PARIS — Just because an estate or chateau falls to ruin, doesn’t mean its rooms can’t be saved. Carefully removing and preserving wall panels from estates and palaces and replicating them with masterful French savoir faire is what has driven the Féau Boiseries’ popularity in the upper echelons of society for the past 150 years.
During Paris Déco Off that ran Jan 15. to 18, the design community gravitated to the family-run atelier, just a few steps from the Arc de Triomphe. Amid the floors dusty with specks of oak, guests were invited to explore old and new designs, while a gilder named Stéphanie was brushing golden dust softly onto a fanciful molded oak design. This is just one example of how this fabled firm is preserving French artisan techniques that would otherwise be forgotten.
A gilder named Stéphanie was brushing golden dust softly onto a fanciful molded oak design.
Courtesy of Féau Boiseries
With this meticulous creative flair that has endured many decor epochs, the Féau family’s atelier infused French opulence into the homes of the Vanderbilts, Fords and the Gettys during the Gilded Age, and in modern times continues to outfit contemporary homes and conjure the interest of the fashion world. Before Karl Lagerfeld‘s death, the firm remodeled the suites of the Hôtel de Crillon under his stewardship and with the help of visionary architect and designer Aline Asmar d’Amman. Féau Boiseries has also sold rooms from its own private collection to museums — most recently a dining room designed in 1925 by Art Deco designer Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann for 19th century press baron Harold Sidney Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere. Today, its walls and pillars sit in the Louvre Abu Dhabi, along with a 17th-century ceiling, from the Louis XIV era, adorned with an allegorical painting.
“People think that when a house is torn down, the room…