Dá Licença: the red Alentejan sun setting over a round pool sponsored by pieces of marble and trees of orange, lemon and tangerine, through which the breeze whistles in the quietness.