View Gallery
For most expats, living the French dream typically translates to a place in Paris or Provence, but for a British couple who live Stateside, it was Tournon-d’Agenais—a tiny, fortified medieval village in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of southwestern France—that struck a chord. Maybe it was the town’s location, perched as it is like a crown on a hilltop with views for miles of the valley below. Or possibly it was the genius of 13th-century French urban planning: Limestone houses built over arched stone arcades ring a central square, where residents routinely gather to socialize and do their shopping. For a town of merely 1,000 people, Tournon-d’Agenais is a vital place. In other words, it is a place to look both inward and out.
Minimalist forms feel of a piece with the 16th-century architecture. A mixed-media collage by Richard Giglio and Room & Board center table create stark contrast against the whitewashed front entry hall.
Francesco Lagnese
Belgian linen curtains with French metallic embroidered passementerie flank the front door.
Francesco Lagnese
An existing half-timber and brick wall separates the powder room just off the entry.
Francesco Lagnese“You see the wonderful patchwork of farms in the landscape beyond the village walls and get to meet the most interesting people in the square. It knocks your socks off,” says designer John Dransfield, who was enlisted for the project after its owners—existing clients he’d worked with on two previous homes—attended the opening party for his boutique, Pottersville and Main, in Gladstone, New Jersey. “The wife said she wanted her house in France to look like the shop,” Dransfield recalls.
Said house, a series of three 16th-century dwellings cobbled together in a way that gives it the scale of a castle, had what Dransfield describes as an “ecclesiastic feel.” Though the couple appreciated the two-foot-thick limestone walls, Gothic arches, and heavy oak beams, taken together, they added up to dark and gloomy rooms. “My goal was to lighten it up and make it bright and pretty,” says the designer.
The dining room is filled with unexpected objects, like the pair of Vietnamese fish traps that were turned into pendant lights and an American antique grain bin that acts as a sideboard.
Francesco Lagnese
The clients collect works by Delhi- and Goa-based photographer Rohit Chawla; one of them hangs above an Ethnicraft table and chairs in the breakfast nook.
Francesco Lagnese
“I wanted minimalist cabinetry to contrast with the textured stone walls in the kitchen,” says Dransfield, who used a sleek set by Poliform. “It’s streamlined, but there’s a place to store everything.”
Francesco LagneseThe austere facade on the street side of the house, which remained untouched, offers no hints of the magic beyond its front door. Inside, Dransfield managed to create the low-maintenance, serene home his clients wanted without compromising its essence. “My clients wanted light and air, and the obvious way to achieve that is to knock down walls and change windows, which, of course, we were not about to do,” he says. “Every room has windows that pull you to views of the valley. Those views haven’t changed. They’re like framed works of art.” (In fact, those views are among the reasons that Tournon-d’Agenais has been deemed one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France—or The Most Beautiful Villages of France—a designation assigned to tiny rural French villages where a rich cultural heritage prevails.)
The guest room boasts “the best view in the house”; the side table is 19th-century English Arts and Crafts.
Francesco Lagnese
Dransfield outfitted the room with custom seating, vintage lighting, and a pair of Thai rain drums that double as coffee tables. “People are so hesitant to paint dark wood,” says Dransfield, “but it transformed this house.”
Francesco LagneseAnd so Dransfield began by using one of a decorator’s most reliable weapons—a coat of white paint. He bathed the whole place in Farrow & Ball’s Skimming Stone, “which mimics limestone so perfectly. It transformed the house,” says Dransfield. While it took guts to suggest painting over centuries-old oak beams, he admits—“It’s very atypical in a traditional French house, but all of that darkness overhead just weighed down the rooms”—he didn’t erase them entirely, leaving the ceilings untouched in the dining room, kitchen, and primary bedroom to maintain a sense of warmth and rusticity.
Respect for the home’s bones didn’t stop Dransfield from doing a little shuffling within its walls, either. The original kitchen, now a minimal, pretty breakfast room, was too small to suit his clients, who cook every day with ingredients from markets around
the region. What was once the grand dining room is now a cook’s dream, fitted out in sleek, cool Poliform cabinetry that makes for a striking contrast to the stone walls and floors.
In the upstairs sitting room, a side table from Dransfield’s shop, Pottersville and Main, mimics the shape of the carved limestone window seats. Vintage chair, Laurin Copen Antiques.
Francesco Lagnese
An engineered stone vanity with chrome Dornbracht fixtures floats in the center of the primary bathroom. The back wall is lined with simple flat cabinets; the other walls are coated in tadelakt, a traditional Moroccan lime plaster with a soft sheen and waterproof finish.
Francesco Lagnese
Soft linen bedcurtains and bedding strikes a textural contrast with the bedroom’s stone walls.
Francesco LagneseDransfield was equally untethered to tradition when it came to furnishing the 4,000-square-foot home. The clients are inveterate travelers, and their tastes run global: There are handwoven rugs from Morocco, pendants made from Vietnamese fish traps, French and American midcentury furniture and lighting, Belgian linens, and a collection of photographs by Indian artist Rohit Chawla hanging throughout the house. Here, with those hefty arches and breathtaking views stealing all the attention, their differences are barely discernible. This is a home as sure of itself as its 500-year-old walls. It doesn’t get any more French than that.
Dransfield left most of the house’s centuries-old façade untouched.
Francesco Lagnese
Archie, the clients’ English Springer Spaniel, surveys the courtyard just off the breakfast room.
Francesco Lagnese
The house overlooks Tournon-d’Agenais, a small village that dates back to 1270.
Francesco LagneseTHIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 18 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
