French farmhouse renovation: Benji Lewis on the crumbling 18th-century home he’s been restoring for six years — and counting

Maison Noe’s rustic kitchen, with its reinstated 18th-century terracotta tiles

(Picture: Benji Lewis)

When interior designer Benji Lewis first visited the crumbling farmhouse in rural France that he’d seen advertised in the local paper, it was in a bad way.

Outside, the farmhouse was almost obscured by sprawling undergrowth which had begun to climb the back walls of the house.