When Hélène le Chatelier moved to Dublin she brought a diverse range of furniture with her, writes EMMA CULLINAN

Product designer Hélène le Chatelier is designing the interior of a hotel in Mumbai, and in her spare time wrote a novel which has just been published in France – all from her chic home in Foxrock. Her work has been sold in the Conran shops and stores in France. Three years ago she moved from Paris to Dublin where she lives in Foxrock with her husband, Ghislain, and their three young children.

You have quite a mix of pieces in here, why is that?

I like to mix different styles. Some of this furniture is from flea markets and some is contemporary.

Many things here bring memories and to me that is very important. A house reflects what you are; it’s a part of you.

The trunk came from my husband’s grandfather who carried it everywhere he went when he was in the army. The two armchairs with wooden arms came from my grandfather. I found the sofa in a flea market.

It was covered in red imitation leather, and I had it recovered in real leather. I love flea markets: that is something missing in Ireland.

I love to have a look around and find interesting things and recouper; take a very old piece of furniture and renovate it to give it a second life. Old things give soul to a house.

I bought the pale wooden chair on honeymoon in Madagascar. It was probably made by a poor man and the fabric chair was probably made by someone more well known but they work together fine.

That is life – a mix of everything – and when you combine things in your livingroom, you reflect the world in all its diversity.

I bought three contemporary boxes by a French designer Cedric Ragot. I found them in Roche Bobois. The lamp came from there too. I bought the coffee table in House of Fraser.

So you brought things with you from France?

That was a big thing. When you have a big move like that it is great to have your own things with you, it makes you feel at home. Also when you move, you can’t just leave all of your past and memories. Because objects are really part of memories they needed to come with us, and then we bought new stuff to become part of our life in Ireland.

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?

That is a mystery and very difficult to answer. I like very clean shapes, very simple things. I love mirror reflections and materials are very important. I have designed a metal bowl that is a very simple shape, with the emphasis on the metal, the material.

Where are the products you design made?

Partly in India and partly in Vietnam. I work with a company that does all of the quality control. Because I have a family life I can’t go to Asia every two months so someone supervises all the things for me. For me quality is most important. If a product is well designed but of cheap quality then it fails.

At the same time I am writing. I had a novel published two weeks ago in France, called Derniere Addresse. I wrote it when I first arrived in Ireland and it took a year to write. It is about a very old woman who left Ireland to live in France for a very specific reason and never went back because of that.

I was really inspired by Ireland when I arrived here. It is a very inspiring country for many reasons. I had written before – like many people – but never achieved something long. This is my first big thing.

Was it difficult?

Not really, the difficult part was finding the time between looking after the children and launching products and my company. I tried to use every minute.

Do you come from a creative family?

Not really. My father was a solicitor but he did like painting and writing for leisure. My grandfather was a stone carver and my grandmother was a couturier. In our family we like to do things with our hands.

Why did you choose to live in Foxrock?

Because it is near the children’s school and I don’t want to spend too much time in the car.

It is a lovely area. I love the trees.

Each morning when I drive to school I thank God for having these trees above my head. Each day you live with the seasons. In Paris that is not the case. There are less trees and gardens.

We just love this house. When we saw it, it had not been refurbished. It was not perfect but we like that; having all of the old features from the past.

When I visited first there were very old carpets everywhere and it was probably a bit scary for someone who could not see how nice it could be.

I viewed the house with some other couples who had a quick look and said, “no, it’s impossible”.

I was with a friend and when I said I liked it she gave me a look that said, are you crazy?

The landlord said: “Don’t worry we will repaint everything white”, and when we came back it was really nice.

Was it nice moving to a house from an apartment?

We lived in a house in Stillorgan for a year when we first moved to Ireland. It is not my favourite place in Dublin but it is very, very practical: easy living, near to shops.

In Paris we lived on the top floor of a building in Montparnasse and each morning we had to be careful about the noise because of the neighbours under us. So the first morning in Stillorgan I said to my daughter, “if you want to you can jump”. She was amazed, she said, “is there no neighbour under us?”

The cushions add bright spots in this room

The cushions are from Roche Bobois and were designed by Hans Hopfer. The dark colours in the room give strength and the cushions give a chance to change the mood.

You have painted murals in some of the other rooms

Because the house hadn’t been refurbished we were allowed to do exactly what we wanted with it and that is good for expressing creativity.

I am also the art director of an Indian company selling home accessories and I am decorating a hotel in Mumbai. The internet makes all these things possible. I can work from the comfort of an armchair.

I work with an Indian friend of mine who I met in Singapore when I lived there.

And do you use Indian style?

Yes, and I give it a touch of European style. I’m very interested in mixing cultures and creating a place where people feel well.

Is there a difference in style between France and Ireland?

Oh yes, where do I start? One of the strengths of Irish décor is the focus on comfort which is something we don’t have in France. In France we are more focused on style and appearance.

On the other hand with the economic boom in Ireland you see so many very nice houses that have been refurbished in a bad way. They have demolished everything and haven’t kept anything from the past. I don’t know if I am right or wrong about this – maybe the past was not nice and they have bad memories.

When we were looking for a place to rent, the houses we viewed were the same everywhere. There were no personal things. I had the feeling that everybody wanted the same thing as their neighbour, “I must have this to look great, to have a nice house”.

It is a real pity. People will probably regret that in the future. To me it is a big damage to a culture and way of living. The way to create a home is to reflect what you are. You should not cheat with that and open a magazine, find something you like and do it all that way. For future generations it is important to keep something from the past. I don’t like the ceiling lights in here, but it doesn’t all have to be perfect, that’s what makes it charming.

Interior designers arrived in Ireland very recently and it maybe came a bit quickly which is why it has been difficult to achieve the right balance between past and modern.

It is okay to refurbish without demolishing everything. I am amazed, when I look in skips in front of houses, to see what they throw away. Sometimes I stop and say, “do you mind if I take this? I am just going to renovate it and give it a new life.” I was once with a friend when we passed a skip and I stopped and found some very nice chairs. He was so ashamed!

It is being a good citizen not to throw everything away and not to buy, buy, buy all the time.

In Paris there are no skips like there are here but there are specific days when people put big, big pieces on the pavement and you are more than welcome to take them away. I always find some very good surprises in Paris.

www.le-chatelier.com