In Lille, the superb Art Deco house of Tiphaine and Cédric

Four years ago, Tiphaine and Cédric became the owners of this 1930s Art Deco house in the north of France. After a long period of restoration and an initial development phase carried out with designer and interior architect Dries Otten, their colourful home is ready to welcome the family about to grow.

In 1933, Mr. Desmet, a trader by profession, acquired a 6,000 m² plot of land in the town of Ennetièreen-Weppes, about ten kilometers from Lille. He had an Art Deco-style house built there, in the golden age of this artistic movement, to settle in with his wife and their housekeeper. Accustomed to social events, the couple loved to entertain and planned a vestibule dressed in marble with the most beautiful effect, as well as a vast reception room and a dining room to welcome their guests.

In any case, this is the story that Tiphaine and Cédric told themselves when they bought this building almost a century later. When they began the first renovation work, they discovered small service bells and, behind each of the skirting boards, inscriptions left by the carpenter of the time that allow them to trace the layout of the rooms in the house. “These clues made me want to dig a little,” says the new owner. “I know that the couple then had a daughter, and then that they left in the 1950s. On an old population survey, I also found the names of the four occupants associated with this address.” For this couple in their thirties born in Lille and having always lived in the region, respectively an artistic director and a graphic designer, both self-employed, this villa
is a real favorite from the first visit. In the purest Art Deco style, the house is characterized by its geometric lines, its cubic volumes, its yellow brick facade and its large openings onto the garden. Although three other families have succeeded each other, the house is almost intact when the duo buys it in 2020. The partitions and original materials are still there, and the light fixtures and finishes such as the door handles are almost all from the period. The bathroom, which has remained in its original state for almost a hundred years, nevertheless only offers a bathtub without a shower system and a bidet for washing. Only the kitchen was modernized in the 2000s, which they will keep as is.

While major renovations are necessary – sanitation of the building, electricity, plumbing, heating and replacement of the 26 windows in the house – Tiphaine and Cédric’s primary ambition is to restore the soul of the house, while respecting the original architecture and aesthetics as much as possible. Meticulous, they embarked on research into the style of the period so as not to betray its identity, with the idea of reproducing the elements almost identically. However, new developments need to be imagined, in particular to create as much storage space as possible, since there was none, and to bring a touch of cheerfulness to this family home. “At first, the villa could seem a little empty and austere, with a dominance of black, gray and white, which does not necessarily correspond to our character, which is a little warmer and lively,” explains Tiphaine.

For this project, the couple called on Belgian interior designer and architect Dries Otten, whose work the young woman has admired for several years, and his collaborator Axelle Vertommen. The interior design duo began by designing the master bedroom, on the upper floor of this two-story house. Bright, with its row of windows and its bow window with marked angles overlooking the garden, this room with its unique energy is now Tiphaine and Cédric’s favorite place. Opposite the marble fireplace, a massive wooden headboard-wardrobe reflects the room’s Art Deco style. A long green chest of drawers elegantly dresses the whole. On the other side of the corridor, through its glass doors, the dressing room reveals an unexpected harmony, between a sculptural pink closet with brass finishes, a red fabric bench, wallpaper with white and blue stripes and a ceiling painted green.

In the bathroom, a small Art Deco gem that has remained intact, the gingham floor tiles and sea green walls have been preserved, as well as the double sink with beveled corners and the original bathtub. Tiphaine and Cédric had a shower designed by the duo installed and brought some color back to the room by dressing the doors with a touch of pink, and the century-old dressing table unit combining wood and marble in Klein blue. Behind the bathroom, in one of the narrow corridors in the house, which originally allowed the housekeeper to move discreetly between the living areas, a custom-made blue sideboard has been combined with a touch of orange, giving this space all its character.

In a second phase, interior designers Dries Otten and Axelle Vertommen tackled the villa’s vestibule with this astonishing green cupboard with chrome strips, inspired by the rounded radiator covers typical of the period. Then it was the turn of the bedroom of little Félix, born the year after the purchase of the house. In this room with a surface area of only 9 m², it was necessary to imagine an extendable bed, a desk and a large cupboard. Here again, the chromatic mix works wonders and gives the children’s space a welcome recreational spirit. Finally, the office room adjoining the entrance, where Cédric isolates himself during the day to work, also benefits from the expertise of the duo, who here offer a minimalist but still colorful ensemble. Seeing these contemporary creations with their graphic, almost playful aesthetic, so precisely in dialogue with the original architecture and the spirit of the house, we can say that the couple knew how to bring a little of their personality to this house, without distorting the character of the building.

“When revisiting the Cavrois villa located in the region, we realized that, in certain rooms, particularly the children’s bedrooms, Robert Mallet-Stevens had already allowed himself to use bright colors in 1932,” notes Cédric. At the time of our visit, if these reinvented 200 m² already seem grandiose to us, we know that the work is far from finished. The furniture from the couple’s previous home still ensures the transition in the immense living room-dining room, and the guest bedroom is waiting its time to be redesigned. Especially since the couple’s second child will very soon be showing up.

Another major project is the exterior and all its hidden treasures, such as this mosaic fountain located under the main stairs. The garden as a whole also needs to be landscaped and Tiphaine dreams of a checkerboard tiled swimming pool with Art Deco accents to replace the large fountain, which unfortunately cannot be restored. To finance the work, the young parents occasionally rent out their home to brands so that they can do their photoshoots there. A clever way for these insatiable creatives not to stop there. The appointment is made. In a few years, Mr. and Mrs. Desmet’s house could well have regained all its colors.