brocante; vide-grenier Archives

Before and After Renovation: Living Room

September 2, 2016 by ashleyt 9 Comments

Here are a few pictures of the before and after renovation of our living room. Can you believe the difference? The locals are, unfortunately for us, still so curious that I’m often confronted with a face pressed against our window… But thankfully, everyone seems impressed.

Next we’d love to renovate an enormous Provencal farmhouse with a pool, large rose garden and olive orchard…haha Maybe when we win the lottery. For now, if you need any help in the area- Robin is available starting in October.

The Before and After:

Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the wood fire stove as it was dangerously installed. I’m told they work really well. We still don’t have any heating installed; Robin seems to think he’d like to see how cold it gets first. Ha! Spoken like a true Brit. I told him to prepare himself for a grumpy partner if he doesn’t get on it!

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Renovation in Provence: Bedroom Reveal!!

August 8, 2016 by ashleyt 12 Comments

Well, it’s missing some art on the walls, and a few finishing touches. This is the result of the upstairs room from our renovation in Provence.

Behold the Bedroom Reveal! Voila!

I just love the stairs.

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Renovation in Provence: Living Room Reveal!!

August 3, 2016 by ashleyt 10 Comments

Renovation Reveal. We still haven’t hung any art yet! Soon. Notice we kept some of the blue on the ceiling.

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Renovation in Provence: Kitchen Reveal!

August 2, 2016 by ashleyt 35 Comments

Home Renovation in Provence

These images don’t do the final result justice; everything is also not quite done. However, here is the first version of our almost finished home in Provence. After 8 months of renovation, and with the limited budget and awkward dimensions we had to work with, I’m quite impressed! I never expected our first home to be so beautiful, especially before we hauled out all the old junk that used to be in it. Now it’s away in dumpsters hauled away – it was fairly easy to get the dumpster dimensions we needed to fit near enough to make it easy – out of our home and out of our hassle. And just look at the results! I am so grateful to my man. Bravo Robin!

The Kitchen Reveal

This is what you see when you walk into the house from the front door.

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Renovation in Provence: Garden Transformation

August 1, 2016 by ashleyt 22 Comments

Our Tiny Village House in Provence

This tiny garden of ours has endured quite a lot since we started renovating last December. There’s been so much debris, stones, machinery, and all sorts to the point where we often could barely get in and out! It’s not much to work with, but I think it’s improved enormously. People unashamedly peer over our fence to tell us our little garden is charming all the time. There is still so much that we want to do to this garden, like build a pond. We’ve even started looking into Nymphaea Pygmaea water lilies and how much goldfishes would be ready for when the pond is ready. Still got a while to go before this can happen, but if it best to be prepared. Renovating this garden has been a challenge, but we are proud of how far we’ve come. Here are some images of the garden transformation of our renovation in Provence.

The original garden, photo taken from front door of house. There were various ‘sheds’, one with an enormous oil tank, taking up half of the already minuscule garden, which I eventually wanted to use the space for teak garden furniture UK products.

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Reno in Provence: Bedroom/Bathroom Transformation

August 1, 2016 by ashleyt 4 Comments

Our tiny house is an awkward triangular shape. This is most evident in the upstairs room and the kitchen. Basically, anywhere you would need to put a large rectangular object– like a bed! Everything has been a compromise to make the space appear bigger as well as functional. Here is some of the bedroom and bathroom transformation from the last 8 months of our renovation in Provence.

The original back wall complete with tiny bathroom and closet. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to use the best electric shower we can get or go for a different option, but what we did know is that we wanted to install the bathroom where the closet was in order to make use of the small window, or ‘fenestron,’ there that looks out onto Les Alpilles.

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Reno in Provence: Living Room Transformation

July 30, 2016 by ashleyt 5 Comments

Here are some photos of the rather drastic living room transformation after 8 months of renovation in our tiny provencal home. It seems like a lot went on, which it did, but it was defininely worth it. It’s getting there. I just cant wait to see the finished results and finally get to add furniture and decor. Imagine how comfortable this place will be in the winter, especially with all the rugs! Tune in next week for the reveal!

The Orginal Room

The original (after we ripped a bit off the wall). That is a rather lot of wood.

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Sneak Peak of our Reno Reveal…

July 4, 2016 by ashleyt 5 Comments

Reno Reveal Coming Soon…

The past few weeks have been wild as we’ve been rushing to get the house done for a certain television show that filmed our house today. More on that later…

The villagers are so curious that I’m thinking we should just have an open house to quench their curiosity. Thank goodness we now have curtains! Yesterday, a couple let themselves into our courtyard and pressed themselves up against the window as we stared back at them in disbelief. Robin was only wearing underwear in the kitchen. The woman saw us looking at her and she just kept pointing to the roof and garden most likely in an effort to hide her embaressment. Unbelievable.

There’s still a lot to do but things are starting to look, I must say, absolutely fabulous. During the next few weeks, I’ll be posting more (I promise) about the immense progress we’ve made. For now, here’s a sneak peak…

See more about Our Renovation in Provence.

Vintage Parisian Postcards

November 23, 2015 by ashleyt 2 Comments

A Curious Find: Vintage Parisian Postcards

I was at the Carpentras flea market a couple weeks ago and came upon this 1920s album. I couldn’t help myself when I saw that the book was being sold with vintage Parisian postcards as well. These evocative images of Parisian architecture are wonderful!

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Antique Markets in Provence: Vide Grenier vs Brocante

May 18, 2015 by ashleyt 24 Comments

Antique markets in Provence

If you’re a fan of shabby chic décor then you’ve probably heard of the term brocante either in magazines or Pinterest photos. What you don’t hear very often in Anglophone circles is the term vide grenier. Antique markets in Provence are not all created equal…

Brocante Isle sur la Sorgue vintage ice cream cart

Vintage ice cream cart at the International Isle sur la Sorgue Brocante

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