Anything Thomas can imagine, he can create with his hands. Anything that’s broken, he can fix. Or at least he’s determined to try, even if it means failure. I love to watch him make things, deeply absorbed in learning something new, his eyes alight with the passion of a man who accesses a world beyond his head. For years, he has been working out of an idyllic room in the château that’s destined to become the library. He’s reluctant to leave it as he loves the view from the large windows, the abundance of light and the old wallpaper. Still, his ideas and projects have outgrown this beautiful space and time has come to move out.

We found a new location in the dilapidated barn of the maison de chasse, which lies on a higher plain opposite the château. Faced with humid darkness and the debris of decades of neglect (piles of accumulated junk, the roof collapsing), we first struggled to see the creative potential of the new workshop. But as we cleaned up, repaired the roof and put in skylights, a transformation unfolded before our eyes, and the space slowly started revealing the undeniable romance of an artist’s studio.

With natural light streaming in, the division between the practical and the aesthetic disappears: we can now appreciate the crude walls and the decrepit sliding doors. Even the metal racks we made to store wood exude the raw beauty of industrial design. Further inspired by the studio of artisan-artist Brancusi, we have plans to put in a woodstove to keep warm on offcuts and the odd design failure. Just imagine the magic. Thomas filling this space with his imagination and obsessive energy, forging soul into each of his creations.