What to do when you are mad about interior design and your favorite store has had to close...

We turn to the interior designers who we particularly admire and who have been kind enough to share their tips with us.

Style advice, design tips and decorating wisdom.

Today we talk to

Aurélie Lécuyer

 

 

Aurélie, can you introduce yourself ?

I was a stylist and then a photographer before creating Grès, a collection of ceramic lamps that are made by hand in France. I like situations that are ever changing where I can use new ideas or draw from the past to create new projects.

 

 

Your interior design mantra?

Not to overdo things and to allow your instinct to come through with simplicity.

 

What do you think of the concept of good taste?

It’s something totally subjective so it really only exists in the mind of certain people.

 

The top three things on your bucket list

  • To swim in the sea
  • Sleep under the stars
  • Walk for hours in the wilds of nature
 

If you were an artist?

An artist with freedom, totally unknown.

 

Your dream project?

To live in the middle of nowhere by the ocean.

Your current obsession?

To renovate an old farmhouse

 
 

The delicate world of Aurélie Lecuyer

 

 

 

How is your aesthetic vision reflected in your life?

I feel like there isn’t really a line between by life and my aesthetic. The two are of mutual and joint influence. As I get older, I try to simplify and really strip things back.

 

How would you define your creative process?

I would say that it’s totally transverse and permeable. It can start from a colour, a visit, an exhibition, a journey or an encounter. I’ve been collecting images for years, there’s not really a process to it, I just archive them and then come back to them at a later date. I don’t really work in a planned way. It’s all very instinctive and spontaneous. I find that that way, you leave room for things to unfold freely and intuitively. It’s a shifting process that is never too defined or restrictive.

 

What is your perception of beauty?

For me beauty is first and foremost something that helps to create a sense of security that comes from being surrounded by objects, materials and colours that I have chosen. So, linen for example – French, natural, durable, like the linen from the Sandhills collection. Wool too and mohair have this evocative, enveloping effect that creates a sense of reassurance and of calm. Beauty is really about what you feel, what you perceive, it’s a very fine, personal balance. Sometimes it comes from something very small, a detail.

 

 

Yours is a world that we can discover through words and images

Yes, perhaps I do provide one interpretation of the images. But everyone can project themselves into an image, see a different story. I find that when I add words there is something of my context, a new dimension which allows for a variety of different interpretations.

 

 

 

Hand in hand with a ceramicist

I don’t have the patience to learn a craft that requires so many years of practice and a lot of humility. I’m full of admiration for Benoit Audureau’s work. He creates the lamps for Grès. His expertise is something which I absolutely don’t possess. The wide variety of possibilities that clay affords in his hands allow me to imagine a wide variety of new collections. It’s truly a partnership that is full of intuition and spontaneous exchange. I am very humble in my approach to craft and its ability to stand the test of time. There is something wonderful about working with a long-lasting product, something functional that you can grow attached to over time.

 

 

 

What does it mean to work responsibly?

Proximity, a story that makes sense, closer ties, a return to fundamental processes.


 

Do you think a house with zero plastic is a real possibility?

It’s a huge challenge. Plastic is omnipresent, both in building materials, food, textiles etc. But we need to persevere by making intelligent choices, even if for now I would say that we are still quite some way off.

 

 

Nature

Spending lots of time in nature is of vital importance to me. I need to garden, to walk, watch, just be in nature, observing the change of the seasons and really feeling at one with the elements. A house that makes all of this possible is somewhere restful, somewhere to feel protected, a haven from where you can freely evolve in the world outside.

 


Aurélie shopping list


aurelielecuyer.com
@aurelie__lecuyer
@gresceramics