18/06/2026
Welcome to St Ignatius Townhouse 🤍
For the last few years, there’s been one project quietly running in the background of everything we do at FORMADEUS.
Our own home.
Back in 2020, Carl and I decided it was time to buy a place of our own in Malta. We had only been living here for around six months and thought we’d find something that needed a bit of work, renovate it, and move in relatively quickly.
Then one day Carl went to view a house without me.
A few minutes later, he called and said:
“I found our dream home. Just listen.”
And then he held the phone up.
All I could hear were birds.
No traffic.
No restaurant noise.
No city sounds.
Just birds.
If you know Sliema, you’ll understand why that felt almost impossible. At the time, and still today, we live on the front where life is busy and there’s always something happening outside. Finding a house in the heart of Sliema where the loudest thing you could hear was birds singing felt like a dream.
I rushed over to see it.
My first reaction?
Panic. 😅
All I could see was the amount of work that needed to be done. But Carl was completely convinced. He could already see what the house could become, and slowly his excitement became mine too.
What we thought might be a renovation became something much deeper.
A careful restoration of a 1930 Art Deco townhouse designed by architect Silvio Mercieca, while rebuilding and adapting parts of the house for the life we wanted to create.
The project has included structural works, heritage restoration, carefully removing and restoring original Maltese tiles, countless design decisions, unexpected challenges, lessons in project management, supplier sourcing across Europe, budget surprises and more patience than I ever thought I possessed.
By the time we finally move in, almost six years will have passed since we first bought the house.
Six years.
Sometimes it feels completely crazy.
Sometimes it feels completely worth it.
Over the coming months, I’d love to share more of the journey with you. The good decisions, the bad decisions, the lessons we’ve learned and the process of bringing this beautiful old house back to life.
This is chapter one.
Amanda 🤍
