Heather Chontos’s restless verve is writ large all over her paintings.
Photography by Heather Chontos (@hchontos).
The stone farmhouse dates from the 18th century and is linked to a vast 17th century stone barn, both of which had long been uninhabited and were in grim condition: “the furniture was covered in mold and there were holes in the walls; the rooms felt like caves.”
Buying a house in France is an extended process and Heather didn’t move in until the very start of the pandemic.
A courtyard and terrace lead to the front door.
And she found old paper rolls of antique cotton canvas and just about just about everything else she needed such as pots and pans at a local vintage emporium called La Cavern d’Ali Baba
They made everything okay they do house clearances and the owners son would call and say we have some furniture we re going to throw out but I think you d like it I loved it
Heather and her younger daughter, Zana, eat most of their meals on the front terrace during the warm months. Cody, Heather’s oldest, is a graduate student in landscape ecology in Sweden.
The kitchen and dining area are right off the entry.
Heather tackled the majority of the house’s updates herself: “I don’t do plumbing, but I’ve learned to wire and hang, and you’ll see me up on the roof.”
Heather built her kitchen cabinets and shelves and put an old zinc wash bucket to work as the sink.
To bring more light into the kitchen, Heather cut an interior window that opens to the living room.
“Why would I want something everyone else has? Everyone needs to learn to use what they have and to stop buying things.”
A vase that Heather purchased in Morocco stands in the living room cut-out next to a wall she brightened pigment and hung with paintings in found frames.
The living room’s doctored Ikea sofa is just about the only piece found in the house that Heather kept: I held onto the cushion and rebuilt the frame.
I painted it with acrylic inks they work fine She also painted the stump side table I decided the color was off and should be ocher I spend my time...
...trying to balance color Heather commissioned the stair to her bedroom what was here was awful but she ended up relocating it herself and has since added a driftwood banister
A petite desk with an Italian Tyrolean milking chair is positioned next to a second interior window in the living room. The homemade trellis surrounds a second stair leading down to the street level bedrooms.
A fresh pine wall in the downstairs guest room.
Heather is happy with the green on the floor and door (newly detailed with a cat door).
To disguise the bathroom’s existing pedestal sink base, Heather created a sink station out of an old table.
Heather’s bedroom is in the attic loft—in their first months in the house, she and Luis slept downstairs in front of the fire—”as was customary in these houses”—and this space was Heather’s studio, hence the remnants on the floor.
Heather created her stone tile collection using leftovers from the bathroom floor and oil stick: “I like putting my mark on anything that feels right.” To see more of her work, go to Heather Chontos.