féau boiseries tour, Paris
This year as I planned for the 2024 Déco Off in Paris, I approached things a little differently. The Leaders of Design Council were offering a tour of Féau Boiseries for their members, and I knew that this would be very special and not to be missed. It was the best decision I made, along with a few other appointments made to visit art galleries, fabrics, wallcoverings and furniture showrooms.
Some key takeaways from my visit:
Féau Boiseries is a showroom that offers their clients replicas of wood panels and other decorative elements from french chateaus and other stately european homes from the 17th to the 20th centuries. They focus on the 4 Féau Decorative Styles:
Regency Style (Louis XIV - Regency - Louis XV) which embodies the decorative arts of the mid 18th century in France
Neoclassical Style - decorations of extraordinary fantasy, often inspired by the ornamentation of Roman villas
Empire Style - beginning of the 19th century - mostly references Ancient Rome
20th Century Style - Art Deco from the 20’s, modern reinterpretation of Louis XVI style from the 1940’s and even disco fantasy from the 1970’s.
I immediately thought of the beautiful brownstones in Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the South End when looking at Feau Boiserie’s clients’ projects. Their showroom has a seamless flow and balance between modern pieces from The Invisible Collection and the Féau Boiseries historical panel replicas that have been placed together.
Many of the Gilded Age mansions in NYC donned these beautiful panels from the early 20th century. One in particular is the William A. Clark Mansion, nicknamed “Clark’s Folly”, the childhood home of Huguette Clark. A perfect example of what Féau Boiseries emulates is the receiving room at the Clark Mansion which is the ornate 18th century room from the Hotel de Clermont in Paris. This room was dismantled and shipped to William A. Clark in NYC and installed in his home.
Today, the Féau Boiseries team creates replicas of the rooms/panels to install and honestly, you would never know they weren’t the originals. They take great care in matching the wood types or painting surface to match exactly.. Because they make replicas, each design is custom made to fit perfectly in each clients’ home. In order to show what the finished room would look like, they used to create “maquettes” of each design. It is essentially a miniature version of the room down to the very minute detail. Nowadays this is mostly done online by graphic designers but it was very cool to see their maquettes around the showroom.
A definite must see, I highly recommend booking a visit to Féau Boiseries. Cheers!