A Former Lamp Factory in Belgium Has Been Transformed Into a Loft With a Modernist Spirit and Scenography that Honours the Memphis Movement

We are a couple of creative types who make a good team and complement each other – in our work and private life. We have been together for twelve years and both come from Loir-et-Cher where we met. We’ve lived in Brussels for three and a half years, it’s a city that inspires us and boosts our creativity.

I’ve always been creative and a dreamer, I never really felt like I belonged, either in school or in my previous jobs. After secondary school, I tried my hand at various things: a content writer for a start-up, I then studied cosmetics for three years and became an artistic make-up artist while also continuing my studies. Add to this my experience as a sales consultant for the luxury market as well as a fashion columnist for a local TV channel… I needed to find meaning in my work, so aged 25, I left my last job to start my own business. After doing a business creation course, I founded Cool Machine, supported and assisted by Édouard. It was an online store dedicated to emerging artists and designers from around the world for which I also curated the works. Cool Machine was a way for me to use my own “naive” eye, to get into the design industry without any formal education. Seven years of running my business have educated my eye thanks to a multitude of ultra-contemporary young talents who I discovered. But I gradually became a bit frustrated with Cool Machine: I needed to satisfy my creativity another way. So I have recently moved into interior design, which allows me to combine my passion for vintage furniture with my love of ultra-contemporary design. As well as sourcing for my private/professional clients, I’m also a consultant on various projects and am currently working on my very first job as a decorator.

After leaving secondary school, and not being able to go away to study, I did a Diploma in Communication. I then began to develop an interest in image work and website development. I’m currently working on obtaining a professional licence in audiovisuals.  My TV script career started in Tours, or rather as a production assistant-editor-operator-video-director because in local TV everyone does a bit of everything – you learn a lot! In addition to my official role as a scriptwriter, I love editing; I occasionally have the pleasure of working as a director. At the same time, Hélène and I started developing Cool Machine and that confirmed my need for independence. So I resigned from my full-time position and moved into temp work! When I don’t have a contract, I work with Helen. I shoot the products and edit the photos, I develop process execution to save us time so that Hélène can devote herself to the more creative e-shop part. There is still a strict work rhythm, but it’s fun. Seven years later, we decided to put Cool Machine on the back burner. But thanks to Hélène’s talent, and her ability to draw attention to her aesthetics and visual compositions, we are working together on different orders to create photo and video content for various brands, while I also work on my TV contracts.

We’ve always lived in provincial areas, close to nature. We wanted a livelier cultural life, but we’re a very quiet couple and couldn’t see ourselves living in a buzzing city like Paris, for example… We visited Brussels at the very beginning of our relationship and loved the vibe. It’s a small capital city. We’ve found the same calm and simplicity of human relationships that we had in Tours, but with a very rich cultural life. Not having had the opportunity to travel for our studies, we felt the need to embark on this “long-term journey” in Belgium, without moving too far from France and our loved ones.

Our move to Brussels was quick. We found our first apartment here within a couple of days and back then didn’t have the time to explore all the possibilities; we didn’t know much about the city’s different areas. Once we’d settled into our new life, we looked elsewhere. We found this loft on a specialist website. It was the first and only loft we visited. It was in the middle of the pandemic, the former tenant was only using it as a studio to produce their paintings, and she hadn’t used it for a year. When we visited it, it was almost empty. We were charmed by the volume and 130 m2 size (we’d always lived in homes that were 70 m2 max), the ceiling is 3.50 m high, it has huge industrial windows, the bricks are painted white and the modernist feel of the wood structure meant we could separate the main room from the master suite while benefiting from lots of storage space. We were immediately inspired by the cubic shape of the kitchen and bathroom. We’re lucky to have a landlord who lets us feel fully at home here.

When we arrived, we only had very small items of furniture, adapted to our old homes. We had to look at things from a different perspective. The starting point was the piece by the artist Julie Lansom and our set of Orsay chairs by Gae Aulenti for Knoll that we definitely wanted to keep. Their green wool guided our early ideas, it is the defining colour in our main room. We had fun with a wide range of greens: from grass green to almond green and forest green. We wanted to create a kind of indoor garden and I designed the carpet with the craftspeople at Stitch Rugs which contributes greatly to the theme. Its long woollen fabric warms the flat, which at first glance isn’t that obvious in an industrial loft with a concrete floor. We then added a few touches of stitched colours here or there, including Julie’s piece. You’ll find pink with the Donut pouffe by Sabine Marcelis for Hem, and the yellow mirror by Laurène Guarneri provides the golden hour that we miss here and accentuates the indoor-outdoor idea… Most of our furniture is second-hand. We have a lot of furniture with curved shapes and smooth materials like plexiglass, metal, lacquered wood… We chose to combine materials and create contrast with stone and concrete such as our old flower pots which are in their original condition, the pink travertine on the cube from Talka, ceramics and raw wood in our small decorative objects… On the other hand, we opted for very warm colours in our master suite. We wanted to create a darker and more comforting space with the pieces we use, yet still very much inspired by the 1970s and 1980s. Most of our furniture came with us when we moved into our apartment. The Plona armchair by Giancarlo Piretti for Castelli was my very first designer purchase, found at a neighbour’s, who is the daughter of collectors, when we lived in Tours. Roger Lecal’s Lipstick mirror was found by my dad, who spent around €50 on it at the time. We also found a yellow Donut light and a September Rose stool by Axel Chay, a young designer whom I’ve followed right from the start and whom I particularly love. There is also a painting by Juliette Dubois, a Brussels artist!