An interesting feature of many old houses in France is the wonderful ironwork, railings and metalwork decorations used in houses.

The last big job (almost) I plan for Villa Roquette is the front terrace to, what will be, our new front ground floor apartment – this project took a big step forward this week when I finished the brickwork and concreting. it is now ready for the wall and railings.

Terrace for ground floor apartment - a picture window will be fitted next week

I decided to make two short pillars and then insert some two meter panels of old railings. When I went round the secondhand builders materials places I discovered that prices for good ornamental railings are high – some over 1,000 euro a meter for wrought iron railings. What I was looking for were the 19th century cast iron railings which many larger houses had.

We are lucky, the first floor of our home at Villa Roquette has a balcony of cast iron railings with a vine leaf decoration running the length of our house and I thought it would be great to find something similar, but that I could afford.

After a long search and a lot of negotiations I found the perfect pieces.

Cast Railings with a chestnut motif

I found two complete balconies in the corner of a field, covered in weeds – in fact I found a treasure trove of railings and balconies – the ones I chose have a Chestnut design of leaves and fruit and are fantastic – they are complete, but need a little repair, but I was once taught how to weld cast iron and plan to put them back to the way they were over 150 years ago