Magali Avignon has had several professional lives: communications manager for the Rossignol group, founder of a real estate start-up, she is now at the head of Enamoura, a collection of houses in Provence.
“I am an entrepreneur at heart.
But I am an evolving entrepreneur.
By creating Enamoura, I wanted to develop a project centered on my personal aspirations, she explains.
I'm not an interior designer but it's a field that has always interested me.
Moreover, I was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.
I grew up in a Provencal farmhouse.
I come from a family of farmers specializing in table grapes, Chasselas.
At home, the women were very present, ran the shop behind the men.
They don't
were not always recognized at their fair value.
It is this story, my love for this region, my admiration for my grandmother and my mother that gave me the taste for hospitality that I wanted to transcribe in these holiday homes.
It is also a way of passing on to my two daughters values, this culture, and a form of attachment to my region and its know-how.”
In the five Enamoura holiday homes, the spirit of the south, authenticity floats.
To settle for some time in one of them is to live to the rhythm of this nature, of these lands.
“It's me who signs the interior design of each project even if I'm self-taught.
Each choice of layout, each piece of furniture or object chosen makes sense.
I want to pass on my love for an enlarged Luberon, rich in all the Mediterranean culture, continues Magali.
If each house is, in itself, an invitation to capture the beauty of the region, I have also designed digital guides made available to visitors.
They do not list the museums and other tourist places but the hidden places, the small cafe where to settle at the end of the morning,
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Welcome to a space where serenity and a personal and passionate vision of Provence reign.
Enamored
The starting point
“This “Atelier” is located under the roofs of a small house in the village of Saignon, an old medieval town in the Vaucluse.
On the lower floors there are two further independent apartments.
This workshop must have had several lives.
Initially, the upper part had to be dedicated to drying laundry and therefore open.
Then it was closed and the presence of a piano makes me think that there was perhaps an artist here.
Even if the place was not well laid out, the 60 m² space was really beautiful, with major advantages such as the many windows, the view, the 1 meter thick stone walls, and already an atmosphere of workshop.
I immediately saw the possibility of making a space for couples, a format that was missing from my collection of houses.
You can stay there for four, but the starting point was my desire to create a small intimate apartment for one-on-ones, a cocoon in which you feel good in all seasons.
Even in winter !
I love winter in Provence and I wanted to give the opportunity to discover the region during this period in the best conditions.
If everything was there, of course, I transformed everything to bring authenticity, my vision of this South that I love so much.
So I had everything that wasn't original scraped off and removed.
I redesigned the space – by hand because I don't know how to draw in 3D – the circulation so that we have the impression of being in a place that has never moved.
All materials such as stones,
the cement tiles but also certain equipment such as sinks and washbasins are recovered from old houses or bargain hunts.
All the objects, most of the furniture, belonged to my family or come from flea markets and antique shops.
Plaster and lime cover the walls and ceilings: this required a colossal amount of work!
The floor is polished concrete.
The result really meets my expectations.
L'Atelier is even, for me, the most emblematic address of my collection.
Bedroom
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Before: a space with great potential but without charm.
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After: in the right part of the space on the first level, the bedroom with the majestic bed.
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After: from the bed a view of two arches created in a spirit of sensuality and which mark the entrance to the living room kitchen.
Enamored
“When you enter the Atelier, the first thing you see is the bed.
I wanted it to be majestic, as if it had always been there, to cultivate this intimate side that was so important to me.
This bedroom space is serene, bathed in light during the day.
The bed is placed on a masonry structure.
The headboard on which are placed beautiful objects, drawings... is also built.
This immaculate side with slightly raw touches reflects my vision of a perfect Provence with influences from Greece and Formentera.
It brings sensuality.
This sensuality can be found in the two arches, one small, the other larger, facing the bed, which allow access to the kitchen and living room.
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The living room - kitchen
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Before: a space with two parts almost already defined.
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After: in the left part of the initial space, a refined and raw living room with a bench that combines masonry and recovered cushions.
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“I don't like sophistication too much.
I have a fairly raw approach to furniture.
I think that with two stones and a plank, you can make a bench!
I particularly like the work of the sculptor Valentine Schlegel and the artist César Manrique.
This is where the idea of this sofa came from, made of a masonry base designed by me on the floor and made to give it its organic shape before my eyes according to my instructions, on which are placed cushions salvaged from a house in the area that was for sale.
The rest of the furniture is in the same spirit: simply beautiful and useful.
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Before: a kitchen area in the main space that housed a ladder to go upstairs.
The latter has been moved near the front door.
Enamored
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After: overlooking the living room, a kitchen where each object has a story and where the stone sink recalls the mixed stone of Apt, earthenware technique used for the manufacture of lighting signed Enamoura.
Enamored
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After: in the kitchen, a small bench has been set up under the window.
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The kitchen is also designed in this spirit, organized around a counter and a masonry worktop.
The sink, very beautiful, is obviously old.
It is made of stone, a stone reminiscent of the mixed clay of Apt, a traditional earthenware technique.
It is also with this sink that the idea of creating mixed clay lighting came up.
I installed some in the Atelier and I developed different models that can be purchased on our online store.
To return to the sink, he did not go up the stairs to access the Workshop!
So we had to cut it in half, which required a lot of ingenuity to install.
It is also placed upside down, the part which normally must be leaning against the wall is visible because I
I really liked the imperfect side of the stone.
The splashback is made of reclaimed cement tiles.
They lived, do not have the same size.
I sorted them one by one.
All the dishes and objects are also found, some having belonged to my mother.
Under the kitchen window, I installed a small sofa using the same principle as the one in the living room, but there I had to have custom cushions made.
On the first level, there is also a bathroom with a very nice shower and a toilet which adjoins the kitchen.
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I installed a small sofa using the same principle as the one in the living room, but there I had to have custom cushions made.
On the first level, there is also a bathroom with a very nice shower and a toilet which adjoins the kitchen.
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I installed a small sofa using the same principle as the one in the living room, but there I had to have custom cushions made.
On the first level, there is also a bathroom with a very nice shower and a toilet which adjoins the kitchen.
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The second bedroom
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Before: a mezzanine just waiting to accommodate a bedroom.
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Before: an open space to exploit.
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After: a bedroom open to the lower space all in very restful brown tones.
Enamored
“This room is located on the mezzanine that already existed.
It is accessed by a ladder.
Initially, access to the first floor was via a ladder located at the level of the current kitchen.
But I chose to move it and obviously plug the hopper.
The ladder is now between the front door leading into the bedroom and the bathroom block.
Today, it is not soundproofed, but I want to install a glass wall.
We find the same relaxing atmosphere and my mixed clay lamps.
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The Workshop
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Before: continuing on from the upstairs bedroom, above the kitchen, bay windows overlook the village.
Enamored
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Before: a narrow space with a funnel and an incredible view that evokes a nest for isolation.
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After: a boxwood curtain that separates the bedroom on the mezzanine from the workshop and wooden shelves to display beautiful objects.
Enamored
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After: under the bay windows, a work space has been set up to create while admiring the horizon.
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After: at the end of the workshop, a small sink area full of charm.
Enamored
“In the extension of the bedroom, we pass a boxwood curtain to enter the workshop located above the kitchen.
I kept the large bay windows.
They overlook the village.
The view is breathtaking.
The light is always beautiful because we are there, facing due west.
Beneath these windows was a work space in masonry and wood.
On the opposite wall, there are wooden shelves on which various objects are placed.
In this space, in the continuity of these shelves, there is also a very pretty open sink area.
The sink is an old flower jar in reconstituted stone.
The taps are also old – unlike the taps in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom which, for reasons of comfort and standards, are reproductions.
In an enclosed space,
there are also toilets.
This gives a very pleasant space to create.
Moreover, once a year, in March, I welcome an artist in residence as part of my collaboration with the Cercle de l'art.
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Contact: enamoura.com