I have posted bits and pieces of Janet de Botton’s house in Provence before, but I think it’s time to post the entire home. The estate located in Les Baux with great views over Les Baux’s barren was published in Vogue a few years back. Janet de Botton and her late husband Gilbert enlisted French decorator and landscape designer Jean-Louis Raynaud and his American partner Kenyon Kramer to create an elegant and sophisticated home with amazing gardens.
The home style is an exercise in restraint and elegance. Although every room is perfect as they are, today I would however update certain areas to make it more relevant. The magnificent gardens on the other hand, I would not alter. The expansive gardens are comprised of an elaborate late-17th-century-style box maze, an allée of more than three-hundred plane trees, an 18th-century Romanesque temple, a grove of ancient Spanish olive trees, a lake framed by apple trees and Japanese maples, a potager and, of course, fields of brilliant lavender.
Love all the furniture pieces in the drawing-room especially the side tables. The drawing-room is different from the living room. The drawing-room was very a formal room outside the King’s bedroom where the privileged members would gather in the mornings to see the king. This is the reason perhaps why this room is more on the formal side as a nod to traditions. For instance, both of the sofas, a 19th-century English sofa on the left and a Louis XVI settee are not something I would use for a living room which is intended to be more comfortable.
In that note, this is, after all, a living room, so I would definitely use more ample, upholstered comfortable sofas, I would add an area rug to soften the beautiful tiled floors. I would keep the side tables and the Louis XVI fauteuil chairs against the wall.
The palette throughout the house resembles that of the landscape, toupe, lavender, browns and blues, and pinks.
The library is my favorite space in the house and I would not change one thing in it.
The dining room’s walls are lined with Provincial Louis XV canvas. The Louis XVI chairs covered in their original Aubusson tapestry. I would keep this room as is, however, I would replace the dolphin stone for something else and move the sculpture somewhere else.
The breakfast room with a display of a collection of 18th-century Marseilles faience. The room is perhaps the most romantic room in the house. I would keep the walls as they are, would replace the sconces and chairs for something more modern to bring a bit more juxtaposition to the room.
I love the iron railing. Would keep everything as is, including the tapestry which softens up the bare walls.
I adore this sitting area in a bedroom. I would keep everything and add one area rug. The cupboard and the chic touch of the red lacquered desk is everything.
Everything in the Gardens calls my name and the mere act of looking at these images gives me immense happiness.
The guest house below, I’ll be more than happy with just this little house in Provence.
