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Crosby Studios’ restoration near Roccalbegna, Tuscany, keeps a 17th-century farmhouse’s timber beams, thick masonry and travertine visible while inserting river-stone floors, stainless steel, rewired car parts and recycled textiles. The result is not a neutral preservation project: it is a family home and working landscape where historic fabric, industrial objects and a renewed olive grove are deliberately made to coexist.
A farmhouse restored as a family home
Harry Nuriev, founder of Paris-based Crosby Studios, and his partner Tyler Billinger converted a former bed-and-breakfast into a home shared with Billinger’s parents. The property sits outside Roccalbegna in Grosseto, Italy, a medieval Tuscan village. Architectural Digest’s October 2025 feature describes the estate as 130 acres; Designboom’s November 2025 report gives the site as 52 hectares. Those are the published figures, reported by different outlets, rather than a new survey.
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The setting matters as much as the rooms. The house is part of a large agricultural property rather than an isolated design object, and its restoration extends into an olive grove that had become overgrown. The family worked with landscape architect Anna Andreyeva of Planting Strategies to clear and recultivate the fields, prune old trees, stabilize soil and replant portions of the grove. Architectural Digest reports about 1,000 olive trees on the property.
The project’s central idea: transformism
Nuriev calls the approach “transformism,” a method of changing an object without erasing where it came from. EST Living quotes him saying, “Transformism is the act of turning one thing into another—not by denying its origin, but by illuminating it.” That definition explains why the renovation does not disguise the farmhouse’s age. The old surfaces remain legible, while new interventions make their industrial or improvised origins conspicuous.
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Nuriev describes the process in similarly broad terms: “I bring in things from different environments that don’t belong to interior design and try to place them in a decorative way,” he says in Architectural Digest. A car headlight, a public-restroom fixture or a used T-shirt therefore enters the house as itself, not as a faux-rustic prop.
What was preserved—and what was changed
| Published detail | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| 130 acres | Architectural Digest’s 2025 description of the estate’s area |
| 52 hectares | Designboom’s 2025 description of the same property; the two outlets use different units |
| Approximately 1,000 olive trees | Architectural Digest’s reported count for the grove and wider property |
| 4.2-metre dining table | EST Living’s reported length for the main dining table |
| Approximately 120 red T-shirts | Architectural Digest’s reported number used for the primary-bedroom canopy curtains |
The original farmhouse structure supplies the visual baseline: rustic timber ceiling beams, thick stone walls and natural travertine. Crosby Studios left those elements exposed instead of wrapping them in a uniform contemporary finish. The intervention is clearest upstairs, where ordinary flooring was removed and replaced with hand-laid river stones. Local artisans installed the stones according to accounts in Architectural Digest and EST Living, so the floor reads as a crafted landscape surface rather than a factory-made tile pattern.
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How industrial objects become domestic details
Headlights turned into chandeliers
Gutted automobile headlights were rewired and welded into chandelier-like fixtures. Their original function—projecting light from a vehicle—remains visible in the shape, but the wiring and suspension move them into the language of domestic decoration. The result is a light fitting that looks assembled from salvaged equipment rather than purchased as a conventional chandelier.
Rearview mirrors as wall compositions
Clusters of rearview mirrors form decorative groupings on the walls. Nuriev relates the arrangements to collectible French decorative mirrors, but the individual pieces retain their automotive identity. Together they multiply reflections and create a salon-like display without relying on a single antique object.
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Stainless steel in the kitchen and dining area
Stainless steel appears in the kitchen island and dining furniture. EST Living reports a 4.2-metre dining table, while Architectural Digest describes a stainless-steel table and chrome folding stools outside. The material’s association with commercial kitchens and workshops gives the rooms a utilitarian edge against the farmhouse’s porous stone and warm timber.
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EST Living reports stainless-steel double sinks and a toilet sourced from a company that makes equipment for public restrooms. These choices extend the project’s reuse logic into a room where domestic fixtures are normally selected for softness or ornament. Here, durability and institutional familiarity become the decorative statement.
The primary bedroom makes reuse visible
The bedroom canopy is formed from approximately 120 recycled red T-shirts. Architectural Digest says the shirts came from people who had previously bought and then sold them; that is the provenance Nuriev provides, not a documented history for each individual garment. The shirts become curtains, so a mass-produced item associated with personal wardrobes is enlarged into an architectural textile.
Nuriev explains the social dimension this way: “I like the idea that 120 different people who didn’t know each other decided to buy red T-shirts—and then decided to sell them,” he says. The canopy therefore carries evidence of circulation and exchange rather than pretending to be a single, pristine fabric.
Other textile choices reinforce the same tension between historic reference and new technology. Architectural Digest describes velvet printed with an AI-assisted interpretation of a 19th-century tapestry, alongside a Crosby Studios chrome cover for a built-in bed. The references are historical, but the treatments are deliberately synthetic and reflective.
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A material map of the interiors
| Element | Material or source | Design effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ceilings and walls | Retained rustic timber beams and thick stone masonry | Keeps the farmhouse’s construction and age readable |
| Existing floors and surfaces | Natural travertine retained in place | Provides a warm, mineral counterweight to metal |
| Upstairs flooring | River stones hand-laid by local artisans | Introduces an irregular, almost exterior-like walking surface |
| Kitchen island and dining pieces | Stainless steel; a 4.2-metre table is reported by EST Living | Brings commercial and industrial associations into family space |
| Lighting | Gutted automobile headlights, rewired and welded | Makes reuse and mechanical origins part of the fixture’s appearance |
| Wall decoration | Clusters of rearview mirrors | Combines automotive parts with the visual language of collectible mirrors |
| Primary-bedroom canopy | Approximately 120 repurposed red T-shirts | Turns circulating garments into a large-scale textile enclosure |
| Bathroom | Stainless-steel double sinks and a public-restroom equipment toilet | Favors institutional utility over domestic ornament |
The olive grove completes the design story
The landscape restoration is not a backdrop added after the interiors. The overgrown grove was cleared and recultivated as part of a multi-year effort, with pruning, soil stabilization and replanting reported by EST Living and Designboom. Those reports do not quantify ecological gains, yield increases or other environmental outcomes, so the project should be understood as a documented restoration process rather than a measured sustainability case study.
Nuriev connects the treatment of the land to the treatment of objects: “The conceptual framework isn’t only about material manipulation—it’s about seeing the potential for new life in an object, whether that be a tattered old sofa or a neglected olive tree.” The olive tree is not a metaphor detached from use; it supplies the harvest that extends the project into a working agricultural and consumer context.
La Terra di Neena: from harvest to home goods
The first harvest became the basis for La Terra di Neena, named for Billinger’s mother. Architectural Digest reports that the family unveiled its first batch of organic extra-virgin olive oil at Milan Design Week in April 2025. Designboom describes a wider identity that includes olive oil, home goods, collectible furniture, candles, glycerin soaps, mirrored dishware and seating made from unused olive-oil tins.
These products continue the farmhouse’s material language: agricultural output becomes a packaged food, while discarded or surplus containers become furniture. The published project coverage establishes the launch context and reported product categories, but it does not establish current inventory, prices, shipping arrangements or visitor access. Those commercial details should not be inferred from the design reports.
Why the contrasts feel intentional rather than random
The renovation works because each unusual insertion has a clear relationship to the building or its setting. The farmhouse’s stone and timber provide continuity. River stones echo the rural ground outside. Stainless steel and chrome introduce a reflective, manufactured register. Car parts preserve traces of mobility and machinery. Recycled shirts bring the history of previous owners into the bedroom. The olive grove links all of those choices to cultivation and harvest.
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Four recurring tensions organize the project:
- Preservation versus intervention: original beams, masonry and travertine remain visible while floors, fixtures and furnishings are radically altered.
- Local material versus industrial metal: hand-laid river stones and Tuscan stonework sit beside stainless steel, chrome and public-sector bathroom equipment.
- Existing object versus conventional furnishing: headlights, mirrors and T-shirts are not hidden inside new forms; their former uses remain readable.
- Domestic life versus agricultural work: the family home is inseparable from the restored grove and its olive harvest.
Because the reporting concerns one house, it does not support a ranking of renovation methods or a claim that these materials are universally practical. The value of the project is demonstrative: it shows how a historic shell can absorb contemporary objects without losing its identity.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this farmhouse teaches about adaptive reuse
Keep the evidence of age
Retaining beams, masonry and travertine gives every new element a point of reference. A renovation that removes all irregularity would make the industrial additions feel arbitrary; the old fabric supplies the necessary continuity.
Let reused objects remain recognizable
The headlights still look like headlights and the rearview mirrors still look automotive. Concealing their origins would weaken the transformist premise. Reuse becomes legible when the previous function is part of the visual experience.
Use local craft for new surfaces
The upstairs river-stone floor is contemporary, but local artisans’ hand-laying keeps it connected to place and labor. The example suggests a distinction between introducing a new material and importing a generic finish.
Extend the renovation beyond the building
The grove’s clearance, pruning, soil work and replanting show that adaptive reuse can include land management. At this estate, the agricultural landscape is not scenery; it produces the olive oil that carries the project’s identity beyond the property.
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What is documented—and what remains unknown
The three detailed accounts—Architectural Digest in October 2025, Designboom in November 2025 and EST Living’s 2026 feature—identify the owners, designer, landscape architect, principal materials, several dimensions and the olive-oil launch. They do not publish renovation cost, energy performance, annual olive-oil output, quantified ecological outcomes or visitor numbers. No primary project or brand source, current retail listing or affiliate arrangement is established in those reports.
That boundary is important. The farmhouse can be assessed as a design argument and a reported family restoration, but not as a verified environmental-performance benchmark or a current hospitality destination. Its strongest evidence is visual and material: historic construction retained, unconventional objects transformed, and an overgrown grove returned to cultivation.
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The lasting impression
Crosby Studios’ Tuscan farmhouse is compelling because it refuses the usual choice between rustic authenticity and contemporary spectacle. The old beams, stone walls and travertine are not a period set, while the headlights, mirrors, stainless steel and red-shirt canopy are not random provocations. Each belongs to a chain of reuse that runs from domestic objects to agricultural land.
In Nuriev’s formulation, transformism illuminates an object’s origin instead of denying it. At Roccalbegna, that principle gives a former bed-and-breakfast a new family life while keeping its rural history, material irregularity and working olive grove in view.
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