Loire Design Lab - Chapter 2: Ownership

Embracing the Unexpected

Between the summer and fall of 2023, we officially became owners of the building that would become the Loire Design Lab. The French administrative process demands patience — a slight lead time exists between an accepted offer and the moment you actually have keys in hand (about three months). So, by the time everything was finalized and we were back in the US that fall, we found ourselves already dreaming up all the possibilities for restoring and renovating this little limestone beauty on the banks of the Loire River.

When we returned to France to kick off 2024, our excitement was palpable. We arrived with multiple floor plans in hand, shuffling spaces around and exploring how best to optimize this 800-square-foot building that spans three levels. Every sketch, every idea, was a step closer to realizing the potential we saw in the space.

But the real challenge lay in figuring out how to breathe new life into this 150+ year-old home while preserving its architectural integrity and transforming it into MAREDI Design’s French living showroom. Much of the original character had long since been stripped away, so our work began with piecing together the story of the house. Its compact nature meant embracing small living-an approach that felt especially fitting for a design lab.

With decades of patchwork renovations to peel back, we imagined the treasures we might uncover (full disclosure: Dijana’s dream is to someday find a time capsule hidden deep within the walls of a restoration project). Even before finalizing the floor plans, we agreed to make certain exceptions and design modifications if we uncovered any exciting relics from the past (hint hint). So we got to work with with our exploration, opening bits of the walls across each level.

And because any good story needs an interesting an unexpected twist, here's the first one for the Loire Design Lab. An important bit of the backstory, which will soon become relevant: after purchasing the house, we learned it was originally part of a much larger home that had been divided into four separate residences nearly a century ago. This explained the shared interior courtyard, which we envisioned transforming into an elevated terrace overlooking the river. For now, though, it served as the neighbor’s only access to her home next door-and, as it turned out, her stir-crazy pitbull’s personal domain.

This revelation instantly raised the stakes for the project, but as quickly as the challenge appeared, it resolved itself. The neighbor was moving, and word soon reached us that the owner was looking to sell (the beauty of village life, where news travels with the wind). Suddenly, we found ourselves in the process of acquiring the property next door, privatizing the courtyard for the Loire Design Lab, and expanding our plans and possibilities…

How about that for an unexpected twist?!