Whether working on a wheel, building from slabs or shaping from coils, creating forms from clay is an earthy business. And the home ceramicist Justine Hay de Slade and her husband, Jean, have fashioned from a cluster of time-worn structures in France’s Haute Saintonge region seems a perfect reflection of the labor-inflected life they lead. (As Plutarch said, “No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and Fortune.”) While neither is from this area – Justine was raised in the Dordogne, and Jean hails from Brittany – they fell in love with Haute Saintonge on their first visit 15 years ago. The property they now call home is situated on the edge of a small village with the open countryside right outside their garden gate. Once owned by a farming family, it comprises several buildings built in the 19th century (with bits dating to the 16th century), all in sad shape when the couple came upon them. Occupied but badly neglected – lacking the standard conveniences – the place required a major commitment to make it truly habitable. “Just cleaning out the buildings was a gigantic task. You had to be very organized and physically fit,” describes Justine, whose company is called Epure. “Plus, we had our business to run and a one-year-old baby to care for.”
The two decided to make the smaller structure their house and the larger one Justine’s studio. The former was barely standing, so they opted to simply save the stone foundation and erect a board-and-batten cottage atop it. “It is like a fisherman’s hut we had lived in at Cap Ferret,” notes Justine.
When it came to converting the limestone-clad main house into a studio, Justine and Jean exercised a light touch, even preserving some of the worn walls. While they turned to professionals for plumbing, electric and roofing, Jean and his father did much of the work themselves, installing new windows and doors and breaking down walls to open the space up. The existing kitchen was made over as an enameling room, and the upper floor was retrofitted as an office and a salon-like living/reception room in which to meet with customers.
“For this project, we wanted to keep as many of the existing elements as possible,” shares Justine, “and reuse them to retain the soul of the house. Old boards have been repurposed for benches, shelves and kitchen cupboards.” She and Jean are now in the process of turning the adjacent stable into a guest house they have christened Le Nid (the nest) for the resident swallows.
Living above – or beside – the shop isn’t for everyone. But Justine and Jean wouldn’t have it any other way. “The atmosphere of the house is very different from that of the studio, which allows us to maintain a division between work and daily life,” remarks Justine. “But work is integral to our lives, and we like having the studio close by. Our daughter Alma often joins us there, and she can see that creating is a way of life.”
Photography by Sylvie Becquet.
Like what you see? Get it first with a subscription to aspire design and home magazine.