In a Modernised Millstone House Dating from 1893, the Interior Decoration is a Vector of Emotions

We’re two solitary souls who only met 20 years ago, and since then, we’ve hung onto each other! And we’re parents, our two daughters are Ceryse, 13, and Salomé, 8.

I’m a designer/interior designer at Knoll International; Babeth is a private nurse. Both of us have chosen to work in people-oriented professions.

I was raised by parents who were avid bargain hunters. My mother passed on a passion for haute couture to us at a very young age, and she awakened us to the notion of beauty. As far as decoration is concerned, my parents had a particular notion of aesthetics and a preference for functionality. We had big leather sofas and a huge dining table because entertaining was very important to them. On the other hand, whenever they came back from Congo Brazzaville – the country we come from originally – my mother would always bring back paintings, ivory elephants, handmade chairs, statuettes, stuffed crocodiles and so on. This was her way of bringing home the country she had left behind. I don’t think she chose those pieces to complete a specific setting. Yet, without intending to be, our home was unusual. The only thing she didn’t kid about was housekeeping! She was keen for us to grow up in a peaceful and orderly environment. I certainly inherited that from her! This atypical approach was reflected in her looks, which she put together after watching fashion shows with us. She adored them. So I think all this has led me to develop a taste for beautiful pieces as well as for going bargain hunting and for keeping things tidy.

I’ve always been immersed in very ornate environments. When my parents were married, my mother – who was a florist – always wanted to decorate each space, to tell a story in each room. Our family dinner tables always looked wonderful! When we moved to the country, my parents turned the house we were living in into a holiday home. We felt good there! In fact, even after my parents’ divorce, my mother, who was then forced to work on a much tighter budget, always knew how to decorate her various apartments tastefully, in keeping with the times, using a very soft palette. Besides that, she drew and painted a great many pictures. I genuinely believe that it was she who inspired me to move into the creative arena.

So when we moved in together, we had to deal with our tastes, our choices, our upbringings. In other words, our two worlds! Where Babeth wanted to furnish the flat efficiently, namely with a large sofa and a big table, I was very sensitive to the detail, the finish of the furniture and the colours chosen as well as to the fact that our home had to be this cocoon where we would feel good. We soon decided that it was important for our place to tell a story before realising that it wasn’t just any story that needed to be told, but our own!

Our friends and families have an important place in our life. We show our affection for the people around us by the way we entertain them. From the way the table is decorated to the choice of flowers and the food we share with them. We like our guests to feel comfortable in our home, and this has influenced some of our choices in both decoration and furniture.

We work on the principle that anything is possible, so long as we believe in it and give ourselves the means to do it! Every challenge we’ve faced was a learning curve, but, above all, it was an opportunity to mature.

We first discovered our house through social networks. It was the only one we visited because, at the time, having just got married, we didn’t think we were in a strong enough position financially to commit to buying so quickly. But you can never tell; we went to visit it anyway, and the magic happened. It was everything we were looking for. We had a wishlist, and it was important for us to live in a house that tells a story but above all, that gives off a feeling. Ours was built in 1893 by the builder who built the millstone houses, the ‘maisons meulières’, in the town where we live. Everything here is a delight, from the old wooden floors to the wrought-iron window mouldings and the grand staircase. The children have their own floor, we have our own floor, and then there is the ground floor, which contains the main rooms, including the living room, kitchen and dining room. We were looking for an old house with land and space but with very little renovation work to do. It was waiting for us! The previous owners had done all the work that would have held us back from the sale. Making the windows watertight, for example, and knocking some of the walls down. The old building already had a touch of modernity about it. This motivated us to continue writing the story here. All we had to do was decorate with the changes we wanted! All that opened our eyes to the potential for expansion. And then we fell in love with the light, which the house enjoys all day long. The girls could already see themselves living there, and we all literally fell under the spell of the house. The greenery is reclaiming its rightful place here now.

Dans nos différents appartements, nous avions beaucoup de mobiliers chinés. Par goût, mais aussi par faute de moyens. Vie d’étudiants oblige ! Donc, lorsque nous avons emménagé dans notre maison, nous avons voulu marquer au fer rouge ce tournant de notre vie. Nous avons donc décidé d’investir dans du mobilier plus qualitatif et durable. Nous voulions des pièces fortes avec une belle histoire. Des meubles qui feraient écho à notre amour du design. Nous avons, en plus du mobilier, un rapport à la matière. Cela commence par notre choix porté sur une maison en meulière. Ce qui nous a plu tout de suite, dans ce type d’habitation, c’est la hauteur sous plafond. Mais les volumes manquaient d’ouverture. Ce travail avait déjà été amorcé par les anciens propriétaires. Cependant, William a voulu abattre certains murs et impostes pour apporter encore plus de lumière et de verticalité. Nous avons décidé de réaliser des meubles allant du sol au plafond tels que le meuble de la cuisine ou bien celui de notre dressing / mur de l’entrée, donnant un effet agencé à nos espaces de vie. En complément de ce mobilier fait sur mesure, nous trouvions intéressant d’apporter de la texture à nos murs en y ajoutant des parements verticaux. Par exemple, ceux de notre cuisine allant jusqu’à la cage d’escalier sont composés d’une succession de tasseaux, donnant un effet cannelé et ton sur ton. Celui en placage chêne enveloppe un pilier séparant nos espaces salon et salle à manger. Le chêne est, dans notre maison, le matériau « fil conducteur ». Dans chaque pièce, ce bois noble et solide apparaît. Que ce soit par petites ou grandes touches. C’est le matériau qui vient finir une décoration. Une forme de valeur sûre et réconfortante.