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The project is set in the pretty medieval village of Auribeau looks across the Siagne River. The house dates originally from the 1700s and has 6 acres of land including the river which forms a boundary between the Alpes-Maritimes and Var departments, 40 minutes from Cannes. When the project started in 2017 the property had been derelict for almost a decade; the roof had collapsed, the wooden joints were rotten with woodworm infestation and most of the stonework hidden by plasterwork undertaken during the 1970s and 80s.

Our job has been to respect the character of this beautiful house and work with the client to undertake a complete renovation internally and externally. The development is essentially in two phases; firstly, the main property and secondly a separate building initially built for guests in the 1970s.

We have taken out all of the floors and installed a new roof whilst leaving the walls in place. An important part of this plan has been to expose all of the stone work by removing the internal plaster work as well as repointing and sealing.

In terms of internal fixtures and fittings, by lifting up the roof by around 0.5 metres we have created additional space upstairs by converting a storage area. This floor now includes a master bedroom with walk-in Italian shower and walk-in dressing room. The bathroom has some particularly special touches, such as stunning hand painted Moroccan floor tiles in the bathroom.

Finally, the house now has a completely new central heating system, with a full rewiring and plumbing. We sourced the cast iron radiators from Germany to keep the property extremely warm on even the coldest winter days.

“In October 2018 we were approached by American clients wishing to renovate a house they had recently purchased. The couple live in California and had been looking for a property in France for more than a year, to spend time on holiday with their family. They finally found the house of their dreams – a beautiful terracotta red fronted villa with 10,000 square metres of garden.”

In total, the property is 340 m2 in dimension and whilst the size and land space was suitable for the client’s needs, the internal layout was not. The building dates from the 1980s and needed updating.

We started the project working with a US based architect who had designed the villa thinking the villa as a timber build. When studying the plans, there were a lot of ideas that did not work with a concrete block and beam build. So we then involved a local architect to help make the design work. We had to install lots of steel to create the open plan living space; we redesigned the interiors, necessitating the removal of all of the walls and repositioning of the window spaces.  The old PVCu windows have been removed replacing with stylish and durable aluminium frames with triple glazing.

We have created a large master bedroom, together with grand and luxurious walk-in wardrobes for both husband and wife. In addition, there are two guest rooms both with ensuite bathrooms.

Downstairs, the couple have opted for open plan living with a spacious living room area, kitchen and a large double fronted gas fire.