Savvy flea-market finds, heritage wallpapers and contemporary accents blend seamlessly in this grand yet charming home in the Bordeaux countryside
FEATURE DOMINIQUE CORLETT PHOTOGRAPHS GAP INTERIORS/JULIEN FERNANDEZ
A Fine
Approaching the north entrance to Isabelle Hommais’ grand home in the Médoc countryside, near Bordeaux, it’s easy to see how she and her husband, Benoît, were captivated by the place. Nestled among a patchwork of vineyards, the property was built at the end of the 19th century to house the owners of the wine-growing estate. While the fields of vines no longer belong to the property, they make an idyllic setting for the four-bedroom home and its acre and a half of orchard, garden and terraces.
Walking towards the house through grassland and trees, you might pass a horse from the neighbouring stables peacefully grazing before you cross a narrow bridge over a trickling stream and head through a pair of decorative wrought-iron gates. As your feet meet the gravel of the courtyard, the elegant, symmetrical limestone façade of the house appears in its full glory.
If the outside charms weren’t enough to convince the would-be house-hunter, then stepping through the double doors into the huge north hallway, with its original handmade cement floor tiles, would surely clinch the deal. In fact, this is exactly what persuaded Isabelle and Benoît – who had already been charmed by the stream and the bridge – that this was the house for them when they first viewed it.
‘We were looking for a house not necessarily with a lot of rooms, but with spacious rooms,’ says Isabelle. ‘And the cement-tiled floor immediately attracted us.’ The couple were moving with their two sons, Gustave and Basile, (aged five and six at the time) from Rouen, Normandy, following Benoît’s transfer to Bordeaux with his job as a lawyer, and were excited by the chance of living in the countryside, close to the sea.
Like her husband, Isabelle originally worked as a solicitor, but when she had her children she gave up her job to spend more time with them. Slowly, alongside her parenting duties, and following her passion for sourcing vintage and antiques, she built up an online business called My Old Papers, selling paintings, prints and rolls of wallpaper. This put her in the per
