"Cerro Negro", bullfighter El Cordobés's 150-hectare estate near Seville: century-old olive trees, blue velvet armchairs in the kitchen and bullfight paintings on the walls

Three years after retiring from the bullring, Manuel Díaz "El Cordobés" looks for peace somewhere else - in his family and at home. The end of his career was a hard professional moment, full of pride but also uncertainty. Since then he has tried his hand at new projects, including the TV cooking show "MasterChef Celebrity". But his real refuge is a 150-hectare estate in Guillena, near Seville, bought in 1993, the year he took the alternativa - the ceremony in which a bullfighter officially becomes a matador.

An estate with history. Cerro Negro is home to El Cordobés, his wife Virginia Troconis and their three children. The previous owner was businessman, bull breeder and bullfight promoter José Luis Martín Berrocal - father of Vicky Martín Berrocal and, therefore, the bullfighter's former father-in-law. How many people would live with a new family in a house bought from their ex-father-in-law? In Andalusia, apparently, it's not up for debate.

An Andalusian country house: wood, porches and outdoor dining. The home is in rustic Andalusian style and is at once a family refuge and a bull-breeding ranch. Century-old olive trees grow around it, the rooms are wide and full of natural light, and the whole house is designed for big family gatherings. Outside there are wide porches, outdoor dining areas and spaces for socialising, with wood bringing warmth. The outdoor furniture is relaxed in style, white dominates, and colourful cushions add life.

Inside: wide rooms, dark wood and memories of the ring. The walls at the entrance and throughout the house are spotless white, in a rustic style that blends into the surrounding landscape. The living room is spacious and maximalist, with several soft earth-toned sofas and walnut furniture, a hard dark wood, while table lamps supply the details. Paintings with bullfighting motifs hang on the walls of the living and dining rooms - a gallery of a career Spain still argues about. The dining chairs are upholstered in red, the colour synonymous with the world of the bulls.

The heart of the house is the kitchen, where the couple spends most of their time. It combines marble and wood, and the central kitchen island is surrounded by blue velvet armchairs - a cool accent in a house dominated by warm tones.

What can you take from Cerro Negro without 150 hectares and without a bullring? The formula is simple: white walls, lots of wood, marble in the kitchen and one bold colour accent - red in the dining room, blue around the island. It works in a 60-square-metre flat too. The bulls and the bullfight paintings can stay in Andalusia.