When we looked for a house on the Cote d´Azur, there were only two possible choices we had. Buying a very modern house, which is at the moment a very sought after style or buying something old and rundown with some authentic features and the need to improve and create a direction in style.
The so-called Bauhaus style is what I observe very often when houses are of a newer date or being built not only in France but also in Germany. It was created by the German Walter Gropius who after years of a rather opulent style in architecture and art created in the beginning of the 20th century a trend of timeless simplicity. New materials such as steel, glass and concrete were the elements of the new style. With cubic buildings and shapes like boxes this design is more than 100 years old but still very much en vogue.
On the other hand, France is a traditionally rural country. For many centuries rural houses determined the character and onlook of the landscape. These houses were geared towards the situation and needs of the rural population: Materials used where the natural stone which is abundantly available to create thick walls for isolation and keep out heat. Wooden beams as structure and in shutters to shelter from wind and heat and roofs covered by red brick tiles made locally (since the 12th century France was one of the leading centers of brick production). This is the traditional provencal French mas.
I always wanted the latter.
I own a large collection of books about the provencal French country style and I am also an avid Pinterest user. There are many answers to the question of what the style entails. I believe that when it comes to style there is no rule book. Style is a lot about personality, upbringing and what you feel comfortable with. But I believe that there are some essentials to a style and what I think is most important is that it should always inspire and please the people that live with it. I enjoy living with old furniture, vintage household goods, antique things that show some wear and tear and character. I believe this is why I like the French country style. It includes exactly this.
And I believe there are some centerpiece furniture that are a must have for a provencal mas.
One is a large Vaisselier. This is a large storage cupboard showing and displaying tableware/ china.
So it was clear from the very beginning that I would need to have a vaisselier. And I knew early on what it should look like. We did not change much of the layout of the house. The biggest change was to partition off a room from the salon/ living room, which created a large niche of 3,5 m width which was the perfect space for the vaisselier in my head.
My practical husband made me promise that we would store all our dishes in the kitchen close by the dishwasher and the dining table. For an practically orientated human being e.g. an engineer it is out of the question to cross a room to reach the final storage space for dishes used everyday.
I was happy with that. My vaisselier would hold my prospective collection of soupieres, ter de ferre tableware, vintage wine glasses and provide space for the bar.
So step by step this vasselier took form and shape in my fantasy. A beautiful antique piece, showing signs of use and age but elegant, tall and exactly fitting the space I had.
I casually started looking for such a piece of furniture. Every now and then I would take the opportunity to pass antique dealers in Isle sur la Sorgue. I would check antique sites which offer Swedish Gustavian furniture. I even asked a carpenter for a made to measure piece. Nothing was affordable or fit the needed measures.
So time passed, there was still the carpenter in the back of my mind with a newly produced vaisselier. It was not the best solution but a fall-back option.
I am sure you have passed the do it yourself descriptions on Pinterest or seen other features of people that make over furniture.
Do it yourself makeover has become very popular as a cheap opportunity to create exactly what is desired. It is passed off as easy and the ideal solution to create an individual style.
I very much like to paint and I am a patient worker. I bought and redid 12 old chairs that are made in a very traditional German style. The German name is: Walzenstühle. They have turned wooden elements and old wicker seating and were traditionally built in the late 19th century. I chose very simple models and painted them white, leaving the sitting and the backrest in the natural color of the weave. They are a commodity, very cheap but comfortable and fit right in.
So when I discovered a completely ugly Mahagoni book case, made from solid wood and with very nice old window panes on EBay that fit the niche perfectly, I slept one night and then decided I would have the courage to turn this piece into exactly what I was looking for. I bought it cheaply, it was delivered to our German house already disassembled and it sat in our basement waiting for a delivery to France jointly with other pieces.
It arrived in France finally late in summer and I chose to use a summer vacation to go hiking during the daytime and work in the afternoon on the vasselier to be.
I chose the apartment as a working space covering up the dining table to slowly prepare the furniture.
I removed door locks, hinges, anything metal in the way. I carefully masked off the glass areas with tape. I had bought the eco-friendly varnish that was used in the house on all the old wooden beams, to tint them.
But there would be many hours of work ahead of me sanding the furniture with a machine and with sanding paper before painting could even start.
Today all these afternoons of careful sanding, my aching back and all the fine sanding dust in my nostrils and all over my body are long forgotten. But boy did I curse the mahagoni. It makes a deep reddish and very visible sanding dust. I ruined a vacuum cleaner when I reocurringly vacuumed the floor and the wooden parts.
The sanding seemed to take an eternity and it made me very happy when I was finally able to start the painting process. As said, I enjoy painting very much and I was slowly progressing to a point where the final outcome came day by day a little bit closer. The pieces had to be painted with a minimum of three layers inside and outside. And it usually took the night for the varnish to dry. So once I had reached the painting phase I would alternately paint an hour in the morning and then all afternoon to progress.
All the pieces of the vaisselier were painted and finished by the end of my summer break. I was deeply satisfied with my accomplishment.
I was very excited when Christmas approached and a return to France was planned, it took the handy attendance of my husband and two people to assemble the old furniture in our living room. In the meantime almost two years had passed since I had acquired the old piece and received an oral description of how to assemble the furniture.
But a few hours later we had succeeded and put my vaisselier into its place. It fit perfectly. We only had not anticipated that due to the height of the furniture of almost 230m the stability would suffer. We did need to fixate the vasselier with a special invisible construction to the wall to make sure it could not tumble. We were hoping to do that with several screws through the back of the vasselier and into the wall. But it was soon clear that we were not able to drill a hole into the wall and meet the hole through the vasselier.
We would need to attach the vasselier left and right to the wall to make sure it stays in its spot.
It took some more debating and discussion to come up with the final solution of how to fix the vasselier. In the meantime we could not insert the shelves which would pose additional weight and get in the way before the vasselier was fixed to the wall. So ot was spring of the next year when finally the vasselier was stabilized and I could arrange the shelves.
This turned out to be another lengthy puzzle to determine the optimal space between shelves, always keeping the functionality design in mind.
My neighbor had to assist with a small electrical saw because we would not get everything into place as it was some years before.
The recollection of all this serves just two important messages:
It is possible to get what you want if you have a vision, stay determined and pull it through. My vassellier looks better than any of the horrifically expensive pieces I have seen at antique dealers and it comes for peanuts and my sweat and determination.
The value I attribute to this memorable piece of furniture can not be paid in money. I enjoy looking at it everyday. It has and still gives me pure joy to fill it up and make it look like the Pinterest objects I once saved in my collection.
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