It all started with salvaged objects. Two stools. Simple shapes. A discreet presence. Nothing exceptional on the surface, but a solid foundation. An open potential.
When I met Julie Prats, interior designer and founder of Spatule & Guéridon, a clear path naturally emerged. We shared the same attention to craftsmanship, materials, and territory. And especially to the South. The desire to create unique pieces, rooted in a certain light, rather than a trend.
Before sketching, even before discussing patterns, we took the time to observe. To clarify what we wanted to bring into existence. Very quickly, an image presented itself: Marseille in summer. The high sun. The clear light. The sea in the background. The mineral, the salt, the raw. It wasn't a style. It was a sensation.
The stools then became the obvious medium. An object capable of inhabiting both outdoor and indoor spaces. Functional, yet present. An everyday object that interacts with light. Julie began her search. We ultimately chose to salvage two Maisons du Monde stools that were being used on a client's terrace. Their story had begun elsewhere. We were going to relocate it.
The color came next. Not from a color chart, but from precise memories. The blue of the calanques, dense and vibrant, never still, always traversed by water. The ocher warmed by the sun, that of stone and earth, almost powdery. Two shades like an ode to Provence, stripped of all folklore. A lived, everyday, inhabited Provence.
From this palette, I designed an all-over pattern for the cotton canvas seats. A design conceived for the space. To be seen up close as well as from afar. To accompany the object without fixing it. Here, color doesn't just decorate. It creates an atmosphere. It circulates light. It connects the object to its environment. The Canopée Jaune Ocre and Bleu Calanque pattern was born at this precise point.
The design remained deliberately structured, almost contained. It was the color that shifted the object, giving it a different interpretation. It transformed these vintage stools into pieces rooted in a territory, a season, a light.
The material was still missing. The raw. The gesture.
I have a deep attachment to wood, straw, raffia, rattan. To their natural shades, their irregularities, their relationship to time. I wanted a hand weave. A slow gesture. To see the material emerge, strand by strand.
I chose to hand-weave the white metal structures with raffia. An organic material, chosen for its ability to interact with light. The gesture evokes the strands of Posidonia washed up on Mediterranean beaches. The white reflects light. The raffia absorbs it, shades it, warms it. Here again, it's all about balance.
Little by little, the stools shed their second-hand status to become Le Bain des Dames. A duo of seats with Mediterranean accents, where color tells a story of a place, a season, a sensation more than a style.
This project was born from a dialogue.
Between decoration and pattern.
Between reinterpretation and design.
Between vision and gesture.
Reinventing these stools was about offering them another light. Another way of existing. Ultimately, this is what my work always conveys: inhabiting the object through color and material.
🌞 Discover our iconic pieces: Le Bain des Dames Stools, Canopée Bleu Calanques fabric by the meter, Canopée Ocre fabric by the meter
And to discover Julie's work @spatuleetgueridon