Liaigre : 12 projects

How does a decorator avoid succumbing to the lure of mere «decoration»? In other words, how does one steer clear of artificial add-ons, instead clothing a space in poetry, quiet serenity, and attentive care, so that the walls sit perfectly, like a bespoke garment?

For the decorator, applying one's own rigorous standards to serve the client's needs is the key. Placing that perfect, soft rug beneath the tread of a bare foot first thing each morning; ensuring a door handle, grasped time and again, is designed as much for its elegance as the pleasure it imparts when touched.

People need beauty.

Our surroundings should function like a work of art, appealing to our emotions, swathing us in security as we cross the threshold.

Sometimes, we take inspiration from the Dutch Masters, flooding our interior with natural light. Early man «decorated» his caves, responding not to an urge to impress, but to a psychological need to make the occupied space his own, as an expression of identity. Interior architecture and design are, on occasion, synonymous with timelessness, beauty, harmony, understated luxury: but every interior should be this way. Beauty calms the human spirit and brings people together.

The decorator has a duty to study the local culture, to become steeped in the setting for each new project, to be attentive to the sensations evoked by a place in the minds and bodies of the people who live there, while never losing sight of his or her own identity. Beauty inheres not in the triviality of abundance, but in delicacy, rarity, and restraint.

I shall not reiterate, once again, my great admiration for Versailles, the epitome of decorative perfection; instead, I will talk about other spaces (apartments, houses, yachts), each with a spirit all their own. Because, like a great painter or writer, the creative decorator must rise above his private tastes and adapt, so that people will say, «My, how good we feel here!» Genius loci, the true spirit of place.