Au Revoir for Now
A designer heads to France — for inspiration, for beauty, and for the pure joy of it all.
I am not going to France to work. I want to say that right up front. This trip is a gift — to myself, to my family, and most of all to my mom, who is turning 80 this year. She wants to ride horses through the countryside, take long self-guided walks through villages she has always dreamed of visiting, and do a little shopping. We are going to do exactly that, and I could not be more excited to celebrate her this way.
But I would be lying if I said my designer's eye ever truly turns off.
It doesn't. It can't. When you love what you do the way I love this work, inspiration doesn't wait for permission. It finds you at a flea market in the Marais, in the drape of a linen curtain in a countryside auberge, in the way a centuries-old farmhouse uses light. France has always been a country that teaches me something new every time I visit, and I plan to come home with fresh eyes and a notebook full of ideas.
France doesn't just have a design aesthetic — it has a design philosophy. It is the belief that beauty is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
The Fabric Houses That Inspire Me Most
French textile design is in a category all its own. There is a depth of craft, a richness of history, and a fearlessness with color and pattern that I find endlessly inspiring. These are the houses I always come back to.
Braquenié
Printed Cotton & Silk
Created in 1824 and now part of the Pierre Frey family, Braquenié is a living archive of extraordinary printed textiles. Historical treasures with a timeless relevance.
Pierre Frey
Fabric & Wallpaper
Founded in 1935, Pierre Frey is the house I reach for when I want something that feels both collected and intentional. Their prints are bold, their linens are extraordinary and their wallpapers tell a story.
Lelièvre
Upholstery & Drapery
A Parisian house with deep roots in high-quality wovens, velvets, and textured fabrics. The kind of fabric that makes a room feel considered from the very first glance.
Manuel Canovas
Fabric & Trimmings
Joyful, colorful, and unapologetically romantic. Manuel Canovas fabrics remind me why I fell in love with interiors in the first place. The prints feel alive.
The Designers Who Shape How I Think
French interior and furniture design has given the world some of its most enduring voices. These are the names I study, admire, and aspire to in my own work.
Pierre Yovanovitch
Interior & Furniture Designer
A master of scale and authenticity. Yovanovitch blends oversized architectural elements with deeply personal objects. His rooms feel brave and deeply human at the same time.
Jean-Louis Deniot
Interior Designer
The way Deniot works with texture, pattern, and color is masterful. He tailors every project to the client the way a couturier approaches a dress. His rooms feel personal and completely alive.
Ligne Roset
Furniture
Design-forward, modern, and endlessly sophisticated. Ligne Roset proves that French furniture can be both deeply comfortable and visually extraordinary.
India Mahdavi
Interior & Furniture Designer
Nobody uses color and form the way India Mahdavi does. Her work is joyful, sculptural, and completely original. She reminds me that interiors should make you feel something.
What I Am Hoping to Bring Home
Beyond the obvious joy of the trip itself, France always gives me something I can’t quite name until I’m back home and sitting at my desk. It is a feeling more than a thing. A recalibration. A reminder of why proportion matters, why quality of materials is worth every penny, and why a room should make you feel something the moment you walk into it.
I am hoping to walk through village markets and find objects with history. I am hoping to sit in rooms in old farmhouses and study how the light moves and how the furniture is arranged. I am hoping to wander into small shops I have never heard of and discover a fabric house or a ceramic maker that stops me in my tracks. That is the kind of discovery you cannot Google. You have to just show up and be open to it.
I am also hoping to spend time simply looking at French countryside homes and thinking about materiality. The way the French mix old and new, worn and refined, humble and luxurious, is something I try to bring into every project I work on. There is no better classroom than the real thing.
The French countryside teaches you that beauty is not about perfection. It is about patina, authenticity, and the courage to leave things a little imperfect.
I will be away from May 9th through May 22nd. My clients are in wonderful hands with Eileen while I am gone, and I cannot wait to return with a fresh perspective and new ideas to bring to all of the incredible projects we are working on together.
More soon from the French countryside. Bon voyage to me!
❧Every trip to France reminds me why I became a designer. Beauty is not something the French reserve for special occasions. It is simply how they live.
