You're a decorating fanatic but, once you've closed your pretty magazine, how can you adapt the precepts of the pros to your home?
Here's a look at some of our favorite personalities who have been kind enough to share their vision of decorating.
With generosity, they tell you about their choices and share inspiring tips and advice.
Today we're talking to
Victoria Douyère
Victoria, can you introduce yourself?
I founded my interior design agency in 2019, after two years of working as a freelance designer for a Parisian agency. It wasn’t always an obvious career choice for me and for a long time I was looking at other options. I studied political science and then I went to business school without the faintest idea as to what I was going to do next. Then on a work trip to Copenhagen I had a lightbulb moment. Each interior I saw was more refined than the last and I discovered the kind of iconic design pieces that Scandinavians love. I was obsessed! My agency is now five years old. We are based in the south east of France where I find it easier to work on projects with a more Mediterranean feel.
An interior decorating mantra?
To refuse is to choose. I don’t always manage to apply the rule to myself but it’s so true! We are permanently assailed by photographs of beautiful interiors or adverts for furniture. Interior trends change at the speed of light and you can find yourself trying all sorts of new styles but they don’t always work together. You need to know how to renounce certain ideas and look instead for balance and coherence.
What do you think of the concept of good taste?
It’s a very subjective concept. For me it’s about being able to create a harmonious whole by mixing different textures, shapes and colours. It’s much easier to have ‘good’ taste when you are creating an interior that is pared back and timeless. I have much more admiration for interior designers who go out on a limb and create interiors that are audacious and colourful, where you look at something and think ‘wow, I would never have thought of that but it works so well.’ That’s genius!
If you were a room in the house?
The kitchen. Nowadays it’s the space where you receive your guests, have drinks, prepare supper for your friends or eat together as a family. It’s often the most important room for our clients, much more so than the dining room for example. I really like to make it one of the central rooms in a house.
The top 3 things on your bucket list?
- To go on a trip to Polynesia with my family
- To renovate a hotel in the South of France (it looks like it’s going to happen, fingers crossed!)
- To have a house by the sea (one can always dream…)
If you were an artist?
A painter. I’m not bad with a brush but I’m not creative enough. At the moment I’m obsessing over the work of Johanna Godeau.
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A dream project?
To renovate a hotel or a villa with a view over the Mediterranean in a fabulous, escapist holiday style.
A current obsession?
Brushed aluminium kitchens.
A commitment to a better tomorrow?
Sometimes we have to redo interiors that are barely ten years old. It’s terrible to have to throw things away that are still in good working order (and that are often worth a fortune) so we try to give them away on Leboncoin or to an agency that will sell them on and give them a new lease of life.
Victoria’s world
Reinvent yourself
I was always a very conscientious student but like a lot of people, I didn’t really have a vocation. I chose my degree a bit randomly and ended up working as a consultant. I ended up going to Denmark at a point when I really wanted to work abroad and during the first months of my time there I started to become fascinated by interior design and architecture. It took me three years to take the leap, quit my job and retrain. In the beginning I was almost embarrassed to talk about it. I had the sense that people didn’t take me seriously, as if I had done it on a whim. The first years were hard as I didn't have the opportunity to work on little projects for friends and family. I had to start really small - a made to measure bookshelf for example and then a studio flat. But over time my perseverance (and a bit of luck no doubt) paid off and today I can safely say that I have the job of my dreams!
Look and learn
Earlier we talked about good taste. If you want to keep creating harmonious spaces without repeating yourself it’s important to look at what other designers are doing and to take an interest in new materials, new trends, art etc.
From North to South
In Paris I adore renovating Haussman flats. The shell is so incredibly beautiful that it’s relatively simple to enhance it with simple accessories and furniture. But now that my agency is in the south I need (and want) to adapt. I would like to work on more architectural projects that will perhaps be simpler in terms of decoration and accessories but that will need more planning and design work.
Materials matter!
I absolutely love to work with wood of every variety but especially oak and walnut and also okoume, mahogany or birch. I love stone too (marble, travertine, quartz etc). Natural stone is of course magnificent but we do use ceramic imitations because the upkeep is much easier for our clients. I also love polished concrete which is both sleek and warm at the same time.
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And textiles?
Linen forever! Refined, yet relaxed, I use it all the time for curtains, bedclothes and throws. I love the way it can be so light and transparent that the light passes through.
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Practical yet chic
When you are doing up someone’s home it’s vital to mix the aesthetically pleasing with the practical. Functionality is all about the way you move through a space, lighting, the choice of materials and of course, storage. Beauty is about a sense of volume and space, the harmony between colours and materials and the decorative details. It’s all a question of balance so as not to prioritise one over the other.
A favourite colour palette?
I was always a huge fan of black and white but since I moved south to Marseille in 2022 I’ve had to have a break from black which isn’t really a colour you use much in Mediterranean interiors. Now I tend to work with a palette of predominantly whites and beiges and I add a variety of materials like wood, stone or coloured tiles to add colour. I am currently working on a kitchen plan where the worktop will be in green quartzite that is just incredible. I hope my clients will agree! White walls also give you much more freedom in your choice of furniture and textiles and provide an excellent backdrop for works of art.
Hide and seek
Everything (or almost everything) can be on show as long as you are tidy! If you don’t want to spend your whole time tidying though it’s better to go for as many cupboards as possible with just a few beautiful objects on show.
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Do you stick to a theme when decorating?
The thread running through a house tends to come from the surrounding environment (south? north? urban? rural?) and the type of construction (a provençal farmhouse? a 1970s villa?). But ultimately most decisions depend on the personality of the family that is going to live there, their tastes, their way of life and the things they love. The main objective is for them to feel at home!
