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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Category Archives: What we did, how we did it and what we used
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Thé vert olive
Time to reveal the colour for shutters and cave and garage doors We picked (Trev had slight input) this shade from the Mixing Machine Man in M. Bricolage, Limoux. Being a colourcoded mix-up, it has the highly unromantic title of … Continue reading
Tuiles et toits
May I rant, just a little? May I? OK, so you know that we drew a line under the absent ouvriers and moved on? OK, the stainless steel chimney pipes, chapeau, roof insert and collar were all now on site. … Continue reading
Onward and upward
After a summer of stasis when nothing got done around the French house, we have finally started to address the final work. Everything stopped for a number of reasons: Trev’s new French doctor put him back on a drug cocktail … Continue reading
Bedroom decoration and refurbishment
Still no luck finding a new changeover person for the Argeles apartment, so doing that ourselves right now. As the apartment has not been decorated for a while, and the bedroom was just a white box, we decided to bite … Continue reading
Window seat made with reclaimed materials
Long term followers may remember that we rescued a 19thc side table from a chapel on the point of demolition. Would have ended up in the skip if my brother-in-law and sister hadn’t spotted that we could do something with … Continue reading
Episode 162- The herringbone kitchen ceiling realised
From this left to this right-photos via these links first stage second stage How? We removed the grotty ceiling tiles (if you are following in our footsteps, PLEASE check that these tiles are not asbestos based!) Clean underside of ceiling … Continue reading
Posted in Art, design and inspiration blog, Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged aged, artist, beams, ceiling, country, effect, french, houses, insulation, joists, kaolin, kitchen, lambris, painted, pant, rustic, vintage, white washed, wood
11 Comments
In which Trev loses the will to live again-
You may recall me buying these hand made coppery lights in M. Bricolage a couple of years ago. They had vile plastic hanging flexes. Not a problem, I made ruched linen sleeves for them (sew a tube up with a … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged beams, copper, flex, kitchen, lamps, lights, Linen
5 Comments
Episode 160- the penultimate bit of plasterboarding
This was the entrance to the kitchen when we bought the French house. You may struggle to see all the improvements but we can! Above and to the left of the doorway (in which there will be no door) there … Continue reading
Episode 159- Working on the salon door
Do you remember the truly hideous door in the salon? This did not say “hello, I’m a French village house salon door” in any language. It’s sole merit was that it fitted, and adjusting reclaimed doors, or their frames, to fit … Continue reading
Episode 156 part two – waxing a painted door
So, by popular request (at least THREE readers) here is how we roll when we refinish doors here at the French house. This technique is based on our finishes developed for our painted furniture and gives a far tougher surface … Continue reading
What a day!
It’s glorious here in le vrai sud de France weatherwise; perhaps not the ideal day for running around. Down to the dechetterie with renovation detritus, all super-heavy. Then had we to get three big solid twelve foot roof joists down … Continue reading
Sealing the shower- glass mosaic tiles
Do you remember the issues with the shower on the 2nd floor at the house? It is lined with six large panels of very beautiful silvery grey/blue granite. These are marked with 90 years of limescale but we are hoping … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged adhesive, france, glass, grout, house, mosaic, shower, tiles
11 Comments
Economication. That’s the name of the game.
So, ply is hard to find in France and relatively expensive. Chip board also. So in the first floor kitchen we put down a sub tile floor using our leftover stash of tongue and groove remnants; to be covered by … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged floor, france, groove, kitchen, tiles, tongue, wood
6 Comments
Episode 147 part two- in which we show why we blew the b****y doors off
So, there were two of these horrible doors.We took them off and removed the chipboard lower shelves. We put up these carved and gilded fruitwood panels that came from a Georgian house in the UK (1817) not as deep … Continue reading
Finishing a table top.
It’s a real pain when you find that , once you have laboriously taken bits of grotty old varnish off your dining table, the stain once used on this piece has soaked right down into it and it’s STILL DIRTY … Continue reading
Episode 146- Another retrospective- French house dining room- working with a narrow space
I am trying to remind myself that progress is being made at the village house, as well as giving newer followers the heads up on what we have actually achieved to date en France. The photo –left- is not exactly … Continue reading
Posted in Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged dining, france, french, grey, house, painted, roof, room, steels, terrace, village, wax, wooden floor
18 Comments
Episode 144 – In which we muse upon time and chaos and order and how long it takes for paint to go out of date
So, a few of you might recall that, although we thought the roof was fixed, there was evidence of water ingress earlier this year , mainly in the form of some small damp patches on the ceiling lambris in the … Continue reading
Episode 143 – More decorative finishes- lambris wood panelling
There are a number of elements we see time and time again in humble French houses. One is lambris, or narrow wood panelling. It’s been popular here for centuries though the default finish seems to be dark treacly varnishes and … Continue reading
Episode 142- Decorative finishes update – mettre en valeur
You might remember that I posted about the first two stages of the process I have developed for stucco-stencilling walls. Check it out here in French house salon. https://coteetcampagne.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/can-you-stucco-stencil-it-yes-you-can/ I have now completed stage 3 and it looks even … Continue reading
Woo-hoo! L’escalier is painted
In case you were all wondering whether my Refined-Rustic vision for the village house was edging dangerously toward just refined ( i. e the chandelier, or ” the shandAYhlia” as Trev now calls it in a lousy Cockney accent) I … Continue reading
In which I do something I’m not sure the house wants, but it’s exactly right
Yes, I said the house doesn’t want anything as glamorous as a chandelier. They are for grand houses like bizzyella’s and poshbirdy’s, not mine. But I had this little Italian one I bought ten years ago that sat in the … Continue reading
Making part medieval French village houses work
For those of you interested in the Demolition Derby clearly in operation on the last post, I present two earlier posts which explain. To clarify- the photo top left of first post below (with the weird wardrobes) shows FRONT of … Continue reading
It’s not all been doom and gloom this month
After many kind pep-talks via my blog visitors and followers, I am taking “Ellen A’s” sensible advice; she says that she is quite happy to read about our furniture rescuing activities whilst we collect our very scattered thoughts. These tables … Continue reading
Chop Chop – skirting around French kitchen restoration
If you have been paying attention, you will recall that in order to find the wooden staircase we cut a while back, we had to clean up and tidy the cave. This was going to be the last job on … Continue reading
Can you stucco stencil it? Yes you can!
Yes sir, we can stencil. And we can handpaint motifs on our French Country Walls and Ceilings etc . Above are two fine examples and some more here https://husifrankrike.com/2016/06/08/dag-5-sondagen-aterigen-en-vilodag/ Thank you JP! I … Continue reading
Posted in Art, design and inspiration blog, Renovation and restoration diary- France, What we did, how we did it and what we used
Tagged antique, artists, country, france, french, house, paint, pigment, plaster, renovation, restoration, salon, stencil, stencilled, stucco, village, vintage
22 Comments
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