New Provençal-Inspired Estate in Louisiana by TS Adams

Lafayette, Louisiana, is not the South of France, but it certainly feels like it is, at this Provençal French estate designed by Atlanta-based TS Adams Studio, Architects. Situated on the banks of the Vermillion River, the three-story, 9,225-square-foot home is a love letter to Provence, to which the homeowners have traveled for many years.

“We really wanted to reflect that architecture, landscape, details, and proportions throughout the project,” says Tim Adams, AIA, the firm’s founder and owner.

Provençal architecture, reflected in such details as the home’s symmetrical façade and low-pitched roof, assures that the design concept is rooted in history but livable for today.

The house was made even more authentic by the homeowners’ vast collection of French antiques and reclaimed architectural pieces, from doors to roof tiles, that they’d assembled over the years and have incorporated into the home’s design.

For Adams, adding these antique elements brought an incredible authenticity to the home and provided him with an exciting challenge: creating a seamless look and feeling between the old and the new.

“As an architect, you don’t always get the opportunity to bring [clients] into a design, so that was just
a pure joy,” Adams says.

The house was designed and built from the ground up—the homeowners had demolished an existing home that was on the property—so, for inspiration, Adams used photos of a Provençal home-turned-inn that the homeowners loved. From there, he dove into the details of Provençal architecture, which is reflected in details like the building’s symmetrical main façade, the lower-pitched roof, the génoise-style cornice made from hand-made Roman tiles, and taller, French-style doors and windows. The result is a concept that’s “rooted in history, but is livable for today.”

Read more: Creating a Period Entryway

Such rustic yet elegant details are reflected throughout the entire estate, inside and out, from the wine cellar, with its seventeenth-century nail-studded entry doors, to the pretty, glass-walled, freestanding orangery, which not only adds additional entertaining space but also obscures the view of a neighboring home, across the river.

One standout indoor space is the kitchen, where French Bourgogne stone floors, natural stone walls, arched doorways, and rough-hewn reclaimed wood beams look beautiful alongside a La Cornue range, a built-in rotisserie, and a to-die-for reclaimed farmhouse sink. Instead of a more modern, marble-slab- topped island, the homeowners opted for a French-sourced, farm-style table.

“The whole intent was to be authentic to a French-style kitchen,” Adams explains.

Traditionally, French kitchens also include a pantry or scullery, so they added a working kitchen behind the main kitchen space, with a dishwasher, more storage, and a pantry for dry goods, allowing the entire kitchen area to marry form, function, and authenticity.

Read more: Period Kitchen & Bath Fixtures

Other rooms that seamlessly integrate old and new are the library and study. In the library, reclaimed antique doors provided inspiration for the newly made wall paneling, which was finished to match. Belgian lime plaster in the cove ceiling and cabinetry with a pale-blue, peeling-paint look tie in the rustic elegance and muted color palette of the home.

The study, meanwhile, features a limestone mantel, herringbone wood floors, arched ceilings, and antique French wall panels, which were not only refurbished but also replicated, since they didn’t have enough of them for the whole room.

Outside, the stucco-covered façade is perfectly symmetrical, with details like deeply recessed fenestrations accented with aged-looking cut limestone arches, pale-blue shutters, and low-key landscaping that comes right up to the house. They also “went to town on details” of the large-scale front door, which was made to look like a French antique. “That front door is a brand-new door that we designed, detailed, and finished so that it looks like it was imported,” Adams says.

The estate features other thoughtful and authentic outdoor spaces that make this spot in Louisiana seem like a portal to Provence: these include a cutting garden with pea-gravel pathways, a pastoral potting shed, and a covered, outdoor sitting porch. Another beautiful spot is a walled courtyard with a demure sitting area and an ancient-looking wall fountain.

It adds up to a thoughtfully designed estate capturing the history and atmosphere of Provence, as it infuses magnificent French pieces into the architecture.

“I always come back to its authenticity,” Adams says. “I feel as though we were able to do something really true to the style.”