We are constantly inspired by those that decide to do something out-of-the-box and take the first big step outside of their comfort zone. This brings us to Miguel Mateus, Catarina Silva and Catarina Alves, three founders behind the contemporary design apartments, Flattered Apartments. The couple trained as vets and ended up embarking on a remarkable journey working with locals and showcasing Portuguese hospitality to visitors.

Who is behind Flattered Apartments?

Catarina Silvas, my wife and business partner, and myself (Miguel). Not sure if you remember, but we’re all veterinarians, and we have been business partners since 2005, managing a Small Animal Hospital. Every place has its local team (Marcia in Porto, Filipa in Tomar, Susana, Diogo and Filipe, Lisbon and Olga and her team in Tavira).

How did the Flattered Apartments business start?

The original idea of creating a vacation rental project was born from a desire to change life. As I’ve mentioned before, we are all veterinarians, and we come from completely different backgrounds. We began by founding a Veterinary Hospital back in July 2005. At a certain point, a strong desire to change life began fermenting.

In 2010-2011, the financial hardships that hit the country and the excruciating media turmoil that preceded the IMF/EU bailout deeply affected the Portuguese Economy. The Veterinary Care Services sector was no exception. Few animals to attend, pet owners becoming jobless, underpaid or simply emigrating. At the same time, we began to feel increasingly difficult to reconcile the demands of hospital emergencies with our growing families.

So, we decided it was time to look for a new business. We can pinpoint the original idea of Catarina, my wife, watching a TV show while she was enjoying her maternity leave. Our eldest daughter was born in late 2010, and she was at home watching this TV show, and they were talking about entrepreneurship, real estate and something very strange at the time that involved renting houses to tourists for short stays. My parents had an apartment in Lisbon that had just vacated, and all things somehow came together.

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It was hard to convince my parents at the start, but they eventually accepted the idea. In the meantime, and with all the challenges we faced in Lisbon (renovations and legal issues), we eventually found our building in Foz (Porto). In the end, we went live, hosting our first guests, in late December 2012. First in Porto and, just a few days later, in Lisbon.

You have a farm in Tomar. Tell us how this came about?

It’s been in my family since the 1950s when my grandfather bought it. My parents lived there for several years just before my father passed away in 2011. We’ve been interested in Organic farming for a long time and more recently in Holistic grazing since we have a small herd of cows. We’ve just started last December the certification process to become a fully certified Organic Farm. We were very pleased to find that the soil analysis revealed zero traces of harmful chemicals. Besides the idea of a new Flattered project, adding a countryside location to our offer, we want to develop a farming project. Our dream is to offer our guests our olive oil, wine, honey, jams and vegetables. All of which were produced on site.

Can you share what you grow at the farm?

At the moment we’re not producing more than small amounts of vegetables and some seasonal fruits such as strawberries. We use a big part of this in our jams that we include in our breakfast service, but unfortunately not sufficient to cover our overall needs. My mother and my mother-in-law give us a big help producing the jams.

Your apartments feature lots of incredible design elements. Where do you source items?

If we look back to when we started and what we do today, it changed a lot. We mainly sourced our furniture from vintage shops and some local shops like Area at our first Lisbon apartments. In Porto, we did the same, but we added a few elements specifically designed for the spaces by our architect. In Tomar, we pretty much did the same process. All lighting has always been a mixture between vintage items and designer pieces from brands like Flos, Artek, Ingo Maurer, &Tradition and Gubi. We’ve always paid particular attention to the art hanging on our walls, fostering collaborations with local artists and purchasing art prints. In 2017, under the partnership with De La Espada, we refurnished 2 of our apartments in Porto, and afterward, we decided to extend the collaboration to Tavira. We also mix a few pieces from brands like Hay, Kartell, and we also use fabrics from Kvadrat. We sourced most of these pieces from local stores or online shops like Finnish Design Shop.

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Tomar is a lesser-known part of Portugal. Can you tell us what makes it special?

It’s a beautiful little town, much of it preserved over the years, where you can enjoy a slow living lifestyle. It’s a really quiet place to escape the city and unwind.

Given the year we’ve had, many are keen to travel again. You have several properties in Portugal. Why Portugal in 5 words?
First and foremost, it’s friendly (as it can be), beautiful, diverse, safe and (still) genuine.