A Basque country house with a tactile interior filled with antiques and eye-catching fabrics
First and foremost, Cristina Lozano and Lorenzo Castillo are friends. Their professional relationship – Lorenzo as one of Spain’s pre-eminent interior designers and Cristina as his client – is born out of this friendship and has led to their collaboration on several projects, with more in the pipeline.
‘We are like twin creative souls,’ says Lorenzo of Cristina. ‘We both have an uncontrollable passion for antiques and contemporary art, and for fashioning beauty.’ Naturally, Cristina’s house in Saint-Jean-de- Luz proved to be the perfect canvas for the pair to indulge their creative instincts to the full.
Growing up, Cristina spent much of her time in the town on the Atlantic seaboard of south-west France – her Basque heritage from her mother’s side, coursing through her veins. ‘My mother was born in Bilbao, but spent many years in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, particularly during the Spanish Civil War,’ she explains. ‘She now lives here, as does my sister, so even though my main home is in Madrid, my heart is here. These are my roots and I feel very connected to the area.’
Family was the driving force behind her decision to upscale from a smaller holiday house in the town to this larger one, providing enough space to accommodate plenty of friends as well as her husband, Juan, and their three sons. ‘I love to entertain,’ says Cristina, who appears to be never happier than when the house is overflowing with guests. It is not unusual, she tells me, to find every one of the 17 beds, divided among seven bedrooms, occupied by family and friends.
A typical Basque baserri, with a half-timbered façade, gently sloping roofs, shuttered windows and an arched entrance portal, the house had been abandoned in the 1920s and was a wreck when Cristina first saw it. While she was toying with the idea of buying another, less challenging property nearby, Lorenzo came to call. He instantly recognised the potential of such ‘noble architecture’ and promised that together they would be able to create the perfect family house.
Though local planning laws are strict for exterior alterations (particularly with regards to an acceptable colour palette), the original interior did not have to be retained. So spaces have been remodelled to ensure that the house works as well off-season as it does in the summer, when the family try to spend at least two months together. The warmer, cosier drawing room and dining room upstairs come into their own in spring and autumn. In the summer, the focus tends to shift downstairs and outside, principally to the garden-level wraparound veranda that is divided into a series of areas, designed to follow the course of the midday and afternoon sun before it drops into the sea at sunset.
‘I don’t understand space – my perception is all about texture, colour, pattern and decoration,’ says Cristina, explaining how she relies on Lorenzo to translate her requests into reality. The designer, who began his career as an antique dealer, describes his style as a ‘fresh update on classicism’, often featuring a mix of fabrics, furniture and decorative objects sourced all over the world. ‘There are no rules – you educate your eye with experience.’
As with all their projects, Lorenzo and Cristina trawled flea markets and antique shops together, frequently developing the design of a room around a specific purchase. For example, the carved wooden chimneypiece in the drawing room and the oversized rattan lampshade in the dining room – found in a Parisian antique shop and market – became signature features around which the schemes took shape.
Where Lorenzo and Cristina are concerned, nothing is simple, nothing is bland. Colour and pattern sing in every room; eye-catching fabrics collude and collide; books, lamps, plates, birds, shells and flowers populate shelves and tables, walls and floors. No space feels unloved or unthought through.
Lorenzo has used many of his designs for the textile studio Gastón y Daniela in the wallcoverings, rugs, upholstery and curtains. Cristina has indulged her passion for the fabrics of Nathalie Farman-Farma at Décors Barbares. Both acknowledge a love of English country-house style. The look they have created in this house has provided inspiration for another of their recent projects – a real gem of a hotel in the heart of Menorca’s capital, Mahón. This is the first opening for the Cristine Bedfor guesthouse brand, which is due to expand to include sites in Málaga and Seville. The latter promises to be another Lorenzo and Cristina collaborative extravaganza.
Cristina is passionate about her love for this house and its sensational location overlooking the ocean in a quiet, residential neighbourhood of the French seaside town. ‘What we enjoy most is the weather, the food, the surfing, the hiking and all the other endless outdoor activities on our doorstep,’ she says. ‘It’s the perfect place for making memories’.
Lorenzo Castillo: lorenzocastillo.org
Daniel Schafer1/11This typical half-timbered Basque baserri has been given a fresh, contemporary look with woodwork painted in pale grey ‘Cornforth White’ providing a subtle contrast with the façade in ‘All White’, both by Farrow & Ball. The spacious balcony and wraparound veranda below offer inviting seating areas that make the most of the light at different times of day
Daniel Schafer2/11The 19th-century oak chimneypiece and overmantel mirror – carved with shells, crabs, fish and marine miscellany – came from a Paris antiques shop on the Rive Gauche. It provides an exquisite focal point for a 1950s sofa upholstered in a Ralph Lauren floral, teamed with a marble coffee table. A Phillip Jeffries wallcovering is the background for lights and ceramic parrots, both from Gaztelur antiques in Arcangues, above a banquette with cushions in a mix of Gastón y Daniela fabrics. The stools, also in a Gastón y Daniela print, were designed by Lorenzo using a chestnut bark trellis handmade in Asturias, Spain
Daniel Schafer3/11Walls and units in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Chappell Green’ echo the garden, while wooden fish bought in Sicily and a rattan pendant light give it a charmingly rustic look
Daniel Schafer4/11The tongue-and-groove ceiling in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Light Blue’ sets off a raffia wallcovering from Phillip Jeffries. Chairs are softened by cushions in ‘Olympus’ in chartreuse blue by No.9 Thompson.
Daniel Schafer5/11Verre églomisé wall panels made by Arantxa Hergueta create an atmospheric backdrop for a large rattan ceiling light and bamboo chairs picked up at Parisian marchés aux puces. The marble-topped dining table is from El Rastro flea market in Madrid
Daniel Schafer6/11Walls in ‘Carrera’ by Zoffany showcase sculptural headboards covered in ‘Truffle’ in sap green, which tones with bedcovers in ‘Gingko Trail’ in winter rocket, both by Sanderson.
Daniel Schafer7/11An earthy scheme is established with a raffia wallcovering from Lorenzo’s own collection and bed bases in a Sanderson print.
Daniel Schafer8/11‘Varykino’ by Décors Barbares on the walls, bedcover, chair and lampshades – on a palm-leaf chandelier from Gaztelur – is complemented by a headboard in Lorenzo’s ‘Santianes’ velvet for Gastón y Daniela in a sage green.
Daniel Schafer9/11Panels from Carina Casanovas antiques in Madrid are displayed either side of an elaborate antique escritoire sourced by Lorenzo
Daniel Schafer10/11Ralph Lauren’s ‘Homeport Novelty’ wallpaper contrasts with the pale tongue and groove surrounding a raised built-in bed, cleverly designed to maximise the available space
Daniel Schafer11/11With walls and blinds in Gastón y Daniela’s ‘Calobra’ stripe in agua, a chandelier from an antique shop in the Cotswolds, a rolltop bath and bespoke basin stands and mirrors, this has an elegant country-house feel
