The bedrooms have a very different 'feel' to each other. The one on the ground floor is cool and airy and has windows which both open onto the front garden making it light in the morning. There is a single huge cross-beam which has always been painted. Access is given by a quaint...and small... stud-door which opens from the living room. Above the ceiling is the portion of the grenier which is not yet converted....so occasional  ghostly sounds are actually dormice in residence above us!

Lavender....

Lavender is a soothing and restful fragrance for the bedroom and it makes linens smell so fresh. The picture is one of Jan's oil pastels and captures the colours of the flowers in the evening light. We harvest the lavender to make scented cushions and drawer-scenters. If you pick the lavender when the stems are still tender and the flowers only just opened you can make Lavender Wands which are a lovely way of enjoying the fragrance without the florets sheeding everywhere.

It is also a much over-looked ingredient in the kitchen.....see our recipe for Lavender and Lemon Muffins.

 

We wanted it to have a classic French look. Painted furniture is often either too mass-produced looking or its rather determinedly 'rough' and both options tend to be rather expensive. And besides, where was the fun?

We found the answer in the early 80's fashion for reproduction Regency style furniture. There is lots of it about in junk shops at very low prices. And thats hardly surprising considering it was very cheaply made....often in a combination of different woods (some soft to facilitate easy 'turning' of legs etc) and some MDF (usually for the top). This didn't matter at the time because it was all covered in a mahogony-stained eggshell varnish which was so popular. But of course it was easily scratched.  However, looking beyond the tired and outdated finish, the shape of the pieces is often very attractive. Nice fluted or turned legs for example, and a lighter, more refined quality than much commercial painted furniture.

 

The Lamp table had a nicely turned shape to its pedestal, it also had three small drawers as a feature of its drum top. The varnish was sanded away, and three coats of emulsion were applied. A design was stencilled on in a blue base shade, then enhanced with darker and lighter tones to give much more finish and depth.  

The chair was found in the grenier , left behind by the previous owner as rubbish. It was in a sorry state with treacle-brown varnish and its velvet very stained. A scrub with warm water worked wonders at restoring the freshness to the upholstery so it became worth restoring..and it was treated the same as the table, taking care to avoid marking the velvet.

The stool was found in a junk shop and had once partnered a dressing table. I reupholstered it and covered it in some spare fabric to match the walls and then hemmed it with some heavy fringing.. The square table is another of my Regency knock-off makeovers. It has lovely fluted legs. The small butler tray and stand was a plain and cheap version from a hardware store (Wilkinson's I think). I painted it and added some violas and violets for decoration. The mirror was originally part of the decor at a shoe shop...perhaps back in the fifties. It has a very decorative carved surface which you can't see well here. It was rescued from a skip and had been smothered in several coats of gloss paint which took ages to pick off from all the crevices. The little picture is a drawing, in blue and white pencil, of the house.

 

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The Upstairs Bedroom. So far, half the attic space has been converted.....on the other side of the massive central chimney stack the 'Grenier' remains unfinsihed and inaccessible apart from through a loft door half way up the gable.  We hope to start work on this soon....and move our bedroom upstairs and have the ground floor entirely as living space. It will be a lot of work but the half that is done is such a great space it would be a shame not to do it all.

The majority of colombage cottages are Long houses....one room deep and originally all the living space was on one level. The Grenier was used for storing grain, hay or even keeping poultry. These days, most renovated houses of this type have had the attic space exploited.....with varying degrees of success. Some smaller houses have steep pitched to their rooves and low beams can be an added hazard! The attic bedrooms can be awkward to get around and cramped. At le Chatel we are lucky because the pitch of the roof is quite gentle and there is good head-room. (Just as well as our son is 6' 4"!!) There are enough beams for character but not be over-done. The whole has a light modern feel which is a nice contrast to the more tradition feel downstairs.

 

The views from the veluxes are spectacular...especially in the evening.......This is our nearest neighbour and only house visible from Le Chatel.