A handful of restrained articles, written from the Valbonne atelier. No trend chasing, more what material, light and clients teach us.
The bathroom is the room we tend to last, yet it is often the first one we walk into each morning. In Cannes, when summer settles in, we like to turn it into a cool and quiet space, a small pause of pale stone and linen. Here is how we rethink it, without heavy work, using natural materials and plenty of light.
When summer settles over Valbonne, the bathroom becomes a small room to retreat to. We like to find a little coolness there at dawn and at dusk, when the stone still holds the softness of the night. At Emicasa, we treat this room as a calm place, turned towards natural materials and southern light.
When the heat settles over the French Riviera, we always return to the same materials. Linen, washed cotton, jute and hemp dress our interiors with a simple freshness. Here is how we mix them, room by room, in a house in Antibes.
When summer settles over the hills of Plascassier, we look for materials that soften the light and cool the house. Rattan, cane and woven fibres do exactly that. Here is how we bring them into a calm, lived-in decor.
At Emicasa Studio, we love rooms that know how to stay calm. A home office is one of those spaces where quiet matters as much as the furniture. In Chateauneuf-Grasse, between the hills and the olive groves, light comes in slowly in the morning and softens by the end of the day. It is a fine starting point for a room you want to sit, read and concentrate in.
At Emicasa Studio, we love the summer months for what they change in a room. In Mouans-Sartoux, the light lingers longer, the shutters stay half open, and the living room becomes the place where the house slows down. We offer a simple way to rethink this space for the warm season, with earthy tones, materials you want to touch and shapes that invite you to sit.
In Opio, the June light arrives slowly, filtered through olive trees and half-open shutters. It is the right moment to rethink the living room, the place where everyone gathers during the warm hours. At Emicasa, we like to start from this light and the materials that go with it, to shape a summer living room that feels cool, calm and full of life.
When the heat settles over the hills of Mougins, the bedroom becomes the room you want to feel calmest and coolest in the house. Here is how we dress it for summer, with simple materials, controlled light and a palette that rests the eyes.
Lime finishes and earthy tones are back in a big way this year, and they suit Valbonne well. Here is how we use them in our clients' homes for rooms that feel calm, soft and easy to live in all summer.
At Emicasa Studio, we like kitchens that feel like home rather than like a shop. In Grasse, the light shifts in character through the day, and the hills around the town already hand you a palette. Here is how we picture a Provencal kitchen that stays good-looking all year, without slipping into a frozen set or an over-polished kitchen.
In Antibes, summer moves the house outdoors. Meals, naps, long evenings, everything shifts to the terrace and the garden. We like to treat these spaces with the care of a real room, not as a place you simply pass through.
Biot's craft, its terracotta and its bubbled glass, gives objects that hold a story and a material. In 2026 the handmade returns to the front of the home. Here is how we place artisanal ceramic and glass in a Riviera interior, with the right restraint, to warm a room without crowding it.
To furnish a Cannes apartment that works for both short seasonal stays and full-time living, start with one principle: every room should function when you lock up for six months and when you live there daily. In Cannes the light decides almost everything, and a place furnished for it stays comfortable in August and in January alike.
To furnish a Provencal mas without slipping into pastiche, let the shell speak first. The golden stone, the lime plaster and the old terracotta floors already carry the room, and whatever you add should stay sparse and chosen for its material rather than its folklore.
A Valbonne bastide is decorated by respecting the stone, the light and the old floors. Here is how we make it easy to live in without erasing its character.
A second home is decorated around absence as much as presence. Easy to open and close, durable, ready on arrival. Here is how we help with this project, even from a distance.
To choose a lime finish, start with the state of the wall and the look you want. A limewash lays colour and a light patina, a lime plaster adds body, a polished stucco tightens the surface to a satin finish, and tadelakt is mainly for wet rooms.
Home staging or a decorative renovation? If you sell or let soon, staging. If you live in the place, renovation. Here is how to decide, from a atelier that does both.
For a summer on the French Riviera, linen is the most breathable fibre for curtains and light covers, hemp is the toughest for a sofa you use every day, and raw cotton is the softest and most affordable for a room you live in without fuss. That is the short answer. The longer one depends on your house, which way the rooms face, and how you spend June to September here.
In a hilltop home in Mougins, the right palette is not the one that looks good on a paint chart. It is the one that holds up under the hard July sun and still warms the rooms when the low, short December light comes in. Our rule at Emicasa is simple. We choose for the light first and for taste second.
To decorate a Belle Époque villa without weighing it down, keep what gives it character, the mouldings, the parquet, the marble fireplace and the cement tiles, then lighten everything else: pale walls, fewer heavy fabrics, simple furniture and as much light as you can get. A house from this period already has fine volumes. The work of decoration is rarely about adding. It is almost always about taking away, calming things down, and letting the rooms breathe.
Renovating a bastide in Valbonne turns on the order of decisions. Here is how our atelier coordinates the decorative side, layer by layer, without redoing work or regret.
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