- Interior
Beautiful homes lead to beautiful lives. Interior architect Valérie Chomarat has a similar opinion, because in her work she strives for creating beauty in which architecture and surroundings meet. For over twenty years she has been developing a personal philosophy with her sensual minimalism that invariably translates the foundations of her visions to wonderful projects.
The foundation always remains the same for Valérie Chomarat: nature, geography, climate, history and purpose. By highlighting these aspects, she succeeds in consistently keeping the focus on the essence. Furthermore, Valérie Chomarat aims to only design considerate openings in a space. Since she incessantly returns to the question of what we see and how, she maintains the importance of perspective and connection in every design. Next to this, you can recognise Valérie Chomarat’s work by some of her favourite furniture and interior elements. Stairs, for example, are often one of the focal points of her design language and are a poetic expression of movement. Although staircases can often be a striking and dominant part of a home, Valérie is able to add a subtle modesty in this case. 
This family home in Bandol, France is located in a cove not far from the house where the interior architect herself spend holidays as a child. The sea view was one of her most prominent inspirations, because the endless horizon could easily be transformed into an architectural panorama. Naturally, the result is nothing but sublime. The elongated openings and stretched out volumes strengthen the presence of the azure blue water. Loyal to her parents’ home, Valérie Chomarat also developed a composition here in which the house, the garden, the sea and nature complement and overlap each other. Next to her childhood, the work of architect Tadao Ando functioned as a fruitful source of inspiration. The two central strengths that Valérie Chomarat further develops here are simplicity and singularity. The clarity of the lines tirelessly enters in a dialogue with the continuing materiality; a dynamic that culminates in a visually silent and soft whole.
Lines in dialogue with materiality
All elements were selected in function of the natural colour palette. On the exterior, the ochre of the facades mixes in with the surrounding landscape, whereas the tobacco-coloured tiles and the earthy tones of the masonry benches continue to set the tone inside. Moreover, the value of simplicity is proven here in the consistent use of the same local stone for the floors, the washbasins and the worktops. The grain of the walnut doors and kitchen cabinets creates the desired tactility. In this project Valérie Chomarat not only proved the quality of her services as interior designer, but also a sophisticated curator. More precisely, she expressed her love for art by providing the home of several works that she carefully selected. For example, she added ceramics of Bénédicte Vallet to the spaces, as well as sculptures of Julia Atlas and Robert Courtright. She picked out beautiful paintings by Sadaharu Horio and Yun Hyong-Keun; finally, she honoured her former mentor John Pawson with a couple of photographs by him. 
In her work, interior architect Valérie Chomarat utilises every opportunity to appreciate simplicity and nearby nature. With her sensual minimalism she forms creations that manifest tranquillity and serenity. Imagicasa hopes that in her future work she will remain loyal to her characterising vision, because it has already proven to find a lot of resonance with the international public.
Do you want to know more about Valérie Chomarat? Read the full article in Imagicasa Summer 2022.
Photography by Vincent Leroux