French house

These are pictures of one of our houses we rent in the South West of France, near the Bay of Arcachon. You can see our other house shot by You Magazine here. I stayed there for two months with Mila after giving birth. The weather was amazing, my parents live nearby, the beach was 10 min away and I had the whole days to myself looking after my baby, scouring flea markets between feeds and doing a bit of DIY. I actually broke my waters while paiting the kitchen walls below so if there are some patches somewhere, you know why.

Steve and I got the white concrete planter/bench built up by a local mason to provide extra seating for people rentig the house when they have friends over 'pour l'aperitif'. We added plants at the back the same you would find on the sand Dune of Pyla to give it a beachy feel and decked the whole front of the house with IPE wood (see below).

I mean, we decked, it was more like Steve and my dad, a work of sweat and swears as much as franco-kiwi experiment. My dad swearing a lot in French because he kept walking and breaking his glasses and Steve not understanding but having a pretty good idea what it was about. My dad refuses to wear his glasses around the neck with a chain or even something funkier because that makes him feel old... Yeah sure, it makes more sense to walk on them over and over because he can't see them...typically stubborn frog.

I found this cupboard at a flea market and gave it a new lease of life by painting the inside a blue grey and the outside white. I like to keep it open to display the white crockery from Ikea. The diner table below used to belong to my mum. It was very dark to start with but we sanded it to give it a fresher, lighter look. I grew up in a house full of vintage and antiques things so although I'm still loving vintage and scour flea markets regularly, I'm more selective and go for old things that will work in a more modern, contemporary space. The pictures on the walls are from my sister Elodie and brother Francois when they were very years which I took. The chairs are antique that I painted in whihte and mum covered the seats with grey fabric.

I love this vintage table below that Elodie found. The colour was spot on and we havent done anything to it except adding a beautiful French antique mirror above. The light you can see in the mirror is a Tolomeo from Artemide.

The house has 3 bedrooms. We've recently done the largest one and I havent got pictures yet but this is a picture of the other double-bed room. The bedhead is actually the foot of a bed which I found it in my mum's workshop (an ali-baba cavern) and just added some fresh, crispy linens to give it a contemporary feel. The bedroom has now a Norm 06 pendant light from Normann Copenhagen and a pretty white Moroccan inspired mirror on one wall.

This is the third bedroom and the smallest one. To maximise the space, we fitted bunk beds from Ikea but there is still a bit of space to add a cot. I've recently added some bright, pink curtains to give it a happy feel which is very nice as it gives a nice, pink light to the room when the curtains are closed. I need to add some picture frames really....

We're off to other house at the beginning of May for a few days so I will try to take more pictures then and add some final touches....Until then, I wish you all a great weekend.