Ca Janine's renovation centred on honesty of material and clarity of space. Stone floors, bleached wood, and carefully chosen textiles brought a quiet elegance to a property that had long been dormant.
The light wells were opened, the garden untangled, the terraces restored to their proper proportions. Every decision was made in service of the simplest possible version of the house: the version that would last another fifty years without needing to be revisited.
The material palette of Ca Janine was defined by what was already present on the site: local limestone for the floors, extended into new areas without interruption. Plaster walls returned to their natural cream, without colouring or texture beyond what the lime itself provided.
New joinery was designed to disappear: painted the same white as the walls, with simple recessed handles and flush fronts. The only visible material additions were the textiles — linen curtains, wool cushions, cotton bedding — chosen for their texture and their relationship to the neutral background of the house.
Stone floors.
Bleached wood.
Carefully chosen textiles.
One of the primary interventions in Ca Janine was the reorientation of light. The original house had been extended in ways that blocked light to the central rooms. The renovation removed those extensions and added new openings: a rooflight over the staircase, enlarged windows in the kitchen, a glass door replacing a solid one in the sitting room.
