Robert Couturier's eye for scale, color, and material is just as appropriate for modern living as it would have been in the ancien régime he so favors. The ELLE DECOR A-List Titan's skill is such that a lifetime wouldn't be long enough for most to achieve it. "I think I was born designing," he says. "I had absolutely no inclination to do anything else." Even in geometry class, for which Couturier had a noted aptitude, his mind traveled to aesthetics. "At college, when everyone else was rendering a cube, I chose to render the coronation carriage of King Philip of Spain," he says. And now, after decades living in the United States, he has returned to the country that shaped his vision.
Couturier calls it destiny that the perfect summer place for him a 17th-century manor in Normandy, France, modest by the usual standards with just three bedrooms and a few surrounding acres-was in the same area as a former family home he knew as a child. "I only discovered after buying it that a house of my grandmother's was a few miles away," he says. It was an easy thing to missCouturier's grandmother had inherited the building from her father, but with only one daughter and several other residences between her and her husband, it made little sense to keep it. Couturier was five when he last visited.
The newly acquired abode is the crowning achievement of a decades-long career. Originally owned by a family of Huguenots before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes forced them to relocate, it is undeniably grand and yet still surprisingly livable.
Bu hikaye Elle Decor US dergisinin March 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Elle Decor US dergisinin March 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
BIOGRAPHY OF A ROOM
BE IT VIA GOSSIP GIRL, SEX AND THE CITY, OR REAR WINDOW, we all have our fantasy versions of New York City.
SNOW in Every WINDOW
IN MONTANA'S EXCLUSIVE YELLOWSTONE CLUB, COMMUNE DELIVERS A WEST COAST GROOVE TO A HOME WITH PRISTINE VIEWS OF BIG SKY COUNTRY.
VIENNA WAITS FOR YOU
DESIGNER BEN PENTREATH RECOUNTS HOW HE BROUGHT A VIBRANT ENGLISH SENSIBILITY TO A QUINTESSENTIAL AUSTRIAN TOWNHOUSE.
IT'S HUMAN NATURE
SHEILA BRIDGES DRAWS FROM VERMONT'S HISTORY AND WILDERNESS TO BRING LIFE AND CHARACTER TO A SPRAWLING NEW HOME.
MIAMI? MINIMAL.
DESIGNER MARTIN BRÛLÉ MAKES FABULOUS UNFUSSY IN A SOUTH FLORIDA PIED-À-TERRE.
ALESSIA in WONDERLAND
IN THE ITALIAN SKI RESORT OF CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, A MILANESE HOMEOWNER TAPS HER ARCHITECT SISTER TO BUILD AN ALPINE CHALET WITH FANTASTICAL FLAIR.
DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER DRAMA?
Cinemas were once dazzling architectural statements. Now, after decades of the pictures literally getting smaller, there's a renewed appetite for Golden Age glamour.
The Life of Bath
The ancients invented them, the Enlightened brought them home, and the Victorians gave them feet. Tubs continue to evolve but are as much a luxury today as they've ever been.
IT'S SO VERY YOU
So what if it's a rental? Swap out the curtains, put up new wallpaper, go crazy. It's your home after all, so own it - even if you really don't.
CIAO, MADISON
A new 12-story building offers a blueprint for how to live like Armani.