September and Colin Moore met on a Paris train bound for Italy. She was an American art school grad en route to her first fashion styling job in Milan. He was a South African rugby player with an interest in sports medicine. They spent three days together, reunited in Cape Town, and were married within the year.
That was in 1982, and September and Colin’s life is still something of a rolling romance. They raised three now-grown children in the US and France, and, along the way, he graduated from chiropractic school and began practicing while she ran two successful garden and interior design stores and a B & B. They also discovered a joint love of resuscitating old houses.
In 1999, objecting to the direction this country was heading, they moved from Tampa, Florida, to a village in Carcassonne in the South of France. And there one wreck led to another: the two have remodeled approximately a dozen places, five of them in the last five years alone. September, a devout minimalist, is the visionary, and Colin figures out how to implement her plan—or what to do instead. “There’s a lot of back and forth,” she says. They tackle as much of the work as they can themselves, often learning as they go, and they always opt for traditional materials and methods: no Sheetrock or laminate pass their thresholds. They camp out in their houses during the renovation, live in them for a time, and then move on.
We were introduced to the couple in Hilary Robertson’s book Nomad at Home—see Required Reading—and recently caught up with them at their latest project in Felanitx, an untrammeled seaside town in Mallorca, Spain.
Photography by Anna Malmberg, except Before and In Progress photos, all courtesy of September Moore Projects (@septembermooreprojects).
The Inner Courtyard
September first waited for her friend to turn down the property and then had to campaign Colin to make yet another move. They both now love Mallorca so much, they plan to stay a while.Most of the furnishings came from a side-of-the-road used furniture and pottery vendor, including the mix of wooden chairs. September brought the woven lampshade from France—it’s from La Métairie de Montgeard, a favorite shop of hers in Toulouse.
As for planning their remodels, September says she tends to sketch ideas directly on walls. When the place is our own, we figure things out as we go.”
The Main House
September found the chairs at their local vintage vendor and had them reupholstered in hotel linen for easy cleaning. The Rice Paper Shade is by Hay.
Loath to crowd the kitchen with a refrigerator, September built a pantry under the stair (and sacrificed what was going to be a guest bath). “We broke a big decorating law but my kitchen is so much nicer without the fridge. I have a tiny Smeg, but it was ruining my whole aesthetic. I buy day to day from the fresh market, so to me it’s not a big deal.”
As for the lack of storage beyond his and hers ceramic trays and a single basket, September says, “We don’t take medicine. I have a box of essential oils. We’re minimalists in every way.”
Note the branch hooks: “they’re a Mallorcan thing,” says September. “Colin just cut some branches at an angle and set them into the wall. They’re cemented in.”
Before and In Progress
Above: The view from the arched entry to the interior courtyard and barn—before the concrete floor was poured.
Stay tuned for a tour of the barn next. And N.B.: the Moores maintain a toehold in France and from time to time rent their Mallorca home for a month at a time. Watch for announcements on Instagram @septembermooreprojects.
Three more favorite remodels in Spain:
- Shed Chic: Architect Marina de Delás Turns an Off-the-Grid Hut into a Dream Retreat
- Before & After: A Historic Catalan Farmhouse Redone by Espanyolet
- A Ceramicist’s Airy, Open House on Mallorca
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