Provencale Perfumier’s House | David Price Design

Idyllic Provençale House for new generation of perfumier family

David Price Design is an award-winning architecture and design studio working out of two locations in the South of France: Mougins, on the Côte d’Azur and Les-Baux-de-Provence, in the heart of Provence. Most of the studio’s luxury residential schemes, created for international clients drawn to these famously sought-after areas, mix influences from clients’ home cultures with the local vernacular to create highly individual properties, which range from ultra-modern, sea-facing villas to remodelled traditional farmhouses, surrounded by cypress trees and olive groves. The studio’s latest project therefore was something of a step change, involving a French family who had not only owned the property for several generations, but had practised their trade there as perfumiers, at one time harvesting and distilling lavender on the site, located in the heart of Provence. Although the perfume-making is now done elsewhere, the family continues to host an annual ‘Perfumier Congress’ in the property.

Project Summary:

The existing property consisted of a large farmhouse with outbuildings in the St-Remy-de-Provence area, surrounded by 15 hectares of traditional landscaping. The refurbishment project saw the house both reconfigured and restored, with a new extension, kitchen and dining area as well as extra bedrooms and bathrooms, creating the perfect place for family gatherings and for hosting the annual perfumier congress, as well as a highly-desirable rental property for when not in active use by the family.

As the property had been in continual ownership for 75 years, the new scheme was all about the delicate balance of maintaining history in the form of family artefacts and inherited antique furniture, as well as incorporating splashes of bright and colourful modernity to ensure strangers would love the property just as much as its owners!

About the Client Family:

The client family originally came from Lyon, moving to Provence in the midst of the second world war and setting up shop within the former farm buildings, growing and distilling some of the essential oil of lavender needed for their perfumes. Some of the stills (alembics) they used for this process during this period are still kept on site in a building just off the courtyard, for visitors to see and enjoy.

Architectural Approach:

When it came to the re-design of the property, David Price explained: ‘The grandfather of the current generation, who had originally purchased the house, sought to make something a little grander out of it, creating a kind of manor house out of what was essentially a typical Provençale farmhouse, installing imposing fireplaces, for example, and mullioned windows, as well as long external stone mouldings beneath the upper storey windows. Over time, however, the interior had suffered and had become rather dreary, with strange, disjoined circulation resulting from piecemeal changes, including an unsuccessful extension. It was impossible to walk the full length of the house, for example, without going back outside to re-enter at one point!’

The reconfigured 6-bed property now has a large L-shaped footprint with a new, north-side extension, allowing for a much more obvious entrance to the house (where previously it had been unclear even where the front door was!). The new entrance features a rounded, arched setting for the door that mimics the existing archway into the arrival courtyard, leading into an entrance vestibule, with a more contemporary kitchen also in the new extension. The house now has a much stronger initial presence and, with an extended first floorplate, more weight, character and clarity. The extension was rendered using a mix of local, sand grit and pebble, whilst for the roofing, David Price Design used reclaimed local pantiles to ensure harmony with the existing house.

All the property’s windows have been replaced with high-quality, solid oak frames, taking the purchaser’s original idea of creating a grander, more imposing building even further. New north-side window shutters in blue match the existing south-facing shutters. The south-facing façade also boasts a re-modelled terrace area, with tables, chairs and tree lights, perfect for special events and parties.

Interior Space Plan and Design:

The ground-floor layout of the property was re-planned to flow in a much more logical way, with easy access to the first floor, where the five existing bedrooms were all accorded en suite bathrooms (previously only four were en suite). A final bedroom is located on the ground floor. The interior design of the property was very much an exercise in imagination, using the best of the existing antique furniture, though often re-locating or even re-purposing it, with small tables, for example, finding their way into bathrooms and serving as washstands.

‘We wanted to keep a Provençale style in the house and respect the property’s history’, Nina Laty, Consultant Head of Interiors for David Price Design explained, ‘but we also wanted to open the style up further to be more cosmopolitan and Mediterranean, shaking off the rather heavy existing feel. It was also important, in spite of the rentable aspect to the property, to maintain the simplicity of a family home and not make it too impersonal or clinical.’

Existing artworks were re-hung where they worked best and Nina Laty created a strong and uplifting colour scheme throughout, but particularly for the bedrooms, where blues, greens, yellows and a deep red were chosen to reflect nature, the external Provençale landscape and the winder Mediterranean area. Objects, including the family’s collection of pots and vases, were artfully redistributed, as were photographs of family members and former workers from the lavender oil distillery, so that the house, even when rented, retains a strong feel of the owners’ family history.

The new kitchen within the extension is now a simple, white and light-filled space with bespoke hardwood joinery throughout and a dark red and white geometric pattern floor tile, expressly chosen to create a link with the tiles used in the entrance and dining area.

The new dining area (where the former kitchen was located) benefits from plenty of natural light coming in from the southern, windowed façade. An existing timber ceiling was re-sanded and stained for a more uniform quality, with new furniture including an oak refectory table from Ethnicraft, new chairs, a terracotta tiled floor, together with an existing Welsh dresser against one wall. Lighting is by Stéphane Davidts. The south façade, meanwhile, is now bordered by a lovely long enfilade of doors and windows, almost forming an internal corridor through the rooms.

A new opening from the dining room leads into a TV room/lounge, with the ground floor bedroom leading directly off this space, followed by one of the house’s two staircases.

In the living room, one structural change was made: taking out took a stone column which interrupted the space, which entailed replacing a beam with half-beams going in the opposite direction. The result is a cleaner and more coherent space. Living room furniture includes grey leather sofas (client’s own), timber bookcases, a credenza and coffee table, highlighted with a selection of fabrics chosen by Nina Laty. The room is decorated with two further items from the clients’ art collection – a fabric wall hanging and a wall-mounted amphora, whilst the central staircase leading off the living room to the upper floor features a new balustrade and terracotta tiling.

On both the ground and first floor, each bedroom and bathroom has its own personality for a fresh, contemporary and deliberately eclectic feel. For the bedrooms, furniture is a mixture of new, vintage and bespoke, including a uniquely-shaped, white-painted headboard for each bed, designed especially for the house by Nina Laty.

‘I wanted to underline the uniqueness of each room by creating an individual headboard for each room, Nina Laty explained. ‘They were then painted white for a simple Mediterranean look and to work with the strong, nature-inspired wall colours, with cut-out shapes within the wood for the colour of the wall behind to come through.’

The first ‘Stone Wall’ bedroom is on the ground floor, with a retained inner stone feature wall and inset arched bookcase and arched doorway to the sides of the bed. The bedside lamps and tables are retained from the existing interior, with a strong added zing of colour in the form of cushions in a ‘Tuilerie’ dark blue floral material with a yellow stripe from Verel de Belval. The simple en suite bathroom has a yellow wall and yellow stool, with a contemporary washbasin set on an antique table requisitioned from elsewhere in the house, with two contemporary round mirrors echoing the shape of the basin.

The first of the two blue-walled bedrooms is quite grand in scale, with a deep, rich blue for the wall; an antique wardrobe; large, a gilt-framed mirror and two chairs re-upholstered in complementary blues and greys, as well as fresh and light curtain fabric in a turquoise shade. The bedside lamps and tables compliment the bright white of the headboard and bed cover, whilst the cushions tie all the room’s colours together in ‘Irving Ocean’ fabric by Larsen. The en suite bathroom contrasts initially with a very subdued, white and off-white floor and walls, until you reach the bath, which is clad, along with the surrounding wall, in a rich deep blue Zellige tile.

The red-walled bedroom is one of the most striking and is contrasted with a yellow-walled bathroom with grey Zellige tiles for the shower walls, as well as a magnificent painting of one of the perfumier family matriarchs on the wall.

‘I designed the headboard for this room with a slightly oriental shaping’, Nina Laty commented, ‘to complement the strong, Moroccan-Mediterranean rust colour of the wall. Cushion fabric from Elitis ties both the red and the yellow of the bathroom together, along with a soft grey-blue, which references the portrait on the wall.’

In the ‘Chambre Voûte’ (arched bedroom), a line of three beds sits beneath an elegant arched roof, arranged against a rich, olive-coloured feature wall. The room, perfect for children, has original floor tiles with a slightly yellow patina, which influenced colour choices here. The curtains are in a deep yellow, whilst the cushions on the beds are also in a yellow floral material from Chistopher Farr Cloth called ‘Flower Show Lime’. The bedside lamps are from Blanc d’Ivoire. The bathroom has a very simple treatment, with one feature wall in a darker shade of green.

The second blue bedroom has a feature wall in more of a petrol blue and a sharp, geometric sub-theme, with striped cushions in ‘Rataplan’ fabric from Dedar and bedside lamps with a vertical ridged pattern from Blanc d’Ivoire. The bathroom features the same blue Zellige tiles as with the first blue bedroom, but this time cladding a shower rather than bath.

The final bedroom has a very gentle, feminine feel, with softer colours and shapes. The wall is a pale, pastel-shade of green; the headboards are a rounded shape and the bed cushions a more traditional floral material – ‘Bouquet’ by Colony. The bedside lamps, from Blanc d’Ivoire, feature round shapes on their bases, whilst the bathroom is the only one to feature patterned tiles, in a large-scale floral design in green and white with a touch of pink, from Mainzu.

Photographer Credit:  Hervé Hôte