What I learned about small spaces while living in a big castle

A tiny French farmhouse & co-stewardship post

Note: A brief overview of our French farmhouse and co-stewarding arrangement can be found at the end of this post. 

I would never have become a designer and advocate of small interiors had I not lived in larger residences as well. Being able to examine the experiences side by side allowed me to discover the benefits of small space living, while providing insight for troubleshooting its unique challenges.

Château Belcastel (Fun fact: that little round tower was my shower)

The most spacious place I ever lived is located in the same region of France as our tiny farmhouse — the Aveyron. The Aveyron is an agricultural region, dotted with old fortresses and churches nestled within picturesque villages. Throughout much of my 20s and 30s I worked for one of them — a medieval château, complete with features such as a moat and drawbridge, arrowslits and chapels.

Year after year I spent months on end living within the castle’s stone walls, and yet I never got used to it. Places saturated with that much history and detail are a lot for me to take in — even the more modest locations like this one, which is vast and magnificent on its own, but dwarfed and downright rustic when compared to polished and expansive properties in places like the Loire.  

Belcastel, France

Despite roaming the castle throughout the day to tackle tasks ranging from working with historical artifacts, to helping tourists find their destinations, to emptying the déshumidificateurs soaking up the damp air, I almost always found myself sticking to the most compact areas in my personal time.

Working / living in the castle in my 20s

The apartment I sometimes called home was located in the heart of the château, with a sleeping + work space in one airy room, and a bathroom and kitchen just down the hall. Sometimes I was there alone. Sometimes my friends (including my future farmhouse co-stewards) would join me. Sometimes interns or other employees would share elements of the apartment. My parents came to visit on a couple of occasions, and on rainy evenings we’d drink our wine from glass yogurt pots while sitting at the fold-out table I used as a desk by day.

Future co-stewards of the farmhouse enjoying the little kitchen in the apartment of the castle. (This was after we got a full fridge, but for years we shared a mini fridge.)

My husband preparing salad in the Grand Cuisine, which we rarely used.

Despite the fact that the kitchen was tiny and those of us working in the castle had access to its fully-equipped grand cuisine one level below, we almost never opted to use the large kitchen that the owners kindly offered to share with us.

The Grand Cuisine

Similarly, we rarely found ourselves socializing or seeking solitude in the great hall or the gallery of armor, usually preferring to sit outside on the roof of a turret the size of a hot tub, or on a balcony that’s barely bigger than a fire escape landing. (Although we did enjoy the occasional evening dance party in the spacious art gallery in our earlier years.)