A designer's Normandy house filled with imagination and creativity

Reflecting Laura’s preferred way of working, this project soon became a sort of festival of collaboration. A temporary house was built for the team on the lawn and 10 builders lived on site for the months that it took to repair the roof, restore the façade and realign the sloping building. Craftspeople and collaborators came to stay; they worked, socialised and sketched out ideas.

First, the exterior was restored and, in the main hall, a series of trompe l’oeil marble panels were discovered and repaired. A pink and black marble floor and an antique shellwork commode were chosen to resonate with these existing walls. Aside from that, though, it was all change.

Two adjacent sitting rooms were knocked together, so that a good amount of furniture could be put on display for clients. The result is a room in which a pair of chimneypieces dominate one wall, flanking the opening into the dining room. Inspired by this arrangement and in a nod to the tradition of hanging animal heads as trophies, Laura commissioned ceramic artist Laurent Dufour to create giant bas-relief heads of a bear and a monkey within panels of appealing textured tiles, to decorate the chimneypieces. Add a sisal wallcovering by Nobilis and curtains in a Le Manach fabric, and the result is a distinctly French furnishing showcase.

The dining room is one of the family’s favourite spots. With windows on three sides, it feels much more vibrant than a traditional dining room. On a summer’s day, it takes on the energy and scents of the garden. The walls are decorated with a mural designed by Laura, which features elements of Indian art, including mango trees, birds and tigers: ‘Things that make me feel happy.’ She says she particularly enjoys this space in the evening, with low lighting and a lavishly dressed, flower-filled table, ‘It really feels as if you are in India – it’s magical.’ Two muralists from Ateliers Gohard spent two days at the house painting the walls. The couple fell so in love with the place, they bought a house down the road and stayed.

There are other similar stories: Laura’s artisanal guests and collaborators who came to look at a job and stayed for days; the client who arrived stressed and buzzing with ideas, and left having forgotten the contents of their diary and not realised that they had lost their phone.

Also notable is the number of (predominantly French) specialists that Laura has worked with to put her ideas into practice. There is the dining table with a top made from coloured slabs of raku by Fabienne L’Hostis and the bedside lamps created by Parisian ceramicist Jean Roger. And there is the ultra-romantic bathroom, with a mosaic floor by artist Pierre Mesguich and a bathtub hand-painted by a muralist in the Etruscan style.