Restoration tips

When the London-based textiles designer Susan Deliss and her husband took on a dilapidated house in Burgundy, it possessed just one lightbulb. They undertook re-roofing, re-wiring, re-plumbing and replaced a broken concrete floor with old terracotta tommettes. ‘It’s far from Farrow & Ball perfection,’ explains Susan, ‘but it’s Burgundy, where everything is old and in gentle decline and we wanted to make it look as if it was what the French call dans son jus, so we didn’t over-restore it.’

As with any project, do source reliable tradesmen, whether they’re local or imported: ‘We found a huge stash of vodka bottles behind the guest house after the aptly named plasterers had left.’

Do think about brushing rather than rolling the walls so that you can keep the old feel and do justice to the paint colours.

Don’t forget to check with Bâtiments de France if the building is listed. One potential tip is to have the house wired using English sockets. Whoever does it needs to understand the impact of the different voltage, but it avoids the need to find endless adaptors.

Susan Deliss (07768 805850; www.susandeliss.com)