A Home Renovation in Greece Inspired Anthologist Hotel

A pandemic work lull allowed Andria Mitsakos to parlay her creativity and connections into a business specializing in handcrafted wares.

Mitsakos at her Anthologist showroom in Athens.

Andria Mitsakos has spent three decades handling public relations for high-end hotels in Europe and the Caribbean, including almost 20 years running her own communications firm. But when the Covid-19 pandemic brought tourism to a standstill and Mitsakos found herself stuck in Greece, the Greek-American focused on renovating a farmhouse she owns on the Cyclades island of Paros. During the summer of 2020, with hotels worldwide keeping their doors shut, she worked with local artisans to craft items from upcycled materials while looking to online sources for brass doorknobs, antique furniture and other elements.

As she dug ever deeper into the renovation and began sharing photos of the custom pieces and one-of-a-kind finds on social media, clients and friends alike wanted to tap into her aesthetic, honed over a lifetime of collecting crafts and textiles during her travels. “My hotel clients used the downtime to renovate or redesign,” Mitsakos says. “But they needed to find a new way to express their stories through objects.”