At the beginning of 2019 the Château Bathrooms were constructed. The time had arrived at the Château for a pendulum of progression. Not a nod to trend but rather a movement back in time, fitted and dressed in more 18th Century fashion...
It was a team effort every step of the way. Dan and Carl from Melbourne, who were Château care-taking during the winter, had the task to remove the temporary bathrooms we had previously installed.
During the 1970s the Château had been used as a school holiday camp venue. And so, we decided to place the bathrooms in exactly the same room for practical reasons - below this floor is another level and access to and installing plumbing was going to be much easier than elsewhere.
After the temporary facilities were removed we started by installing a French ceiling to cover the steel and concrete structure we had put in place when stabilising the building.
Afterward, the walls were panelled. We decided to panel the walls to avoid damaging the existing medieval ones. The concept was that if in the future the new bathrooms were decommissioned that they could be removed without altering the integrity of the Château.
Francesco installing the panel board on the walls
Meanwhile, the walnut timber from the trees we had previously milled that had fallen in the Chateau park were prepared to make bathroom doors and base boards. Old hinges and locks were repurposed (salvaged from the 500 tonnes of rubble we removed from inside the Château before we began any work) or were found locally in antique markets.
18th Century reclaimed terracotta was sourced by James from Salvage Europe. James had visited the Château a few times and understood the restoration project and the materials required. We were able to purchase the quantity required (it was quite difficult to source enough as the room is over 70m2) and soon set about laying the flooring.
The most incredible hand-carved doors made from our walnut timber arrived soon after. We had employed a French carpenter, Michel, who lives nearby in the village of Luzenac. Suddenly the bathrooms were beginning to take shape…
Up to this point of the bathroom installation I had been working remotely from Australia, project managing by Skype! With only a 3 month tourist visa I wasn’t able to be onsite until this time. However upon arrival it was time to put some backbone into it (as my mother would have said!) and I began by helping to tile the floors and bringing in newly arrived fittings. Naturally, lifting everything into a Château (up countless steps) is heavy work!
After the tiling was finished we grouted and sealed with a satin wax…
If you are doing some home renovating yourself, just so you know tiling and grouting is seriously hard work and a back breaker!
The ceilings were then stained in a walnut wash to match the doors and base boards. And next was the most beautiful transformation - the wallpaper!
About five years ago we were introduced to a small group of ateliers in Paris who were creating handmade wallpaper in a little workshop near the Marais. They were inspired by 18th Century designs which had almost been forgotten. Now, their Atelier Antoinette Poisson has achieved great design and success, even collaborating with Gucci. Their products are truly beautiful in every way.
Inspired by the wilderness of wildflowers that grow at the Château is seemed fitting to continue a floral fashion into the bathroom design.
“Can we speak in flowers it will be easier for me to understand...”
Furthermore we discovered under layers of paint in an adjoining room, remnants of 18th Century wallpaper, very similar to designs currently being recreated by Antoinette Poisson. Under this romantic botanical spell, choices and decisions just seemed to blossom…
There are still some finishing touches needed, but somehow theses bathrooms just fit. There is an easy marriage now between the older medieval and newer neoclassic centuries and architecture.
Not everything new is always better. Wellbeing in design is a choice and at the centre of material choices, finishes, furniture and sustainable principles.
But perhaps most important of all these bathrooms are simply a temporary retreat and breath of fresh air from the normal pace of work and everyday life…
Graciously in February of this year the Historic Monuments, the French government organisation that monitors all the work we do, kindly visited the Château and sincerely gave their blessing for the work achieved.
