Like a piece of the Shire that fell out of a Tolkien novel, Katherine’s hobbit-inspired home emerged from the ruins of an old stone wall once buried in overgrowth in a French forest. Inside and out, an Art Nouveau motif depicts magical Celtic beasts on cob walls. An earthen, living roof, and big green front door complete the fantasy feel.
Hardly up to code, and currently unregistered, this hobbit-hole home is where Katherine and her husband have lived—and comfortably—since 2020. Styled thusly, she was reluctant to divulge her real name to us (she did; Katherine W. is her pen name), and prefers to keep the exact location of their abode fuzzy.
This business of a “Shire home” began on a plot of land she and her husband bought in 2014—just a few acres in Dordogne. Here, one finds many little, walled ruins hidden in forests, which once were small buildings for seasonal workers in a region that had been a vineyard until around World War II.
Starting in 2016, the couple cleared the rubble and prickly bramble growth from said ruins to complete two small outbuildings in 2017 and 2018. Gazing on their handiwork, they mused the possibilities. “I stood there with my husband and friend and I said, ‘That is where I will live,’” Katherine told The Epoch Times. “They both started to laugh. I accepted the challenge.”
They kept it all-natural on purpose by not using equipment to build. The living, reciprocal roof went up in 2017 and 2018, which allowed them to avoid needing a central beam that would be too heavy for them to install by hand. This roof incorporates a waterproof membrane laid overtop straw insulation and was covered in topsoil with several species of plant that love the sun-dappled shade under the tall trees. The effect this had very much lent itself to the look of being a Shire home.
Next, in 2019 they began to sculpt the cob walls, succeeding in making the home literally a work of art.
“Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, and straw,” Katherine said. “Cob walls need a stone foundation to elevate them from damp soil and a good roof to protect from the rain.”
Unlike adobe, which is made out of unfired brick, cob dries into a monolithic structure—quite like a sculpture, indeed.
Moving the tons of heavy mud that they needed was toilsome, and it tried the couple’s determination.
“On the long, hard working days, my motivation faltered,” Katherine said. “What kept me going was always the wondrous work of art that was taking shape under my hands.”
Set within these walls and the wonderful arched openings that seemed to magically sculpt themselves were wooden planks obtained from a sawmill, for the ceiling, shelves, doorsteps, windows, and window panes.
Next came the plastering and flooring which finally made the dwelling livable in 2020.
Lastly, the shady porch was added in 2021 and 2022, incorporating sculpted tree pillars holding up a rustic awning to complete the exterior.
Walking up the stone-set path from the garden, where they grow much of their own food, passing under the porch and through the green front door, one enters the house proper. Inside the 13- by 13-foot (4- by 4-meter) room that comprises the interior is the kitchen on one side and a working table in a light-filled bay window on the other. From here a ladder runs up to a sleeping loft.
Inside, there is furniture, which is either vintage or handmade. The artful decorum blends naturally with the landscape outside, Katherine says, while conjuring “the imaginary landscape of the Shire!”
And just like a hobbit’s dwelling, theirs is surprisingly comfortable, she adds. It has a quiet feel, as cob is an excellent sound insulator. The interior is also wonderfully cool in the summer when temperatures in southwest France can reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 C). Meanwhile, during the winter the house requires minimal heating.
It is here, within these organically-shaped walls that seem to flow with nature; surrounded by mythical motifs and a dragon-shaped fireplace and cooking stove, that Katherine creates her artwork, for she has made a living thusly full-time since 2008. She draws constant inspiration from the home she and her husband built from the ground up.
“It has a timeless quality, like certain old mansions that have been living for many generations, despite the fact that we built it almost from nothing starting seven years ago,” she said.
She proudly shares her work-of-art home with guests and it always makes quite an impression. “Almost all who see my house are immediately drawn to its intense fairytale aesthetic and uniqueness,” she said. “A few do not believe it’s real at all!”
