In conversation with Diane de Sédouy

You are a decoration addict, but once you’ve closed aside your favorite magazine, how to adapt the precepts of the experts at home?

Here are some of our favourite personalities who havebeen kind enough to share this vision of interior design. With generosity, they indulge you with their choices, share tips and inspiring advice.

I’m an interior designer. I set up my own agency in 2018. I’ve always been in a creative environment professionally – images, colours, set design. When I set up my agency, I wanted to be more independent in the way I worked on projects and to be able to offer clients a completely personalized experience. We offer a totally bespoke service where everything is unique and reflects the personality of our clients.

Your interior design mantra?

Elegance and colour.

What do you think of the concept of good taste?

I think it’s a rather subjective criterion which evolves as we get older and gain in experience. What I am sure of is that it isn’t something you can learn from a book and there is no way to decree what good taste is. It evolves over time, you can learn it over time, it improves over time. The professions of decoration and design are all about intuition. Decisions are not empirical; they are totally intuitive, which is why it’s so hard to delegate the creative aspect of my work.

If you were a room in the house?

The bedroom. I adore bedrooms because you can really play around with different materials and use a lot of fabric. I just love fabric: the colours, beautiful bed linen, wall coverings, bedheads, throws and lots and lots of cushions. I enjoy spending a lot of time in the bedroom, alone or with my partner and my children. It’s the most intimate space in a house. I think that for me it’s like a boudoir from another era (such as I imagine them). When I work on a client’s bedroom it’s like a journey to a different world, somewhere very feminine and very elegant. I often lose myself in my memories when I start work on a new bedroom.

Sarah Bernhardt. Her life was one long adventure and she had so many talents. I admire female artists whose courage and fortitude serves as an example.

Your dream project?

To renovate a hotel in an extraordinary location such as by the sea, in the mountains or deep in the countryside.

To make more time! Time is the hardest thing to master. You can’t slow it down and watching it run away makes me feel anxious. I’m always looking for a way to optimize my use of time so I can do everything I need from a professional and personal perspective.

A commitment for the world of tomorrow?

To communicate with the next generation about artisanship. I think a lot about the professions that will exist tomorrow and I am convinced that we need to value these age-old skills in order to be able to offer the next generation a world where AI won’t always have the upper hand. Without the craftsmen and women I work with, my ideas would just be sketches on a piece of paper. I never cease to be shocked when I hear that classes are being cancelled because there aren’t enough pupils in the manual sphere. There is so much knowledge to pass on! I still don’t quite know exactly what form my efforts will take but we need to do something.

Your definition of the ideal interior?

Warm and colourful, with beautiful objects and furniture that tell a story, memories of a holiday or a family member. And cushions everywhere. My clients always have furniture that they want to keep and I love to build interiors around these elements. It helps to create spaces that are intimate and different.

Indispensable accessories I am always on the hunt for antique mirrors, furniture and lights which I often have restored. For me, bringing together different styles and epochs is key to a successfully designed project.

What is French ‘art de vivre’?

I am deeply convinced that French ‘art de vivre’ is inextricably linked to the way that we welcome people into our homes and all my projects focus on this idea of « receiving » guests. I always try to imagine spaces where a family can live but also receive visitors in complete elegance. There is a balance to be found in the choice of materials and colours, the creation of reception rooms that can be used in a variety of ways and kitchen design that allows for this room in particular to be used in multiple different ways. The choice of table linen for example is an essential detail that helps to bring elegance to a space.

Never without my…

Wallpaper. It has an incredibly transformative effect! I either use it to cover one wall or as a work of art within a frame, or from floor to ceiling in an uninteresting room.

Home is where the art is

Artisans play a pivotal role in all our projects which would never come to fruition without them. Made-to-measure is the secret to creating homes that really resemble your clients. We spend hours together talking and I try to capture their ideas, wishes and desires in the rooms and furniture (for example a headboard, a desk, a work of art, an ornament…) that we create. 

How do you bring a forgotten room back to life?

I would use wallpaper on the upper half of the walls with a dado rail and paint below. It works every time!

Colour =

Colour = life! I frequently have to really push my clients to use colour as it makes them nervous but then they get a taste for it and suddenly, colour everywhere! Without colour a space is cold and lacking in interest. It’s what creates variety in a room and helps objects to really stand out. For me it’s where creativity really begins but it’s also where problems start as you need to know how to choose and mix colour!

Trends: follow or flee?

It’s hard not to be influenced by fashion and it would be deeply pretentious to say that one always manages to create new and unique interiors with every project. I don’t necessarily seek novelty, rather I like to create cosy spaces where the taste of my clients is expressed freely and elegantly.

Inspiring materials I have a predilection for brass for the way it reflects light and adds a hint of gold without being over the top; wood of every type and style (old, natural, lacquered, sanded, varnished or oiled) for decorative and practical purposes, and metal which I like to use for doors, around glass, on fittings and furniture.