A Chat with Sara Silm

Australian interior designer, stylist and journalist Sara Silm shares the inside story with us about her charming maison, Chateau Montfort, and its restoration in typical Béarnaise French country style.

Chateau Montfort is located in a countryside village in South West France near the Pyrenees Mountains. It was first owned by a French general and then passed down to a relative of King Leopold III of Belgium before Sara and her husband purchased the château in 2015. Since then, she has spent years renovating their historic home.

In her new book “How to French Country,” Sara captures the beauty of the region while giving practical design advice, along with recipes and notes on rural French life. See the link below for more information about the book.

A big merci to Sara who agreed to answer some questions for our Les Fleurs readers!
Here’s her story…

For those who may not have heard your story, what was the journey that took you from Sydney, Australia to Montfort, France?

It’s a long story, one I’ve written about in detail in the first chapter of my book, but the short answer was work, my husband’s actually. We originally left Australia for Moscow, where we spent nearly 4 years, followed by a stint in Kazakhstan. It’s while we were there that we started the search for a home to raise our three children in. We weren’t particularly focused on France, in fact we nearly bought in Spain, but a friend recommended we visit the Béarn and the rest is history!

How would you describe the style of Chateau Montfort?

Architecturally, it’s a typical Béarnaise Maison de Maitre (squire’s house). The towers were added shortly after it was built so it became known as the village chateau. I’m not drawn to the grandness of larger chateaus with their gilt and grand proportions, which is why this house was appealing. It feels cozy and intimate, so much so that it almost embraces you. Thanks to its very high ceilings, it's filled with light and its stone walls bring a beautiful earthy groundedness that sympathetically cements it into the rural landscape.

As far as the decor goes, the aesthetic I’ve created takes its cues from the Béarnaise landscape with a blend of soft greens, blush pinks, powdery blues and warm neutrals. There’s lots of French antiques mixed with treasures from my travels, but plenty of country texture too: baskets, natural sisal rugs, aged leather, antique copper pots and stoneware.

Tell us a little bit more about the Montfort region. What are your favorite parts about living in the South West French countryside?

Montfort is a tiny – and by that I mean TINY – village in the lesser known region of the Béarn in SW France. Montfort sits in the emerald-green foothills of the Pyrenees, an hour drive from Biarritz on the Atlantic coast. This means we not only have the mountains for skiing and hiking, but we also have beautiful rivers for rafting and salmon fishing, the rural countryside for procuring incredible produce at farmer’s markets and the coast for day trips where we hire quintessential French striped beach tents and make our way home after apéros (aperitifs) at sunset. San Sebastien is also just a day trip away, so we can dip our toe into Spain for a change of cuisine and culture. This region really has it all!

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned after spending years restoring this old chateau?

Don’t dive in and try to do everything all at once; authentic interiors take time. There should be gaps, and when you find those perfect pieces to fill them, you’ll be rewarded with a great story to tell friends who visit.

These pieces should be little pages in the story of your life: the day you stumbled across an antique fair (when you should have been in a meeting) and managed to find the perfect antique lamp for your kitchen bench, the time your bid on eBay was accepted and you finally bought the same antique dinner setting your Great Aunt used to serve her legendary salad Niçoise, or when you found an antique rug at a car boot sale on the first day of a 7 day road trip!

A decor that arrives all at once may look pleasing at first, but when you scrape the surface it feels soulless. Patience is a virtue! I’m still renovating the chateau, by the way. I think this chapter in my life’s book may be a rather long one!

Congratulations on your book; writing one is no easy feat! What has the process been like?

It was rather a challenge. I was simultaneously renovating, writing and shooting the book, mostly during Covid, but as it turns out, it was a blessing in disguise. If I had relied on another person to complete any element of it themselves, it might still be unfinished! Nothing like a pandemic to force you to meet a deadline singlehandedly!

Photos by Sara Silm

We hope you enjoyed Sara’s inspiring story as much as we did!

For more information about Chateau Montfort, visit their website or follow Sara on Instagram. See the link below to purchase her new book How to French Country.

xoxo,
The Fleurettes