A couple of weeks ago, fresh from returning from San-Francisco, I then headed to Paris to take back my niece Lily after she had spent the holidays with us in the Bay of Arcachon.

While I’m still finding my marks, this unplanned ‘gap year’ in France has been fantastic to see more of my family and old friends.

I love staying in my sister’s flat.

It is such a cosy, beautiful space with a real feel-good, happy vibe to it yet, the happy vibe was not a given…

Elodie got the key for her new home the day our dad left us.
She had spent the morning unpacking and decided to have a nap and I think, she had just woken up when I called her to announce her the bad news.

After several challenging months where Life was just throwing lemons at her, it was one bad news too many but I kept telling her it didn’t matter.
This was the place for her, the place she would call home and feel happy no matter what so credit to her for turning this space into a beautiful home despite the initial, dreadful, sad news.

When we first visited the flat together, the place was filled with baby paraphernalia from the previous owners and was heavily cluttered yet I could see it had good bones.
I loved the metal and wooden beams in the lounge and how open the room was.

It is also very well located in one of Paris’ coolest areas: Les Batignolles and had already plenty of natural light.
I advised her to paint the floorboards white to brighten up the space.
At first, she had doubts and thought it would make resell difficult in a few years but I convinced her it was better for her to have a few happy years in a flat that is a reflection of who she is rather than fitting into a space that is not quite her..Then she filled up the space with beautiful things she had acquired over the years, a mix of vintage treasures and designer pieces like the Ghost sofa by Paola Navone, prints from my old shop, antique elm stools and family photos. The metal chairs above were red initially and the gorgeous wooden table was found in a second-hand shop near our family home in the South West.
She got the filing cabinet on eBay and over the years between Lille and Barcelona, it has been used to store crockery, shoes and now papers.

What do you think of Elodie’s flat? It’s very BODIE and FOU, isn’t it!? :-)