I — L'Invitation
The flowers were changed this morning.
The lamp in the study is still on.
There are two cups on the balcony, and one of them is still warm.
Take your time. Nothing here is roped off.
II — La Façade
The balcony with the roses spilling over the railing is hers.
In Haussmann's Paris, the second floor was the bel étage: the highest ceilings, the tallest windows, the only balcony that runs the full width of the house. The family who built the building kept it for themselves.
L'Adresse
A wide avenue of plane trees that runs straight at a gold dome.
The dome is Les Invalides. You saw it from her balcony, on the horizon behind the teapot. The house sits on the quiet side of the 7e: the Seine to the north, the Eiffel Tower to the west, and no reason to hurry towards either.
III — Le Nuancier
Each sample was lifted from a photograph of the flat, in the light it is usually seen in. Each one has a room, and a reason.
Mouldings · curtains · linen
Every saturated wall in this flat sits under an ivory ceiling. That is why none of them feel heavy.
The façade
The colour of the building at five o'clock. The flat inside was chosen to answer it.
Salon walls
Slate, not navy. Grey enough to calm a room full of gold frames.
Sofa · bedroom · balcony
The thread through the house. You sit on it, sleep against it, drink tea on it.
Dining room · kitchen
Only in the rooms with a table. It looks best at night, which is when those rooms are used.
The study
Bordeaux with more rose in it. Her colour; it appears in no other room.
Chairs · armchair · throw · hydrangeas
The colour that travels. It turns up wherever she sat down.
Sconces · handles · lamps
Brass, never polished to a mirror. It catches the late light and nothing else.
Every piece of furniture
Tables, desk, bedside chests. Walnut keeps five different rooms in one house.
The background of this page is her curtains.
IV — Les Pièces
Five rooms and a balcony, in the order she would show them.
N° I
For long conversations
Slate walls, a bottle-green Chesterfield, a clock on the mantel that runs four minutes fast. The chandelier is lit in daylight.
Colour formula
Ardoise 45 · Bouteille 20 · Noyer 15 · Ivoire 15 · Laiton 5
Le choix
The walls went blue so the sofa would be the only green in the room. One green object reads as a decision; two would read as a theme.
Ce qu'on remarque
Two portraits of women above the fireplace. Neither is labelled.
N° II
Dinner runs late here
A table for eight, two windows onto the boulevard, Bordeaux panelling that turns almost black after dark.
Colour formula
Bordeaux 40 · Noyer 30 · Vieux Rose 10 · Bouteille 10 · Ivoire 10
Le choix
The chairs don't match. Four moss, four rose. A full set would have looked like a restaurant.
Ce qu'on remarque
The chair at the head of the table is the only one with arms.
N° III
Her room
Bookshelves, a hand-painted crane, a brass desk lamp, hydrangeas the colour of the walls. The only room where nothing is green.
Colour formula
Lie de Vin 50 · Noyer 25 · Vieux Rose 15 · Laiton 10
Le choix
One painted panel between the shelves. The only pattern in the house that tells a story.
Ce qu'on remarque
The book on the desk is open, face down. Someone meant to come back to it.
N° IV
Through the half-open door
Deep green walls, ivory linen, a rose throw slipping off the bed. We are seeing this from the doorway, and that is as far as we go.
Colour formula
Bouteille 45 · Ivoire 25 · Noyer 15 · Vieux Rose 10 · Laiton 5
Le choix
The darkest walls in the flat for the one room that has to be dark. The ivory bed keeps it from feeling like a cave.
Ce qu'on remarque
Two lamps, both on. Two of everything on the bed.
N° V
Where the day starts
Marble with violet veins, a copper pan on the range, dark plums in a bowl, a cane-back chair by the window for coffee.
Colour formula
Bordeaux 40 · Marbre 20 · Noyer 20 · Ivoire 10 · Laiton 10
Le choix
The dining room's Bordeaux carried into the kitchen. Cooking and hosting feel like one room split by a wall.
Ce qu'on remarque
The blue-and-white vase again. It is in every room. She collects them.
N° VI
Five o'clock
Two chairs, a silver teapot, raspberries, the rooftops turning gold and a dome on the horizon.
Colour formula
Pierre 40 · Bouteille 20 · Laiton 15 · Fer forgé 15 · Vieux Rose 10
Le choix
Green velvet cushions outdoors. The house walks out onto the balcony with you.
Ce qu'on remarqueTwo cups. Hers, and one for whoever came to see the flat.
V — Les Détails
Bottle green, rose, moss. Velvet in every room, never the same shade twice.
Five rooms, five vases. The one thing she would take with her.
Sconces, handles, lamps. Left to darken on its own.
Violet-veined in the kitchen, carved white at the salon fireplace.
Herringbone oak from the front door to the balcony.
Dahlias, hydrangeas, roses. Changed this morning, in every room.
VI — L'Offre
The flat is not on the market.
She left one note on the console by the door:
“It goes to whoever understands it.”
Your offer
Noted. She'll be home at seven.
VII — La Signature
The rooms, the palette and the woman who lives here were imagined by Aya Muse Atelier. We build the identity and the digital world of a place before anyone walks into it.
Concept · Art direction · Digital experience
Create a world with us