Olivier and Carole didn’t hesitate when they came across this millstone house from the beginning of the century, a stone’s throw from Parc Montsouris. It was just perfect for a large blended family. Delightfully old-fashioned with its small rooms and flowered papers, it still needed a complete overhaul. This allowed it to be slightly restructured to make it a place that is totally adapted to the new inhabitants.
Each floor is beautifully organised. The ground floor is the meeting place for the whole family: a beautiful entrance hall with its 1900 cement tiles and an invigorating red colour, a large living room with two deep velvet sofas and a reading corner near the library and the fireplace; a huge kitchen with a farm table and large shelves for displaying the dishes, not forgetting the scullery which overlooks the inner courtyard. The first floor is the children’s floor: two bedrooms for the girls with a spacious bathroom to share, a third bedroom with its toilet for Igor. The top floor under the roof is mainly the parents’, with a huge room that allows for the accumulation of books…
As is quintessentially Marianne Evennou, she has created a vibrancy and homeliness in this 160m2 space in Paris’ 13e. Photos: Grégory Timsit
As in right on the Thames. Estate agency The Modern House describes the unique home as “Handsomely moored on the southern banks of the Thames, Bosco is a spectacularly converted 1950s Dutch barge with a 120-year mooring on Oyster Pier in Battersea. She was designed by LAB Architects for their own family and contains three bedrooms, two living spaces, a utility room, an open-plan kitchen/dining room, and a sublime winter garden on the deck.”
I’ve always had a daydream of living on a houseboat but this is a houseboat on steroids and I’m in love.
Don’t let its staid Georgian facade fool you. Inside the Grade II-listed townhouse in Camberwell is a maximalist’s dream. Five floors of colour and art, antiques and mid century classics. Everywhere you look is inspiration and we haven’t even ventured into the garden yet. Unfortunately for us, it is sold but I found it through Inigo an estate agency for Britain’s most marvellous historic homes, from the team behind The Modern House.
“Hidden in a 18th-century hotel particulier, Charles Zana’s private apartment reveals all its secrets. Coated in a sage green, every room is punctuated with objects and pieces of furniture from eras that have nothing in common. Charles Zana has always liked to intersect various periods. From well-known Italian designers from the post-war era to the spirit of Enlightenment, the French interior designer prefers a subtle luxury and understated lines.”
There is nothing more inspiring than a designer’s own home. Boundaries are pushed, risks taken and discord or beauty or even better both emerge. Orsay, Paris by Charles Zana.