Having a country getaway to retreat to from the city sounds like an idyllic solution to the frenetic pace of contemporary life. Nevertheless, Béatrice Laval – owner of Le Monde Sauvage, a 55-year-old Paris-based design firm that sells lighting, textiles, wallpapers, rugs and furnishings through various retail outlets and an online store – was initially resistant to the idea when her film executive husband suggested buying a 19th-century farm in the Forest of Fontainebleau. “I was not too keen on the idea,” she admits, “opening the shutters, closing the shutters every weekend.” It seemed like a lot of work.
Additionally, the main buildings they would eventually combine into a 2,155-square-foot, 4-bedroom home (with additional dormitory) had been abandoned for 40 years, “so we needed to do everything.” For starters, that involved excavating down into the newer building (c. 1870) to even out the 28-inch difference in floor level between it and what Laval calls “the village house.” A breezeway where the farmers had stored their hay joined the two structures, which the couple enclosed to gain indoor space. Here, they installed enormous windows offering generous views of the gardens.
“To me, what is difficult in a full renovation is not to erase what the house is,” observes Laval. “It was not a particularly exciting space, but it had a history and was made of materials we can perhaps not get again.” A case in point is the kitchen, “a place where we all love to be together. We’re a cooking family.” (Both their children are grown but visit often.) The earthenware hexagonal tile floors were original and very typical of the area, but they were dirty and damaged. “We could have made a new floor,” Laval admits, “but it would destroy the spirit of the house. Modern materials do not have the same character.”
Laval opted instead to remove the tiles, clean them up and reinstall those that were still in good shape. But that left about 10 square feet missing. Serendipitously, another farm nearby was replacing floors and selling the same size tile, so the couple bought enough to complete the job.
“We could have made a new floor,” Laval admits, “but it would destroy the spirit of the house. Modern materials do not have the same character.”
They relocated existing fireplaces, repurposed doors and beams from the property, painted the pine floors and drenched walls in lime paints mixed with hemp to impart mottling and texture. Of course, Laval tapped Le Monde Sauvage for many textiles, rugs and wallcoverings, and picked up various furnishings from her travels. “I’m attracted to unique things because a house really has to reflect your personality,” she explains.
Among these singular finds: a painted Romanian trunk and a butcher’s table reimagined as a desk in the living room (situated in the newer structure), both from antiques shops in Eastern Europe; a concrete coffee table in the kitchen from French firm Solid Studio; an industrial landscape rendering on the wall above it by Caroline Bouyer; an Ingo Maurer chandelier in the living room; her mother’s Robert Mallet- Stevens chairs in the dining area; a red Louis Poulsen pendant in a guest room above a rug her father had brought from China; and so on.
Leaning against the wall atop the painted Romanian cabinet in the living room is a large-scale photograph taken in Udaipur. “India is my spiritual place,” Laval notes wistfully. “I’ve been traveling there for almost 30 years. Time doesn’t really exist there, which can be infuriating sometimes. But if you let that go, it’s perfect.”
One gets the sense that this farm’s new incarnation – through its embedded history, natural materials and sensitive renovation – might elicit a similar timelessness for Laval.
Photography by Yann Deret.
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