Designs on Normandy

The gate to the estate which was once a relais de poste (resting place for coach travellers).

The courtyard garden & tree-shaded lawn have been replanted & provide a restful area to relax in.

Comfortable chairs with linen slip-covers mix perfectly with more contemporary black metal lamps to give the sitting room an elegant, yet relaxed ambience.

The gorgeous white table in the hall was made to the Owners design.

One of the attached barns, open on one side to the courtyard has been converted into a summer dining room. The walls were white-washed & the beams painted in a shade of blue often used in Normandy houses in the seventeenth century.

A delicate metal bench covered in soft pillows & a painted dresser found in a local antiques shop, decorate a corner of the sitting room.

Stairs leading to the upstairs bedrooms have been painted a chalky green-blue colour.

The guest bedroom has hand-hewn beams softened with linen curtains pooling on the floor. The stunning eighteenth-century oval portrait at the peak of the drapes is part of a collection given to the Owner by her grandfather.

All images Hearst

A rambling old house in the French countryside with a courtyard of attached barns & the chance to create a wonderful rural retreat - stuff dreams are truly made of! One energetic & creative Parisian couple have done just that & breathed new life into this stunning home. They found the surroundings so inspirational they have now moved here permanently from

their Paris apartment & run their design business from one of the renovated barns.