During my last stay in Paris, I finally had the chance to take pictures of Louise‘s home. I’ve been admiring her home since I knew her blog and, as long as we became friends, I had the idea of featuring her place into my blog and she was pleased to accept.
I believe that decoration is something that reflects the personality of a person, like Mario Praz said “this, and nothing else, is, in its deepest essence, the home: a projection of the self”. Louise’s place is exactly what she really is, you can read her personality through the objects (and they are a lot), you can visually see her imaginary and dive into her world.
The whole apartment seems like a toilette of a cocotte, a boudoir of a late XIX century courtesan and that’s obviously because Louise has been studying courtesans and late XIX century culture since years. So the decoration is of course very influenced by late XIX century aesthetic but with a touch of oriental, all mixed up with a 70’s mood.
When I went to visit her, it was the day of my birthday and she was so kind to prepare for me this adorable teatime-table. I asked her how long she’s been decorating her home and she said “It took four years. But, you see, there’s nothing very precious, it’s a bunch of things that I hoarded within the years because I dislike throw aways things. They are all arranged in a particular way, symbolic and full of meanings to me, that I can change from time to time. There’s not a real order between things and I like to mix precious with fake, like kitsch”.
I said to her that her home always seemed to me an house museum and that’s probably the reason I wanted to take pictures of it so much. But there’s another reason this home is so important to me: in some way, and totally unaware, I had a little part in the completion. I am talking about the golden writing in the blue room that says “OSER VOULOIR SAVOIR SE TAIRE”. Those same words are the ones that Marchesa Luisa Casati wrote on the wall at Villa San Michele in Capri and that I visited few years ago. Louise saw the pictures I took of it and she recreated a similar writing in her home. And that’s how we came to be friends.
Louise Ebel’s blog: misspandora.fr
the tea-time table
The Red Room:
the library
The Blue Room:
“OSER VOULOIR SAVOIR SE TAIRE”
Other rooms:
the access room
the bathroom
the toilet
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