A dream seaside house on Cap Ferret revived

The English buyers of a dilapidated, seaside house on Cap Ferret knew how they wanted to use it. A collaboration that included a local and a London architect resulted in their perfect holiday retreat

Opening out beyond the staircase is a large, light kitchen and dining area. ‘The owners gave us a very clear sense of how their holidays worked and we knew there needed to be space for mountains of seafood to arrive and for everyone to join in preparing it,’ says Jonathan. So the long kitchen island has the quality of a seafood bar, as much as that of a kitchen work surface, enabling everyone to gather round. The original intention was that the island would be zinc, like the terrace awning Guy had designed, but it proved difficult to havemade, so stainless steel was used instead. For both the staircase and the island, Jonathan’s office made models that were sent out to Guy so that he could fully visualise what Jonathan was after.

The kitchen, handmade by Devon-based furniture maker James Verner, was designed to be robust and forgiving of holiday life and sandy feet. ‘Hinges are exposed and the drawers are oak boxes in an oak frame; there are no soft-closing drawers,’ Jonathan points out. It needed to age well, hence the rough bandsawn finish of both the kitchen units and the floor. It could not be simpler in many ways, yet it is totally bespoke; in the pantry, which opens off the kitchen, there are special sloping shelves designed to hold crates of fresh peaches from the market, and boxes lined with linen that can store up to ten loaves of bread. Jonathan has added light-hearted touches such as the clock hanging from the kitchen ceiling and the way the floorboards appear to climb up the wall, giving the impression of a tidemark.


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The Villa Isabelle that exists today is the fruit of a perhaps unlikely but remarkably successful collaboration between the owners, a local architect/builder and a London-based architect – each contributing their thoughtful and original ideas. The house has the appearance of having been designed, but in a low-key, utterly relaxed way. At Easter or the summer holidays it is a house that expands – the owners have three children and plenty of extended family and friends. Cars are abandoned in favour of bicycles and boats, and time is spent reading in hammocks, eating en masse at the long wooden table on the terrace, or enjoying a drink on the raised platform in the garden – designed by Guy - which allows views of the dunes as the sun goes down.

To rent Villa Isabelle, contact Private Properties Abroad: www.ppaproperties.com
Jonathan Tuckey Design: www.jonathantuckey.com