‘The builder broke our fireplace’

The living room before the renovation

After, it now feels spacious and inviting

The idea was that a flat would pay for itself through renting it out on Airbnb and double as the couple’s pied à terre. After four months of viewings, they landed on a 150-year-old flat, measuring 39 sq m (420 sq ft), just moments from the train station. They were seduced by its exposed timber frame, and the fact that it was crying out for modernisation ticked off Cox’s desire to manage a project from start to finish. “Because I haven’t done any formal training in interior design, I wanted to embark on a gut renovation of my own before [doing] a client’s,” she explains.

• Renovating a property in Europe? Here’s what you need to know

On getting the keys in August 2023, a local estate agent matched them with a reputable builder to modernise the property. Opening up the kitchenette to connect it to the main living space (making the bathroom smaller in the process), installing a fireplace and a complete rewire should have taken three months. Not being local meant Cox would commute every three weeks to check in with a fresh to-do list. Except that progress was painfully slow and then ground to a halt.

Before and after: the kitchenette now flows into the living area

“He [the builder] was juggling other projects and in the end, stopped working for us for four months,” Cox says. A plumber by trade, she believes he wasn’t properly qualified. “He left a tube dangling outside of the wall in the kitchen, obstructing the door to the oven. When we questioned it, he was like, ‘I don’t have another way of doing it.’” Cowboy builders seemingly aren’t the reserve of the British. So far Cox has been underwhelmed by the level of workmanship: “In my experience there’s a lack of talent in carrying out high-quality work when it comes to renovations over here. It’s often done on the cheap, using budget materials and often not finished to a great standard,” she says.

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Their knights in shining toolbelts came to the rescue via a marble artisan in Montreuil, who had to fix the vintage fireplace Cox had sourced, not once but twice. “The builder broke the section that goes along the front, so we drove it back and had it fixed. And then Victor stepped on the top part … we just stood in the apartment crying,” she says, laughing. The specialist, whom she likens to a “magician”, also cut the marble worktop for the kitchen and put them in touch with installers in Rouen. As a team of two brothers with decades of experience, they finished the job over weekends (while the original builder received a legal letter officially sacking him).

Sleek surfaces and smart design bring the small kitchen to life

It was a stressful time, heightened by the fact that Cox was undergoing IVF. The couple’s loan allowed them to delay their repayments by six months, but that grace period didn’t stretch long enough. Keen to eke out their budget, she and Mutel spent almost every weekend from June to October 2024 painting. Another cost-saver was hunting down a prefabricated staircase kit instead of having one custom-made, which Cox reckons saved them €4,000. However, attempting to stain it the same colour as the wall beams proved a “disaster”; Mutel then had to rectify it alone as the new paint was deemed too toxic for Cox to inhale while trying to conceive (they welcomed their baby in July this year).

“It was a lot to juggle, I’m just glad that both of those things are now over,” she says.

From cramped to chic, the finished bathroom feels fresh and airy

But it was all worth it: the result is a welcoming and cosy destination unlike anything on offer in the city. “The idea was to create a luxury hotel room within an apartment. We did a lot of research and there’s no boutique hotel here, and a lot of the Airbnbs aren’t beautifully decorated. It’s very basic, very Ikea. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Ikea if you dress it up a little,” says Cox, who used the Swedish retailer’s kitchen frames and jazzed them up with fronts from Plum Living.

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The designer has a following on Instagram through sharing snippets of her life via the handle @ruerodier and is no stranger to brand partnerships. So, by creating a presentation deck with Mutel (in both English and French), they pitched to premium homewares brands, inviting them to furnish the flat. That explains the elegant Nordic Knots rug, Gotain curtains and textiles by Toast, all of which guests can shop for via QR codes detailed in the apartment’s catalogue. It’s a savvy move, which helped with the budget and means high-end touches in return for exposure. “We’ve been lucky enough to stay in some really gorgeous hotels and Airbnbs, and often we’re admiring pieces and wanting to know where they’re from, so that was the concept,” Cox explains.

The bedroom pre-renovation, ready for a modern makeover

The bedroom upstairs is painted in a calming Lulworth Blue from Farrow & Ball

The paints are all Farrow & Ball, with the cocooning bedroom upstairs drenched in calming Lulworth Blue, while the taps are courtesy of Margot, a French brand that supplies luxury hotels. “What better way for somebody to test a product without buying than to actually stay somewhere and use it?” she says of the queen-size mattress and sofa-bed provided by Kipli. Cox likens it to a liveable showroom, the idea being that in six months, another brand might want to supply the crockery or glassware. Her approach has been to balance new pieces with vintage treasures, so there are one-off lighting fixtures and mirrors from the online marketplaces Selency and Etsy, as well as decorative accessories picked up from brocantes (flea markets).

The project, which was due to be completed last March but rolled on into November, has proved a steep but essential learning curve. Cox is now confident in briefing builders in her second language and has expanded her range of French vocabulaire when it comes to conveyancing. “I have no idea of the words for it all in English!” she admits.

Madame Capitaine — as the flat has been christened in honour of Mutel’s grandmother’s nickname and Rouen’s maritime heritage — welcomed its first Airbnb guests a few weeks ago. Costing an average of €83 a night (excluding cleaning fees), a local concierge service manages bookings and housekeeping. A positive review, five-star rating (and feedback requesting a microwave) have set it on the right track. The couple are now able to enjoy relaxing in their hard-earned bolt hole: “We’ve already stayed about five times and we sleep really, really well —probably better than we do at home,” Cox says.

Renovating in France? Here’s what you should know

• Builders can be found via the Fédération Française du Bâtiment (FFB), a professional organisation which represents tens of thousands of reputable companies.
• You’ll need construction insurance — assurance dommages-ouvrage. This is ten-year liability cover that protects the building owner against major structural defects.
• Expect to be taxed: residential developments which require a permit can incur up to 20 per cent in VAT plus a local rate (usually a maximum of 2.5 per cent).
• Talking of permits, anything which affects a property’s appearance calls for planning permission — even painting shutters or a front door a new colour.
• Residing in the shadows of a historic monument? Properties within 500m of churches or heritage buildings are subject to construction regulations under the protection of L’Architecte des Bâtiments de France.
• If you’re planning to extend, French law states that any construction bigger than 150 sq m has to be led by an architect.