CAVE RENOVATION . . . SIMPLE INTERIOR DESIGN

"Little things make all the difference"

The beauty of a cave is its simplicity and the fact that it's so versatile. We mentioned in the building section that you can have a cave designed to your own specification but what about the little features that you can do to "stamp" your own mark on the place? Design ideas are up to your own imagination and can range from the most simple to the more complicated. Below are a few ideas that we have seen and implemented in our own cave.

Interior Walls	:
		Space permitting an interior wall can be a useful feature to have, especially near a front door, the top of this one has been covered with a mosaic design using broken up floor tiles. Nice for indoor plants and ornaments.
Wood Storage	:
		Space can be created or "dug" next to any open fire or wood burner. Particularly useful in the winter months if wood stored outdoors becomes wet or if it's raining! Also an attractive feature when fully stocked with logs.
Pronounced Shelving	:
		Simple to build and an alternative to the common "carved out" shelf. The picture on the lefy shows a small rustic shelf using a broken Spanish brick covered with plaster.
Safe Box	:
		A small box placed into the wall and plastered in, handy for valuables etc, simply hang a picture over the box and no-one will know its there. Security safes are readily available in hardware stores - these can be placed into the cave wall with a minimum amount of work.
Carved Shelving	:
		The most common way to create space in a cave and a fantastic feature. These shelves can be of any size, finished off with varnished wood or lights placed behind this kind of shelf design is timeless, you can even incorporate wine racks, glass holders and somewhere to put the soaps in the bathroom. The design choice is limitless.
Glass	:
		Caves can suffer from being a little darker in the rear most rooms, one way to combat this and give access to natural light is to use glass blocks in doorways and walls. These blocks are quite expensive but are easy to install, come in a variety of colours and are an attractive functional feature.
Towel Rail	:
		Not readily available (but you may find one in your unreformed cave) this piece of wood looks like a ladder but was actually used horizontally to hold large terracotta wine bottles. When sanded, stained and varnished these can make an attractive and very useful towel rail, a nice feature in any bathroom.
Wood	:
		Unreformed caves will more often than not have pieces of wood protruding from the walls, often in the strangest of places. Get the builders to leave them in situ if possible as they make an attractive feature and will always be an original part of the cave. Most of this wood will be almond or olive so will stand the test of time.
Lighting	:
		There are many lights available in the area from modern to traditional to rustic. Caves do suit roof tile as light surrounds though, the one pictured has had a design cut into it using a simple angle grinder. Tile lights look very much in place in caves and painted designs are also available from 5 - 45 euros per tile.

To mention every design idea here would be impossible, there are so many options available. Take a look at as many caves as you can - each one will be different and have different designs as a result.