Restyled Refinished Vintage
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Our apartment at Argeles-sur-Mer is available to rent now. Email us direct for the best prices for this season and next. See our "Galleries" post for more photos of our little seaside place in the South of FranceApartment gallery
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Author Archives: coteetcampagne
Christmas project-part one
BLEACHED, FADED PAINT FINISH At last, some time to work on our house!! Our kitchen and sitting room are on the first floor. Not unusual in village houses here, but it limits flooring options when your room is thirty feet … Continue reading
Posted in What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged BLEACHED, chalk, DRIFTWOOD, floor, kitchen, paint, varnish
10 Comments
House of Joë Bousquet, Carcassonne, painted beams.
I have to do this in the cave….
Log store
Trev built us a log store The only new wood purchased were the battens. Rest recycled from house junk and our friend’s old shutters. Part of our plan to turn front of workshop into boot room and entry space. Current … Continue reading
At last we have a washing machine
Perfect temperatures this afternoon (40°) to manhandle your new A+++ washing machine into your newly refurbished utility cupboard right by your south west facing front door. ( which was actually going to be the cloaks cupboard) Suffice to say that, … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged cloaks, refurbishec, upboard, utilify, washing machine
3 Comments
Terrasse
Gorgeous morning, but I really should have styled the terrace a bit better for this blog! Culinary plants now include baby fig tree, avocado plant, lavender, chillies, sweet peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, sage, mint, rosemary, chives, basil, parsley and beets. Better…………
Posted in Art, design and inspiration blog, Food and wine
Tagged culinary, plants, styled, terrace, terrasse
9 Comments
The Thursday Three – The Lustre of Faerie
Yes, it is many moons since I did one of these posts… But it is Thursday, and here are three things that I never, in my wildest dreams, expected to find in the Troc in Carcassonne. I have been looking … Continue reading
Posted in Antique and Vintage finds
Tagged bedroom, carlton, Carltonware, faerie, fairy, jugs, lustre
2 Comments
Chairs
Comfortable but pig-ugly chairs. Wine Dralon seats. If you are familiar with that fabric, you will be sticking your fingers down your throat right now. After 13 years, paint colour and 19thc French fabric chosen. Probably…
Posted in Antique and Vintage finds, Art, design and inspiration blog
Tagged 19thc, chair, dining, fabric, paint
3 Comments
Hot Dog
It’s exhausting for a poor dog, watching the humans working on the roof terrace in this heat…. Metal arch now mounted for climbing plants. This old cast iron wall lantern, needing a little repair over exposed wires, goes up next…
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged arch, lanter, old, outdoor light, planting, terrace
8 Comments
Wax on….Wax off
Clock case has been waxed and polished, inside and out. Although the two doors require minor attention to stabilise them and their glass reputtied, I could not resist getting some glassware in to confirm the validity of this repurposing project. … Continue reading
Dusty Miller
Dusty Miller is this beautiful, very pale blue with a subtle grey undertone. One of those nuanced colours that seems to straddle more than one chromatic range. And, though I have only just noticed this, it matches the inside of … Continue reading
Post Paint View
Kitchen ceiling finished, this wall almost finished. Brackets to mount under the little white painted wall cabinet Trolley needs new feet to line up with other surfaces Art Nouveau tiled splashback to go up Smaller cupboard to paint Inside of … Continue reading
Woodless
I never thought that I would see the day, but we are close to running out of wood stocks, both new and reycled! Last offcuts of the floor boards we bought for the kitchen diner are being trimmed down for … Continue reading
The clock case
So, now Trev has finished panelling in the new wiring in the kitchen, I can fill, paint and finish this wall and the ceiling. My Unfitted French Kitchen story continues on this, the Wall of Worry ( put that into … Continue reading
Twiddly bits
So here is Trev, up a ladder once more, panelling in new electric feeds and junction box. He only has to cut the 1 cm plywood to fit around the differently shaped beams, all with different sized spaces between. And … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged electric, kitchen, panel, wood
Comments Off on Twiddly bits
inondations
Terrifying here in the village. I never thought we would have to barricade ourselves against floods in our street. The river Aude is now 20 feet away from our door, with a strong possibility of water levels rising a further … Continue reading
Solved
It has taken me over a decade, but I have now resolved my last issue with our hovel. I have never been happy with our ridiculously tiny entrance hall, photo 1. If we had a cat, there would be no … Continue reading
Lavabo
Stuck with minimal space for a basin, I was rather pleased with this very clean lined 30’s style corner lavabo from Mr Bricolage . The guys were less pleased with the fact that facilitating it’s release from the mould during … Continue reading
Further news on the wet room
Back on the ground floor wet room project again. We had a slightly anxious night waiting for the floor grout to go off, not only because it did not look anything like the carefully chosen grey shade on the packet … Continue reading
More work in wet room
So, we have tanking fabric smoothed and bonded to walls, the drains and floor tiles are in, but not grouted. One and a half walls tiled and a functional toilet. Boxing in for corner basin and shower assembly started. 12 … Continue reading
Black hole – mid way point wet room
Wednesday-Floor levels are being built up and we seem to be using a lot of this fibrous cement https://www.fr.weber/preparation-et-finition-des-sols/les-ragreages-et-mortiers-de-lissage/weberniv-dur Floor smoothed and skimmed with bed of cement, rubberised film with integral drain glued smooth, then more layers of the fibrous … Continue reading
Looking slightly less like a hovel
I now treat you to an image viewed many times before by long suffering followers; the front of our French house in 2006. Although we still have some tidying up work to do and the walls to paint, it is … Continue reading
Black hole
This is the smallest space in our French house. I took a couple of photos, and, windowless, it really is dark in there; the further photos are flash – assisted. But you get the picture? The external shot shows the … Continue reading
Every picture tells a story
It does. We will start with my new green high tech outdoor wood paint. Lighter and softer than it looks on my twilight photo. Excellent stuff. Stack of my roof tiles on neighbours ridge. Why? Are the French builders coming … Continue reading
Rennes-les-Bains
A lovely, if rather warm day at Rennes-les-Bains in Occitanie. Our good friend Jeannie too, and “the kids” in wedding anniversary mode. Privileged to have the company of the writer, Henry Lincoln, whose erudite and informed and very interesting tour … Continue reading
The flower of my dismay
Leaks Do you recall a post from a couple of years ago when we arrived to find a mystery black spot on the dining room ceiling? If you have been concentrating, you may recall that this is the ceiling directly … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged builder, ceiling, leaks, renovation, terrace
8 Comments
Medieval house paintings
https://pin.it/v4sw4saxfcldow Wow. Just wow. I’ll start one tomorrow…
Refocus
The house project has been allowed to drift. This is due to a number of factors, not least a creative/business project that I started last September and a second project here in our village. Also, Trevor’s blood thinning drugs had … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged Bronte, house, project, renovation
14 Comments
Odd things to do in Argeles -sur-Mer
It’s a glorious morning in Argeles and the birds are singing like crazy in the trees outside. Bronte and Trevor are eating porridge. I am on apartment snag-list patrol. Long time followers will remember some of my previous rants about … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged apartment, argeles, Argeles-sur-Mer, guests, seaside
12 Comments
A symphony in red
I love the back streets of Carcassonne. I love the red Caunes-Minervois marble set into the pavements. These buildings coordinate rather well with it’s terracotta-ish hue. I did not know that this marble also existed in grey. One new thing … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged Carcassonne, caunes, marble, minervois
9 Comments
Spring
Spring sprung a while back in the high valleys of the Aude. If you were butting up to a French mustard coloured house what would you do?
Details Details 2
I know I need to take these shots with a decent camera, but mine is under a pile of assorted stuff and the mobile phone is handy. Trev has returned to the tulip room ceiling project to start on the … Continue reading
Paris Hip
A “work trip” to Paris this month yielded new ideas and design inspiration both work and house renovation-wise. Paris really is another country, when compared to Deepest Aude; but the first thing that struck me is that there, ” up … Continue reading
Here comes the sun (derdernderder)
So, the sun came over the roofscape this morning and I, Wolf Princess, was waiting Optimum Basking Position
“Lights go out, walls come tumbling down”
Style Council My wall has been condemned. In any battle to preserve the old, there will be casualties. I love this old door frame. I refused to part with it, so Trevor hand built this door to fit the aperture … Continue reading
Ceiling progress
Not a great photo, sorry, but I thought you might like to see how the tulip room ceiling is going. Any concerns regarding the guys’ decision to lay the wood lengthwise have evaporated; it looks great. There has been much … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France
Tagged bedroom, lime mortar, pointing, sand, stones, wood
6 Comments
Strange days
It’s an odd few days. I just read somewhere that within the hinterland twixt Boxing Day and December 30th you are not entirely sure who you are, where you are or what you are supposed to be doing. There is … Continue reading
Panneaux de plafond-The last ceilings go up
At last, the two unfinished ceilings in the tulip bedroom and the adjoining second floor shower room are being addressed. Unfinished might be an understatement. Since we took down the weird, tiled, low faux ceiling in 2008, these two rooms … Continue reading
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