What is it about the French that they’re able to make how they look and live utterly effortless? There’s a nonchalance to it that is part of their very-established visual culture. Number 2 Orchard Terrace is a three-bedroom period redbrick with oodles of that “je ne sais quoi”. It is a house with stylish French polish yet feels homey, in a good way.
The property is owned by a pair of Parisian aristocrats, Eleonore de Prunele and Thierry de Wavrechin, whose own backgrounds have influenced its look. But they live there with their sons so the property is very much a family home.
They bought the house in 2017 when it came to market in the spring asking €490,000. It sold in September for €497,000, according to the Property Price Register.
The property already had great form thanks to the renovation works done by a previous owner, architect Lionel French. He opened up the reception rooms and cleverly put the bathroom into the attic, where it enjoys plenty of privacy, natural light and space.
When the Parisians bought the property the attic bathroom had a timber panelled ceiling. They brought in interior designer and fellow City of Lights citizen, Amandine de Charentenay, to help with the interior design.
Now the bathroom is floored in a tile and timber parquet mix and given a lightest of touch, all-white treatment, save for the sky blue-coloured bath.
The reception rooms are now accessed via the dining room, which overlooks the back yard and has some early industrial lighting. An opening leads through to the living room where bare filament bulbs hang from cable lengths found in Industry & Co to to form a chandelier, and a skull and antler trophy is of a deer that the owner shot while hunting in Normandy.
Beautiful tooled leather books fill the shelving they added to the property’s alcoves. These belonged to Eleonore’s grandfather, a renowned book collector René Hayaux du Tilly. On one shelf is a book that documents the work of explorer Louis Delaporte, her great, great grandfather.
A mustard sofa extends almost the length of the room and matches the original upholstery of a low-seated Edwardian chaufeuse, or fireside chair, that belonged to her grandmother.
The kitchen is small and likely where the next owner will want to do some work. It is currently set at two levels and is dual aspect, but as is it’s a space for prepping and chopping not hanging out with the rest of the family. It opens out to a yard paved in a similar style of black and terracotta tile to the quarry tiles in the back hall.
The yard is stepped up to an area with vehicular rear access where you could park one car off-street. It’s also great for bringing bikes in.
Up on the return is the first of the three bedrooms. It’s a charming space that is now a home office with a mezzanine level under its eaves. This area is painted Farrow & Ball’s De Nimes, the same cocooning shade that covers the interior of the living room book shelves and below the wainscoting in the hall.
Storage
There’s plenty of storage here, hidden behind built-in white MDF floor to ceiling units with leather pulls.
On the first floor there are two good double bedrooms. The kids have the run of the bigger room to the front.
While there is a guest w.c under the stairs, the main bathroom is the attic room accessed via a spiral staircase. It’s a gorgeous room that sybarites will love taking a soak in, while looking up at the clouds.
The D1 BER-rated property measures about 92 sq m /990sq ft, excluding 10sq m/114sq ft in the attic bathroom, and is seeking €550,000 through agents DNG.
