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Your day by day dose of dwelling excursions, design information, and elegance inspiration.
Marissa Cox is thought for sharing snippets of her life as a British transplant residing in Paris, France, on her Instagram, @ruerodier. While that sounds fairly glamorous, Cox isn’t afraid to maintain it actual on the subject of really shopping for a house within the capital. She and her associate Victor, an artwork director, began wanting into shopping for a spot within the metropolis again in 2022, however the steep property costs rapidly put a damper on their plans (a mortgage would have price thrice as a lot as their present hire). The couple pivoted and commenced taking a look at locations additional afield with the thought to get a small dwelling they may go to on weekends, but in addition hire out.
The couple finally landed on Rouen, a captivating and historic metropolis in Normandy which is simply over an hour by practice from Paris. After 4 months of viewings, they lucked out on a 150-year-old, one-bed house in want of modernization. Cox, who additionally runs an interior design studio, was eager for a mission. “What I’ve noticed is that with a lot of French renovations, all the original features have been stripped out,” she says. “The idea was to give this space an interior more in keeping with its age and bones.”
What the 420 sq. foot house lacked in room it made up for in unique beams all through. Cox’s imaginative and prescient was to channel the vibe of a comfy boutique resort, one thing lots of the Airbnbs in Rouen seemed to be lacking. The pair went one other step additional than most hosts: they made the rental, now dubbed Madame Capitaine, utterly shoppable. No, you possibly can’t simply stroll away with a Nordic Knots rug after your go to however you can browse {the catalogue} that Victor curated and search for every little thing from the paint coloration within the bed room to the couch mattress. Cox’s plans lend a intelligent showroom facet to the house, besides there’s nothing remotely treasured about it. Ahead, she talks us by means of each thought-about design determination.
The kitchen was beforehand a cabinet. There had been a sink and two burners however the fridge was randomly positioned in the lounge behind a makeshift bar. Making sufficient room to accommodate all of the necessities was key—and our greatest problem. In the tip we moved the wall between this nook and the toilet to create more room. We additionally decreased the depth of the cabinets by 4 inches on the left-hand facet in order that there could be sufficient room between the 2 counters. The sink is mini—I used to be calculating all the way down to the minutia, but it surely works!
The kitchen cabinets are from IKEA, however elevated with door fronts from Plum Living. | Cabinet Fronts, Plum Living; Sockets and Switches, Fonitini.
The front room, eating space, and kitchen are all painted the identical impartial coloration to make in every single place really feel extra cohesive. I examined out a couple of shades as a result of the house doesn’t get an enormous quantity of pure gentle, it wanted to be heat and creamy. School House White from Farrow & Ball got here out the perfect. | Quilt, Toast; Sofa Bed, Kipli; Curtains, Gotain.The seating space was lacking a focus, so we introduced a classic marble encompass that we present in Paris and had the builder create a chimney breast. Creating a void underneath the hearth provides the concept perhaps there as soon as upon a time was a burning fireplace there. I can spend hours trawling by means of classic websites comparable to Selency and Etsy for distinctive artworks and ornamental objects. When I journey I’ll choose up issues, too. The south of France is nice for brocantes. Reducing the footprint of the toilet to enlarge the kitchen meant we needed to sacrifice the bath. But it means we now have a decent-sized walk-in bathe. I sourced the tapware from Margot, a premium French model that provides faucets and bathe columns to luxurious inns. | Wall Paint, Calamine by Farrow & Ball; Faucet, Margot.We needed to change the unique staircase as much as the bed room as a result of it felt like climbing a ladder—it was so rickety and steep. We explored the made-to-measure route however we had been quoted 1000’s of euros. Victor finally landed on a prefabricated one with a flip which we had our builder set up. We tried staining it the identical coloration because the beams, but it surely simply didn’t come out proper. Victor then had to return and paint it off-white, and I wasn’t in a position to assist as a result of I used to be pregnant on the time and the product was fairly poisonous! I needed there to be a shock component when company climbed the steps to the bed room, sort of like they had been sleeping within the sky! Lulworth Blue from Farrow & Ball is a fantastically shiny however powdery blue that makes the bed room really feel very cozy. I drenched it throughout every little thing for a cocooning really feel. | Paint, Lulworth Blue by Farrow & Ball; Blanket, Toast; Bedside Table, Talka Decor; Rug, Nordic Knots. There was no storage within the house, so we had built-in cabinets made for the bed room and painted them the identical coloration because the partitions and ceilings so it’s as in the event that they disappear into the partitions. | Tissue Box Cover, Alice Palmer & Co..
