I know Juan since long time ago. We both were living in Extremadura around 2002, he had a restaurant in Merida and I had a hotel in La Parra, and we used to met from time to time in one of these places as clients of each other. I left Extremadura and opened micasaenlisboa in 2006 and a couple of years later he messaged me he had also move to Lisbon. Baixa House was the first professional project in which we worked together in 2010: he was one of the responsible for the interior design of the apartments. Later on he became part of micasaenlisboa team and spent a few years coming in and out with a clear idea on mind, he wanted to open his own “home” in Porto, the city he loves. Four years ago he finally found the beautifully green tiled facade building with its charming wood floors and high plaster ceilings where he started welcoming guests in November 2016.
Myhomeinporto was born 10 years after micasaenlisboa as a young sibling with its own personality. It’s Juan’s house and consequently a faithful reflection of its personality. With his souvenirs, books, objects, plants, flowers… with his way of doing things, so close and far from mine at the same time. Once you cross the door and go up the bright traditional Porto staircase you immediately feel at a friend’s place. First time you open your room door you start thinking why you don’t feel that well at the rest of the places you sleep out of your own home. This room is not yours and doesn’t look like your own one but you feel part of it and you’d love to move this wellness feeling to every corner of your life. I love to think there’s a place in the world where this spirit that can’t be longer experienced in the Lisbon building, lives without me around. It’s Juan’s home.
He prepares yummy breakfasts every morning with same love and care we used to do in Lisbon. But since the very first moment you can feel a French “air de famille” with Spanish roots but stablished in the North of Portugal as you try the scrambled eggs with butter or the very special “broa de Avintes”. As it used to happen in Lisbon you run the risk of unexpectedly missing the city as the chat with your host extends, but this will be compensated by high possibilities of making a new friend.
Myhomeinporto is a quiet house where it looks like time stopped and it seems that no one is staying at the same time as you, even when sometimes you can hear someone walking upstairs or the music Juan carefully selects is playing around, as the flowers change like magic… Yes it was born as micasaenlisboa small sibling but like every small sister (among which I include myself) she made it very clear from the first breath that was different from her elders with its individual character, and will fly high and free for the rest of her life.
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Nothing could make us think on the future to come when I wrote this words almost one year ago. Nobody could imagine the difficult situation we will all live from March 2020 on. Myhomeinporto reopened its doors last week after a few months almost empty. New guests arrived. It won’t be easy to recover last year rhythm but, as every small sibling, her resilience capacity has no end: Juan will be able to bring scrambled eggs soft and creamy to the breakfast table. He will prepare bed sheet that will embrace us every night. And Porto city will be shown again to us as a new friend by his hand.