Vintage Bonfim, a designer's mid-century apartment, Porto

A Designer's Vintage-Filled Apartment in Porto's Bonfim

Vintage Bonfim is a three-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a 1960s block in Bonfim, a leafy district east of Porto's historic center. Its owner Wendy Aldridge runs Homeplace, an interiors label built on mid-century and vintage furniture, and the Irish Times told the story of her move to Porto in 2025. This is the apartment she found when she got there.

Rather than strip it back, she kept what the building already had: the terrazzo entrance and staircase, the parquet and patterned tile floors, the original glazed doors that fold the lounge open into a dining room set for eight. A more recent renovation updated the original bathroom with a checkerboard floor, an Art Deco vanity and marble wall lights.

Rooms are painted in the pinks and greens you see across Porto's tiled facades and furnished with the pieces she sources for a living: a vintage Percival Lafer armchair, a Danish two-seater in houndstooth, mid-century lighting in every room, Portuguese ceramics on the walls. But this is also a family-friendly space, with a television den that families tend to hand straight to the children.

Layout

This vacation home for rent in Porto sleeps up to six guests. It has three bedrooms and one shared bathroom across a single second-floor level. Two are proper doubles. The third is a smaller room with a single bed and a pull-out daybed, made up with linen on request. The lounge opens through original glazed doors to a dining room that seats eight, with a separate kitchen and pantry alongside.

• Bedroom 1: Double

• Bedroom 2: Double

• Bedroom 3: Single, plus pull-out daybed

• One shared bathroom

Good to know

The apartment sits on the second floor, up the building's original terrazzo staircase. A local team meets guests at the door and can arrange taxis to the airport or the beach. Porto charges a municipal tourist tax of €3 per person per night for guests aged 13 and over, capped at seven nights and collected on arrival. Linen for the third room's daybed is provided on request.

Amenities & services

Included: Fully equipped kitchen, pantry, dining table seating up to eight, lounge with TV, kids' TV den with toys, Wi-Fi, bed linen and towels, meet-and-greet check-in with local host, in-destination recommendations guide.

Available on request: Cot, highchair, daybed linen for the third bedroom, taxi booking to the airport or beach.

Around

Porto's Bonfim district has tree-lined streets, tiled house-fronts, small squares with playgrounds, and a run of independent cafes, bars and restaurants where locals still outnumber visitors. Start mornings at Combi Coffee, the specialty roaster around the corner, with a warm pastel de nata from the bakery on the way. It is about 15 minutes downhill to the historic center (the Ribeira waterfront, the Douro, Livraria Lello and the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal), and two Metro stops or a short walk to the rest. For dinner, Flow cooks modern Mediterranean food in a restored downtown building. The Atlantic beaches at Foz and Matosinhos are a quick ride out, and the Serralves museum and park, with its Álvaro Siza galleries, is worth an afternoon. Vila Nova de Gaia and its port lodges sit just across the river.